Lithuania deems 1,164 Belarusian and Russian nationals a threat, revokes residence permits and visas
Some 1,164 Belarusian and Russian nationals have been deemed a threat to Lithuania's national security, meaning they wer...
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That seems bad
Can't say I particularly blame them. Russia keeps using Russians living in the area as an excuse to invade their neighbors.
So basically the same reasoning the US had for throwing all their Japanese people into concentration camps during the second world war. Guess it's ok to be racist now as long as it's towards people of Russian descent.
Yeah if you're removed it's the same logic. they're being told to go back to their own country or be deported. Very different to being intervened in a camp. They're Russian nationals, not "of Russian descent"; and certainly not Lithuanians.
There's a small difference between saying
"due to repeated wars by our neighbor explicitly using the presence of their citizens in foreign soil to justify annexation, we're revoking temporary residency of their foreign nationals and deporting them. Return to your home country or go elsewhere." And "Citizen or not, once a jap always a jap, due to our beef over Pacific imperialism we're taking your property and imprisoning you in this concentration camp"
That small difference is one is being said by the government to justify its actions, and the other is said by someone generations after the act was done, to specifically highlight the racism.
The actual statements produced by the American government would have sounded a lot like your first quote, and the Lithuanian forced deportation could also be summarized as "once a Russian, always a Russian"
I'm literally saying this as a visa holder / residence permit holder in my country of residence right now. When it was issued me, it was made very clear that my status in the country was a privilege that could be revoked at any time for a myriad of reasons. Now, "repeated wars of aggression by your home country with the specific excuse of controlling territory occupied by you" wasn't EXPLICITLY listed, but I'd be shocked to retain my status in those circumstances.
I'm not their citizen - as of yet I haven't started attempting to be one. Describing myself even as "from" here would be misleading. "Once a _____ always a ______” doesn't even apply - I've never tried to be anything BUT a ______??
If article was "Lithuania strips citizenship and rights from Russian born naturalized residents" I'd be concerned. Instead, article is "Lithuania deports small fraction of its Russian and Belarusian expats identified as active threat during wartime". Which is actually surprisingly restrained.
Your post reminded me of this clip from a Charlie Chaplin talkie.
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1_ If the US did something like that, they must be criticized and punished in trials, nobody with a brain denies that. 2_ Just because the US did a bad thing doesn't mean Russia is free to do it too. 3_ Whataboutism won't change the fact Russia is a criminal state.
That's a lot of words to say "I didn't read the article so I don't know why the Russian invasion of Ukraine is related to this subject".
I'm saying the Russian invasion doesn't justify deporting Russians living in Lithuania for no other reason, just like how the war with Japan didn't justify putting Japanese people in concentration camps.
The Russian government are using Russians living in neighboring countries as an excuse to invade them, but it's not like they wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if there weren't any Russians there. It's obviously a pretense, and has nothing to do with the ACTUAL Russians living in Lithuania.
It's okay, I'll read it again for you. Won't take long to get there since the second paragraph says this:
The rejections follow the introduction of a mandatory questionnaire ... [including] questions on the Russian war in Ukraine and whether Crimea belongs to Kyiv.
This suggests that they were chosen for providing answers in line with Putin's batshit fantasy of the new Russian empire.
1% of Russian and Belarusian nationals living in Lithuania had their visas revoked. This is not a round up all the russkies and put them in a camp. This is a this one person out of 100 has to leave.
They’re Russian and Belarusian nationals. Not Lithuanians of Russian descent. And it’s only a fraction of the Russian and Belarusian nationals in the country. So they must have a reason to deport them. They’ve probably been found spreading propaganda or have links to the Russian KGB.
And they are being deported back to their home country. Not being send to a interment camp. Every country does that with foreigners who are a threat to the national security.
The way I read the article was that all Belarussian and Russian applicants for renewals of visas / residency were rejected.
Edit: the US visa rejection rate is around 15%. This really doesn't seem like news at all... After reading some other sources on this topic, it seems that it would have been only around 8% of applications, So yeah, seems you are correct. I stand corrected. Seems like this is barely worth an article in that case, countries reject visas all the time for arbitrary reasons...
You're being a twat.