World Figure Skating Championship bronze medalist Margarita Drobyazko said she would not try to keep her Lithuanian passport at the risk of betraying Russia. She wrote this on Instagram (its owner, Meta, is known as an extremist and is banned in Russia).
“No one who deprives me and Povilas of my orders and even takes away my country’s passport can erase our values from Lithuanian history and snatch love from the hearts of our audience. If I am now offered to give up part of my family, the country that has been my homeland since childhood, my profession and true friends in order to keep my Lithuanian passport, then it is absolutely clear that this is not my path. Since this is a betrayal, nothing should be purchased at its price,” the athlete wrote.
On July 28, Lithuanian Minister of Internal Affairs Agne Bilotaite appealed to the country’s President Gitanas Nausėda with a request to strip Margarita Drobiazko of her citizenship for participating in Tatiana Navka’s show. The statement states that Drobyazko maintains close professional and personal ties with Navka and participates in ice shows that “contribute to the formation of the image of Russia as a great country.”
On June 21, the representative of the Lithuanian Seimas, Victoria Cmilyte-Nielsen, said in an interview with local media that the procedure for revoking the figure skater’s citizenship has actually been initiated.
Drobiazko was born in Moscow but obtained Lithuanian citizenship to compete in the Olympic Games with his partner Povilas Vanagas. In 2000 he was recognized as a Knight of the Order of Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania. In August 2022, President Gitanas Nauseda decided to deprive them of state awards.
Previously Tarasova in the name Milokhin, who flew to Dubai like a bad-tempered fool.