Lithuania rejects Russian nationalist Gorsky’s asylum plea

Evelina Gudzinskaitė, director of the Migration Department
DELFI / Karolina Pansevič

Evelina Gudzinskaitė, director of the Migration Department, says Gorsky has also been put on the list of people declared persona non grata due to threats to national security. The decision was made upon receipt of information from the State Security Department, she said.

“The decision was made not to grant him asylum. Upon collection of information from both the SSD and other sources, it was concluded that his story does not justify granting him asylum,” Gudzinskaitė told BNS Lithuania.

Aurėlija Katkuvienė, spokeswoman for the SSD, refused to elaborate on what information on Gorsky was submitted to the Migration Department.

Gorsky came to Lithuania last July after escaping from house arrest in Russia. Russia’s law enforcement suspects him of public incitement to carry out extremist activity. He’s also on Russia’s extremist list.

Gorsky says a case against him in Russia is of political characters and believes Moscow persecutes him for his public activity. He plans to appeal against the Migration Department’s decisions, adding that its argumentation is “hard to understand and just ridiculous”.

“I will look for a lawyer as I have 14 days to appeal. Of course I will appeal as my return to Russia means a prison sentence, a long prison sentence,” Gorsky said.

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