Lithuania looks into how Russian oligarch’s children obtained their citizenship

The Lithuanian government is investigating the circumstances under which two children of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich acquired Lithuanian citizenship. 

Source: DW

Details: Vilnius announced this on Thursday, 7 December, after the media released an investigation stating that the son and daughter of the billionaire have Lithuanian citizenship. This may have helped their father circumvent the international sanctions imposed on him. 

A Ministry of Internal Affairs commission has been formed to assess the circumstances under which Roman Abramovich's son Arkadii and daughter Anna received Lithuanian citizenship. At the same time, the migration department was instructed to check whether other family members of persons subject to EU sanctions are Lithuanian citizens. 

Agnė Bilotaitė, the Lithuanian interior minister, said that granting citizenship cannot be a secret, and a Lithuanian passport cannot be a cover for circumventing sanctions or other abuse. 

She also announced that the legislation will be amended to deprive citizenship of persons who threaten national security. 

Under Lithuanian law, it is impossible to revoke citizenship obtained under the standard procedure. However, if Lithuanian passports were provided to Anna and Arkadii Abramovichs as an exception, then, according to the head of the Lithuanian migration department, Evelina Gudzinskoite, they could be seized for national security reasons.  

Ingrida Šimonytė, Lithuanian Prime Minister, said that it was necessary to discuss the need for amendments to the law on citizenship in the Seimas, the country's parliament. 

Roman Abramovich's lawyer did not respond to journalists' requests for comment.  

The fact that Abramovich's grandparents were from Lithuania became known in 2018, but the oligarch himself, according to the migration authorities, does not have Lithuanian citizenship.

A new investigation by OCCRP International Consortium and its Lithuanian partner Siena in the Cyprus confidential project says that Abramovich’s two children, son Arkadii and daughter Anna, have Lithuanian passports, according to a data leak from a Cypriot corporate service provider. 

Background: 

• Roman Abramovich was included in the EU sanctions list after Russia unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine, but his family members were not sanctioned. 
• In January 2023, the UK newspaper The Guardian wrote that Abramovich transferred some of his assets to his children shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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