Lithuania bans propaganda of totalitarian, authoritarian regimes and their ideologies using public facilities. The relevant law was adopted on Tuesday by the Saeima, Delfi reports..

103 members of the Seimas voted for the so-called law on de-Sovietization, six members of parliament abstained. Now it must be signed by the president.

The ban will apply when perpetuating or depicting in any form persons, symbols, information that promotes totalitarian, authoritarian regimes and their ideology. In addition, the law will create a legal basis for extracting symbols of totalitarianism and authoritarianism from public spaces in Lithuania: monuments, other memorial objects, names of streets, squares and other public objects..

According to the document, it is forbidden to perpetuate the memory of persons who acted or are acting in the occupational political, military, repressive structures or the central structures of the occupying government, who actively participated in decision-making that influenced the occupational political, military, repressive structures. Names of organizations, events or dates symbolizing totalitarian, authoritarian regimes and their ideologies should also be extracted from public objects. From now on, public objects cannot contain signs of military aggression carried out or carried out by such regimes against another state, the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940-1941 and 1944-1990 and the Nazi occupation in 1939-1944.

These prohibitions do not apply to museums, archives and libraries when preparing exhibitions, informing the population about totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, their consequences. They can be used for the purpose of education, science, professional art and collecting..

The law on de-Sovietization is expected to come into force on May 1, 2023.

Parliamentarians plan that the cleansing of the country's public space will last one to two years.

Until now, only administrative liability has been provided in Lithuania for the demonstration, distribution and propaganda of certain symbols of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes..

However, after Russia started the war in Ukraine, many self-government bodies began to dismantle sculptures, monuments and other symbols on their own initiative..

As reported, Lithuania decided to revoke the broadcasting license for the Russian TV channel Dozhd, which, positioning itself in opposition to the regime of Vladimir Putin, spoke during one of the broadcasts about supporting the Russian military involved in the illegal invasion of the territory of Ukraine..