Other events in Baltic States

Well-known Lithuanian basketball player Zydrunas Ilgauskas will lose Lithuanian citizenship once it transpired that he has the United States' citizenship as well, on Monday announced LNK television show Labas Vakaras, Lietuva, cites LETA/ELTA.

The owner of the NBA club Cleveland Cabaliers announced this spring that Ilgauskas received American citizenship, having heard about this the Lithuanian Interior Ministry sent a query to the US institutions. It emerged that Ilgauskas received the US passport in October 2013, thus, following the Lithuanian laws, he will lose Lithuanian citizenship.

Lithuanian laws provide for owning dual citizenship only in exceptional cases – if a person fled from the Soviet regime or is a child of deportees. Those who are born abroad or take citizenship through marriage are also allowed to hold dual citizenship.

Nationals of other countries may be granted Lithuanian citizenship for merit by the president, so Ilgauskas may need to address to President Dalia Grybauskaite to solve the issue.