Monday, May 03, 2021
Responding to sanctions
EU appoints Russian ambassadors
After EU sanctions against Russian officials, Moscow is backing out and imposing entry bans on EU officials, including Parliament President Sassoli. The action is “obviously very politically motivated,” says the EU and wants to speak to the Russian ambassador.
The EU has called in the Russian ambassador because of the entry bans against eight high-ranking politicians and other officials. “We will convey to him that we strongly condemn and reject this decision,” said a spokesman for the EU’s External Action Service in Brussels. There is no legal explanation for the sanctions. They are groundless and “obviously very politically motivated”.
The measures announced on Friday affect EU Parliament President David Sassoli, Vice-Commission President Vera Jourova and Jacques Maire, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly’s special rapporteur for the Navalny case. In addition, the Berlin Chief Public Prosecutor Jörg Raupach is no longer allowed to travel to Russia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow justified the entry bans with the EU sanctions against Russian officials, which it saw as unfounded. They were issued in March in response to the imprisonment of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Russia also accuses the German authorities of not having adequately responded to requests for legal assistance from Russian investigators.
The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, Maria Sakharova, said on state television that Russia had not started this “war of sanctions”. But one is always ready to come to terms “in order to end this senseless confrontation in which there will and cannot be any winners”. An escalation of the sanctions would have complex negative effects on the Russian and Western economies, said Sakharova.
According to the spokesman, the conversation with the Russian EU ambassador should take place in the afternoon and be conducted by the secretaries-general of the EU Commission and the Foreign Service.
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