Lithuania: Parents who abducted kids linked to “sovereign” movement

A Lithuanian family who abducted their children from temporary foster care are linked to the so-called “sovereign citizen movement” (SovCits), according to the State Security Department (VSD), LRT reports. VSD said that the SovCits are guided by an “anti-state extremist ideology” that denies the legitimacy of the state. The children were taken into foster care after they failed to attend school. Earlier, their father announced that he had renounced his Lithuanian citizenship. Several hundred people in Lithuania identify themselves as SovCits and some of them consider themselves Soviet citizens, VSD said. The movement grew during the coronavirus pandemic as an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement.