Russia gives six-year sentence to man returned from Lithuania

Russia sentenced Igor Odintsov, a 68-year-old man returned from Lithuania, to six years in prison after he crossed the Neman River from the Kaliningrad region, LRT reported. Odintsov says he sought asylum in Lithuania, while the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service says he did not clearly ask for international protection.

Lithuanian border guards handed Odintsov to Russian officials on the evening of September 17, about five hours after he arrived by river. On September 30, a Russian Baltic Fleet military court sentenced him to six years in a strict-regime penal colony.

The court said Odintsov had published material in an online messaging app that presented the ideology and practice of terrorism as justified. The ruling described him as holding radical views, opposing Russian state authorities and opposing what Russia calls its “special military operation.”

Odintsov is a geodesist from Sovetsk in the Kaliningrad region. A friend, identified as Boris, told the outlet Sever.Realii that Odintsov had consistently opposed Soviet rule and, after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, opposed President Vladimir Putin and the Russian authorities.

In a letter from a temporary detention facility, Odintsov told former Mediazona journalist Alyona Dergacheva that he had explained to Lithuanian border guards why he did not want to return to Russia and had tried to request asylum. He said he was not given the opportunity to submit a written application.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service said Odintsov did not clearly express a wish to seek international protection or tell officials that his life was in danger in his home country. Lithuania’s Interior Ministry has said illegal arrivals by Russian citizens could pose espionage and sabotage risks.

Renata Kules, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Lithuania, told LRT that a person can request asylum orally and does not need to use specific terms such as “asylum” or “international protection.” What matters, she said, is expressing fear of persecution or other serious harm if returned to the country of origin.

LRT said it was also seeking documentary evidence to establish whether Odintsov took part in the January 1991 events and defended Lithuania’s parliament, as a former head of the Kaliningrad Lithuanian community has previously claimed.