Yelena Kaminskas has been denied entry to Lithuania for five years (Picture: Social media / East2west News)
The lover of Russia’s decade-long defence minister has been kicked out of Lithuania after officials dubbed her a ‘threat to national security’.
Yelena Kaminskas, 49, is claimed to have had two children with Sergei Shoigu in the early 2000s.
She met one of president Vladimir Putin’s closest allies while working as a flight attendant on a Russian government aircraft in 1999, per reports.
At the time, he was the minister of emergency situations.
But yesterday, a court in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius tire up Yelena’s residency permit in the Nato nation.
A spokesperson for the court told the Lithuanian press: ‘The applicant’s appeal was rejected and the court recognized that the permit had been revoked on reasonable grounds as the available data suggests the applicant poses a threat to national security.’
Yelena will not only be unable to enter Lithuania for the next five years but will be banned from the EU’s Schengen area for three years.
According to the broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), the State Security Department revoked Yelena’s residency permit this summer.
It came amid growing tensions between Europe and Russia amid the war against Ukraine.
Shoigu and Putin have been known to vacation together (Picture: AFP)
The defence minister has long been one of Putin’s top allies (Picture: Mikhail Svetlov_
Yelena had reportedly married Adolfas Kaminskas, 44, after her extramarital relationship with Shoigu ended, giving her a temporary permit in 2017.
Yelena lodged an appeal at the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court in August.
She may be able to petition the court’s closed-door decision made today and take the matter to the Supreme Administrative Court.
But Adolfas may have his Lithuanian citizenship stripped as well as the courts consider his case in the coming weeks.
LRT previously reported that he did not notify the state that he received a Russian passport earlier this year.
More: News
In Lithuania, dual citizenship is only granted in exceptional cases only, such as a child acquiring dual citizenship at birth or for refugees.
Shoigu, 67, also has two daughters, Yulia, 45, and Ksenia, 31, with his wife Irina, 67.
Yulia joined Russia’s Center of Emergency Psychological Aid in the Ministry of Emergency in October to ease the trauma ordinary Russians are facing amid the war.
Tens of thousands of families in Russia are grappling with grief from the death of their sons, fathers, husbands and boyfriend forced to the Ukrainian frontlines.
Under Yulia’s lead, the psychological centre has advised Russians to ‘learn to cope with anxiety during Putin’s war.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
The pair reportedly had two children together.
