Vilnius City Council recently announced it will stop accepting requests and complaints from residents in Russian – part of a broader push to reduce the language's role in public life since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But other state institutions say they have no plans to follow suit just yet.
Lithuania, a EU and NATO member bordering Russia's ally Belarus, has a large Russian-speaking minority, a legacy of Soviet rule that ended in 1990. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Lithuanian institutions have faced growing calls to phase out Russian in official settings.
The State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) and the State Social Insurance Fund Board, known as Sodra say they aim to serve people in whatever language is easiest for them, and will continue offering support in Russian.
A public clinic in Vilnius, the Šeškinė Clinic, says it matches patients with doctors who speak their preferred language, or asks them to bring an interpreter if none is available.
Some patients say they'd struggle without Russian-language service.
