Ukraine

They already stripped and/or barred Russians from becoming citizens a few years back, so this kind of follows that trajectory.

The argument from Lithuania as I understand it that purging Russians reduces the 'protecting Russians abroad' narrative from Putin. Though it does mean one less place where Russians who oppose Putin can go while also displacing potentially thousands of Russians into Putin's other narrative that western/NATO powers are out to get them.

Hope this maneuver pays off, I guess.

Bravo Lithuania! The rest of the EU and ECC should do the same until Russia somehow becomes a normal country.

This is pretty clearly a massive violation of the UN human rights convention.

At least one member of the EU has balls.

As a lithuanian: woo! Yeah! That's what we're talking about, that's what it's all about! Woo! 🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹

I dunno chat, as a Lithuanian (as if it matters) this feels like a bit of an over reach in a war on terror in US type of way. This isn't the only law that explicitly targets Russians/Belarussians as a security threat that has been enacted.

These people are often just nationals, citizens of their country and not automatically foreign agents. If they were here doing espionage, they would report back using encrypted channels on the internet which is much cheaper than traveling back and forth. If they were smuggling tools for terrorism like bombs, it's much easier to smuggle them over the border or even obtain them locally than having the foreign agent themselves smuggle.

I can't help but view it as discriminatory in a similar way how Muslim and Arab populations were treated post-9/11, it just doesn't make much sense unless I'm missing something.