Man to nowhere: Russian journalist expelled from the Baltic states as a “security threat”

In Russia, he has nowhere to live and no one is waiting for him, including our officials, who so far only loudly promise to protect the rights of compatriots in the Baltic states, but in reality – let’s be honest – they also have no time.

Vladimir Vodo lived his entire adult life in Vilnius, where he went back during the “singing revolution”, when the three Baltic republics fought for independence. His mother lives in Vilnius, who is nearly ninety. By the way, she is a citizen of Lithuania. She has cancer. The elderly woman does not believe that if deportation does take place, it will be irreversible. And she will never see her son again. She doesn’t believe at all that this could happen in a civilized European country.

And the son understands that if he has to leave the country, it will be forever. “The problems started about a year ago in March 2023. One complete stranger wrote a denunciation against me. I didn’t know him. He posted the denunciation on his social media account. What have I been accused of? And the fact that I am not a journalist at all, but only call myself one, and that if I write in Russian, then I am a “Kremlin propagandist”, they even dragged in communication with anti-globalists…

— Wait, you come from the USSR and came to Lithuania back in the 80s?

— At one time, back in Moscow, they somehow “forgot” to draft me into the army and then, after the end of conscription age, they decided to correct the mistake. Although according to the law they no longer had the right to call me up. But in 1988, the magazine “Soviet Warrior” published an article by the deputy head of the political department of the Moscow military registration and enlistment office, which stated that “Vladimir Vodo has disappeared from the field of view of the military registration and enlistment office and is hiding.”

I came here with my mother as a translator in 1989. Soon the police came to us, I opened the door for them, and they told me: “You’re on the All-Union wanted list!” But the authorities of the then Lithuanian SSR did not extradite me, they said: “Live!”

— You took part in the events of January 1991 in the Baltic states? Have you met Elena Bonner?

– Not only with her, but also with Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. Back in Moscow, when I worked at the Progress publishing house.

On the night of January 12-13, 1991, I called Elena Bonner, by that time Sakharov was no longer alive, and told her: “Elena Georgievna, they are shooting here.” And she has already raised the entire world community to its feet. That night I worked with a film crew from the Moscow bureau of Spanish TV. When the Soviet Union collapsed, I was offered, as an exception, to obtain Lithuanian citizenship. But I didn’t want to. I didn’t even take a medal for participating in the January events.

All these decades, I covered all the news that was significant for Lithuania: the first free elections to the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR, the restoration of independence in March 1990, accession to the EU and NATO. I am a journalist and this is my job.

— Why haven’t you applied for Lithuanian citizenship after so many years, especially since your mother, who also moved with you to Lithuania, did it on time?

— All this time, the presence of Russian citizenship here did not create problems. Since 1993, my residence permit in Lithuania has been constantly extended; the most recent five-year residence permit was issued in January 2022. All this time I wrote articles and reports about business, cultural and social events in Vilnius and Lithuania for Russian, as well as for local Russian-language media. I have never had any problems with the Lithuanian language. I learned it as a child, when I went to the seaside as a child, however, it turned out that I learned the wrong dialect, but, never mind, I relearned it.

It can be said that Russophobia took place here before, so, at the everyday level, in addition, there was an article of the Criminal Code for inciting ethnic hatred. Now calls to deal with Russians are heard literally from everywhere. Even many Lithuanian friends are shocked, but they can’t do anything: the police reject such statements. Although no one canceled the corresponding article.

Literally the next day after the denunciation appeared, I received a requirement to fill out a special questionnaire from the Lithuanian Migration Department regarding my work and study, my military service and connections with foreign intelligence services, as well as my attitude to what is happening in Ukraine and specifically in the jurisdiction of Crimea. At the same time, the question was formulated illiterately: “Whose is Crimea legitimate?”

— Sacred question.

— I pointed out that the question about legitimacy was formulated incorrectly. Legitimacy is about all power as a whole, and not about belonging to any territory. Also, as a citizen of the Russian Federation and at the same time a permanent resident of Lithuania, I cannot answer this question unequivocally, since in any case I could be subject to persecution – either there or here. I naively believed that in a legal democratic state there is protection from coercion to self-incrimination, and I considered that I had the right not to answer a provocative and compromising question. It turned out that this was not the case.

— Was this the trigger?

– More likely. On July 10, 2023, the Lithuanian Migration Department sent me a notice that my permanent residence permit in the European Union and Lithuania was revoked because I was “a person posing a threat to state security.” However, no evidence of such claims was presented. I contacted representatives of the Russian embassy, ​​but they only offered me to become a participant in the state program for the voluntary resettlement of compatriots and go somewhere to a Russian village with my 86-year-old mother, who is sick with oncology. I said that I consider myself not a “voluntary” but a “forced” migrant, but for people like me, apparently there is nothing in Russia. And this state program is a “one way ticket”.

I tried to challenge the verdict of the Lithuanian authorities in the courts, but this also did not yield anything, because the Lithuanian courts did not even look at the documents that I presented to them. The trial court hearing was held remotely. Neither me nor the lawyer were given the opportunity to present any arguments in my defense. It seems that the court was not interested in this at all, and when the lawyer asked the court to request confirmation of their accusations from the State Security Department, she was denied this on the pretext of secrecy.

…On November 29, 2023, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (LVAT) made a final decision regarding Vladimir Vodo, in which it recognized that the decision taken to revoke the applicant’s long-term resident status and ban him from entering the Republic of Lithuania until 01.09.2026 is legal and justified.

“So far they haven’t come for me with machine guns, but they could come at any moment,” concludes Vladimir Vodo.

-Where are you going now?

– Don’t know. In Russia I am homeless. I have neither relatives nor friends who are ready to shelter me. I’ll tell you one strange thing – I’ve never lived in Russia. I lived in the USSR. In Moscow. On Angarskaya street.

— From the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, you were told that as a citizen of the Russian Federation, you have all the rights provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation. And that in order to implement them, you have the right to contact any government authorities on the territory of the Russian Federation. Almost like a joke. “Do I have rights?” “Yes, I have”. “Can I?” “No you can not”.

— I wrote to the Federation Council to the senator from the Kaliningrad region (he spoke everywhere that his region would accept all deportees) – but from Latvia, and Lithuania and Kaliningrad do not have a common border, it is directly impossible to get into this area. In response, they wrote to me from the regional Ministry of Social Policy. I called the indicated phone number, where they gave me another number for the person responsible for working with compatriots, or something like that… Participants in the state program for “voluntary” resettlement are promised to be resettled somewhere in former military barracks. If I were about forty, then perhaps I could try to start from scratch.

– So do you want to leave – or do you want to stay?

— I want to stay – I have my home and my mother in Lithuania.

– Then you probably have the right to go to the ECHR to resolve your issue. Aren’t they animals?

— The Lithuanian authorities violated at least two articles of the Constitution: the 25th on freedom of speech and the 38th on the duty of children to take care of their elderly parents. But they want to separate me from my mother. How long does she have left?

According to European law, a foreigner can be expelled from his country of residence solely for the reason that he poses a “threat to public safety or public order.” But such a threat must, firstly, be REAL and, secondly, SERIOUS ENOUGH.

According to the State Security Department of Lithuania, my threat is “existential and potential”, while no one in Lithuania wants to find out its reality and degree of seriousness.

There are many people in the same situation now, about whom they don’t write or talk about in Russia. 82-year-old Boris Katkov is the only Russian deported from Latvia who has become widely known. But in fact, there are many more such people – and not only in Latvia, but also in the country. in Lithuania and Estonia. In Lithuania alone, authorities have canceled more than 3,000 residence permits. Others leave voluntarily, without waiting for them to “come” for them; someone is now moving to Belarus (it’s easier to settle down there and life is cheaper). Courts and appeals in attempts to get your rights back last for years – and it costs many thousands of euros, and not everyone has this money. Moreover, the result of such appeals is not obvious.

Vladimir Vodo appealed to international human rights organizations and various journalistic NGOs, but he never received any response or support from his colleagues.

Let’s be honest, the world is ruled by double standards and Hottentot morality, when what you do not perceive at all and consider criminal in others – for example, non-observance of human rights – you completely tolerate and even approve for yourself.

Some people can and even need to violate their rights, while others cannot.

The idea that no one should violate human rights does not occur to the authorities.