Lithuania's future culture minister urged against stigmatizing Russian culture due to the war, and the ministry has responded to his statement.

This is reported by Delfi.

The future Minister of Culture believes that Lithuanian officials should separate culture from politics and not stigmatize Russians. According to him, there are no grounds to strictly distance oneself from Russian culture.

“A stick has two ends. We fully understand that the Russian people are not the Kremlin. One way or another, they have been our neighbors for thousands of years and will likely continue to be our neighbors in the future […] Therefore, to immediately brand a nationality and their culture as negative is absolutely wrong and inadequate, and politicians should not act this way,” Biriutis argues.

According to his words, it is important to not only know those who “support the regime” but also to talk about those Russians who have left the RF and are “resisting,” as “one cannot equate all.”

Meanwhile, Kairys hopes that the issue of Russian culture will not signal a change in Lithuania's position.

“This is not a matter of competence. It’s a question of worldview. The world has changed, but Mr. Biriutis has not kept up with the times […] In my opinion, such statements are playing with fire. I sincerely hope this will not signal a change in Lithuania's position,” stated the current head of the Ministry of Culture.

Just last year, Kairys mentioned that a “mental quarantine” and distancing from Russian art would be beneficial for Lithuania's cultural sphere. He described this distancing as a way to show solidarity with Ukraine.