Kaliningrad man convicted over anti-war posts says he was denied asylum request after swimming to Lithuania

A 68-year-old man from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave facing a six-year prison sentence says Lithuanian authorities refused to let him file a written asylum request after he swam across the Neman River to reach the EU country.

Igor Odintsov made the claim in a letter from a Russian jail that was published by journalist Alena Dergacheva.

“Then, closer to 6pm, I was driven to Panemunė and handed over to Russian border guards on the bridge,” Odintsov wrote. “…During my entire time at the border post, I was not given the opportunity to make a written statement.”

Odintsov says he told Lithuanian border patrol officers that he was seeking political asylum because he was being prosecuted in Russia on charges of “justifying terrorism”. By his own account, he was wearing only swimming trunks at the time.

He says he was taken to a border post, where he was given a blanket, then a T-shirt, and eventually boots and jeans. He was questioned, but for a long time the guards couldn’t determine when he had crossed the border. They told him nothing about his asylum request, he said.

On 30 September, Russia’s Baltic Fleet Military Court sentenced Odintsov to six years in prison for allegedly calling for terrorism online. Investigators said he had written in a messaging app that the “ideology of terrorism” was “correct and worthy of emulation.”

The hearings had been suspended on 17 September after Odintsov disappeared. On 21 September, after five hours of questioning in Lithuania, he was sent back to Kaliningrad and detained. Lithuanian Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said Odintsov had applied for asylum.

Lithuania’s border service later said it was unsure whether his statement, which it described as not “clear and understandable,” amounted to a request for protection. The agency added that Odintsov changed his mind once the procedure was explained to him.