Lithuania Extends Its Sanctions on Russian and Belarusian Citizens to 2026
The Seimas voted on 17 April 2025 to extend Lithuania's national restrictive measures on Russian and Belarusian citizens until 2 May 2026 — sanctions that go beyond the EU's common regime.
Lithuania has extended its national sanctions on Russian and Belarusian citizens. On 17 April 2025, the Seimas adopted amendments carrying the country's restrictive-measures regime through to 2 May 2026, after a first reading that passed 91 in favour, four against and 14 abstentions.
These are national measures layered on top of the European Union's common sanctions, and they bite at the level of individuals: restrictions on entry, on residence permits, and on the acquisition of property by Russian and Belarusian nationals. Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys presented the extension as a matter of keeping Lithuania's guard up rather than introducing anything new.
Lithuania has been among the most maximalist EU members on Russia and Belarus, repeatedly going further than the bloc's lowest common denominator. Extending the regime by roughly a year at a time — rather than making it permanent — keeps the measures under regular parliamentary review, a deliberate design that forces each renewal to be argued rather than assumed.
As tracked by legal advisers including Deloitte's Lithuania practice, the 2 May 2026 horizon has since become the subject of a further debate over extension into 2027 and beyond. The recurring question is the one every long-run sanctions regime faces: whether measures aimed at wartime leverage harden into a permanent feature of how Vilnius treats its eastern neighbours.
