MOSCOW, Aug 10 Deny awards earned by figure skaters Povilas Vanagas and Margarita Drobyazko, speaking for Lithuania, is impossible, the athletes will have fans, said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the decision of Lithuania to deprive athletes of state awards due to participation in the Russian show. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Wednesday signed a decree excluding Drobyazko and Vanagas from the list of holders of the Order of Gediminas, fifth degree. The couple were awarded awards in 2000. The decision to deprive them was made in connection with the performance in Tatyana Navka's ice show «Swan Lake» in Sochi. According to Nausėda, the couple «crossed out their services to Lithuania with a cynical act of participation in a commercial event in Sochi.» «It's also impossible. You can cancel it by decree, but it's impossible. All the same, they will still have people there who love and admire their work, their sports,» Peskov said on the air of the Vesti program on the Russia 1 channel.
