MOSCOW, September 15, Oleg Bogatov. Honored coach of the USSR in figure skating Tatyana Tarasova said that she considers the position of the Lithuanian government to be wild, not providing Margarita Drobyazko with opportunities for employment in the country, but deciding to deprive the athlete of citizenship for working in Russia.
Earlier, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda signed a decree excluding Drobiazko and her husband Povilas Vanagas, winners of the World and European Ice Dance Championships and participants in five Olympics, from the list of holders of the Order of Gediminas, V degree, for their participation in Tatiana Navka’s Swan Lake show in Sochi. Members of the Lithuanian Seimas appealed to the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to evaluate the grounds for depriving Drobyazko of citizenship in accordance with amendments to the law, which allow depriving a person of citizenship acquired by exception if his actions pose a threat to the national security of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs recommended that the country's president deprive figure skater Drobyazko of citizenship.
Drobyazko on Thursday on Instagram (the activities of Meta (social networks Facebook and Instagram) are prohibited in Russia as extremist) stated that she would not betray Russia in order to preserve her Lithuanian passport.
“I agree with Margarita, she and Povilas are wonderful athletes who have always competed for Lithuania,” said Tarasova. “Aren’t Lithuanians now ashamed that, hating our country, they do this to them? But they could not provide them with conditions for work , this sport is not developing in their country. Did they offer them a job that they refused? And besides, I have never heard of a person living in one country being unable to work in another. This has never happened anywhere. not in the world, this is some kind of savagery.”
“If I live in Russia, then I can easily train in the USA. And then come back to Russia, which is what I did, for example. Why can’t Margarita work in Russia? If figure skating is not developing in Lithuania, then why should she and Povilas lose their qualifications and not work at all?” – added the Honored Coach of the USSR.
Drobyazko and Vanagas represented Lithuania at the Olympic Games and World Championships, where they managed to win one bronze medal. The couple is a multiple champion of Lithuania. Drobyazko is a native of Moscow, she received Lithuanian citizenship in 1993.
