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“We regret that evil Lithuanian politicians are using culture to eradicate the friendly attitude of Lithuanian citizens towards our country,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.
In this way, he commented on Lithuania’s decision to add a Bulgarian and Russian citizen, the well-known singer Filip Kirkorov, to the list of undesirables.
“We would like to point out that the repressive attitude towards artists has become a real calling card for the new European democracies,” said Zacharova.
According to her, this is not the first time that Russian artists have “intrigued” official Vilnius.
“Previously, AV Aleksandrov’s dance and song ensemble, singers G. Leps and O. Gazmanov, could not enter the country,” recalled the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She called the statements by Lithuanian politicians that F. Kirkorov and other Russian artists had become tools of “soft power” as an absurd accusation and utter stupidity.
Russian artist F. Kirkorov is banned from entering Lithuania for five years.
According to the Lithuanian Interior Ministry, at the request of the Foreign Ministry, the Migration Department added this Russian artist to the list of unwanted people in Lithuania for the mentioned period on Tuesday. The ban on the artist from coming to Lithuania goes into effect on January 19.
“Performers who publicly justify the occupation of Crimea should not be tolerated in any democracy. We have an unequivocal position on the issue of such actors, therefore there was no question about the inclusion of F. Kirkorov in the list of undesirable people in Lithuania, ”said Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė.
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