Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court has overturned the entry ban on Russian rapper Alisher Morgenshtern, the Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported.
The court found that the Migration Department’s original decision to bar him on national security grounds was unlawful because it relied on assessments from the Foreign Ministry. Under Lithuanian law, such assessments must come from the State Security Department, not the Foreign Ministry.
A court spokesperson told reporters that Morgenshtern had also been awarded nearly 34 euros in legal costs.
Morgenshtern was banned from entering Lithuania in mid-November 2025, a decision that forced the cancellation of his planned concert in Vilnius later that month. The ban had been issued for 10 years.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Morgenshtern repeatedly expressed support for Vladimir Putin’s policies, but changed his position after the war began and left the country. Russian authorities designated him a foreign agent in May 2022. In 2024, a criminal case was opened against him for failing to fulfill his obligations as a foreign agent, and he was placed on the wanted list in Russia.
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