Lithuania banned Morgenstern from entering the country

Lithuanian authorities have banned rapper Alisher Morgenstern from entering the country. The local publication BNS writes about this with reference to the representative of the country's migration department, Rokas Pukinskas.

According to the country's authorities, Morgenstern may pose a “threat to state security.” The decision, according to a representative of the migration department, was made after receiving a “written proposal” from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and collecting additional information.

The entry ban for the performer comes into force immediately. It will be valid for 10 years.

Morgenstern had a concert scheduled for November 29 in Vilnius. The performer himself has not yet responded to the ban by the Lithuanian authorities.

The mayor of the Lithuanian capital, Valdas Benkunskas, wrote on his social networks at the end of October that “it’s time to seriously evaluate” the rapper’s visit to Lithuania. He then clarified that he intended to contact the country’s Foreign Ministry with a request to evaluate the possibility of including the rapper on the list of undesirable persons in Lithuania:

“I can’t sit back and watch as a performer comes to Vilnius for the third time, who cannot answer whose Crimea is, publicly shows respect for Putin and who, at the request of the SBU, was included in the list of persons posing a threat to the national security of Ukraine.”

In Russia, Morgenstern was recognized as a “foreign agent”; earlier this year, a court seized the rapper’s property in a case of “failure to fulfill the duties of a foreign agent.” The performer lives abroad; he left the country back in 2021.