Moscow is expanding the "blacklist" of EU citizens banned from entering the country, this step has been taken on a parity basis due to the confrontational approach of Brussels, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2020) Moscow is expanding the "blacklist" of EU citizens banned from entering the country, this step has been taken on a parity basis due to the confrontational approach of Brussels, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
"Recently, the European Union has done a number of unfriendly steps toward our country and Russian citizens. Acting, as before, in bypass of existing international norms, the EU continues to expand its sanctions tools and use them under far-fetched, sometimes absurd pretext. We repeatedly warned the European Union about the harmfulness of such an approach, but the EU ignores our proposals to conduct a substantive professional fact-based dialogue and continues to choose the language of sanctions," Zakharova said at a briefing.
"In response to the EU's actions, the Russian side made a decision to expand the reciprocal list of representatives of member states and EU institutions that are prohibited from entering Russia. The number of persons involved in the Russian list has been brought to par with the existing EU list," she added.
The restrictions were introduced in accordance with the Federal law on the procedure for leaving and entering Russia of August 15, 1996, she noted.
