{"id":532527,"date":"2026-04-09T12:32:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=532527"},"modified":"2026-04-09T14:45:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:45:59","slug":"budrys-sees-no-need-to-tighten-restrictions-on-belarusians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/budrys-sees-no-need-to-tighten-restrictions-on-belarusians","title":{"rendered":"Budrys Sees No Need to Tighten Restrictions on Belarusians"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys<\/b> does not see a need to tighten restrictions on Belarusian citizens. He said this on \u017dini\u0173 Radijas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A bill is currently being considered in the Seimas to extend restrictions on citizens of Belarus and Russia for another year. The government submitted to parliament a draft prepared by the Foreign Ministry that does not \u043f\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0443\u0441\u043c\u0430\u0442\u0440\u0438\u0432\u0430\u0435\u0442 changes to the restrictions, with the only exception being a ban on bringing more than 200 liters of fuel in truck tanks into Lithuania. During discussion of the bill in the Seimas Foreign Affairs Committee, proposals were introduced to equalize restrictions on Belarusians and Russians. These were initiated by conservatives now in opposition. The committee <\/a>asked the government to prepare a new, stricter draft law.<\/p>\n

“The government proposed introducing restrictions on fuel imports into Lithuania. I think our discussions should end there, because for more than a year now people living in Lithuania, foreign citizens, and citizens of Russia and Belarus have also seen what our position is and what restrictions are being applied. And I do not think they should now be sharply expanded”<\/em>, he said.<\/p>\n

Budrys also criticized Lithuanian conservatives. He recalled the situation in 2023, when conservatives led the ruling coalition. At that time, proposals had already been made to tighten restrictions on Belarusian citizens. The Seimas did not adopt those proposals. Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus\u0117da<\/b>, in whose administration Budrys worked at the time, vetoed the bill. The veto was overridden at the initiative of conservatives. As a result, restrictions on Belarusians were softer than those imposed on Russians.<\/p>\n

According to Budrys, if conservatives had not overridden the presidential veto at the time, there would now be a different consensus, and there would be no need for “crocodile tears.”<\/p>\n

“I think we should move forward. And if the government is asked, of course we will consider what additional measures should be taken, but we should not drag this out”<\/em>, he said, recalling that the law expires in early May.<\/p>\n

“In this sense, in a month it will cease to be in force. We must adopt it as soon as possible”<\/em>, the minister added.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that over the past three years, conservatives have moved into opposition. They have also changed leaders. Instead of Gabrielius Landsbergis<\/b>, the party is now led by Laurynas Kas\u010di\u016bnas<\/b>, who even then held a tougher position on the measures that should be applied to Belarusian citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys does not see a need to tighten restrictions on Belarusian citizens. He said this on \u017dini\u0173 Radijas. A bill is currently being considered in the Seimas to extend restrictions on citizens of Belarus and Russia for another year. The government submitted to parliament a draft prepared by the Foreign Ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":532526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69d7917facbc0.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Budrys Sees No Need to Tighten Restrictions on Belarusians"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143284,143090],"tags":[143118],"class_list":["post-532527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","category-politics","tag-belarus"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}