The summons of Russian Ambassador Alexei Meshkov to the French Foreign Ministry is part of the demarche agreed upon by the EU member states. This was announced on Tuesday, May 4, by the Russian Embassy in Paris.
The Russian diplomat was summoned to the French Foreign Ministry on May 3 in connection with Moscow’s measures against European officials. Meshkov also expressed concern about measures to limit the hiring of employees in diplomatic missions.
“The summons of the Russian ambassador to France to the country’s Foreign Ministry is, in our opinion, part of the demarche agreed upon by the EU countries and in many respects repeats what was announced to the Russian representative to the EU. For his part, the ambassador gave explanations on this issue that had already been repeatedly voiced by the Russian side, emphasizing that our retaliatory measures were dictated by the decisions of the European Union of March 2 and 22, when a number of Russian officials were barred from entering these countries, ” embassy comments.
The French Foreign Ministry noted to Meshkova that they condemn the measures taken by the Russian Federation, adding that such steps will not help reduce tensions in bilateral relations, Gazeta.ru writes.
The Russian diplomat, in turn, stressed that the EU authorities have repeatedly ignored Moscow’s calls to abandon the sanctions lists. In addition, the embassy said, the anti-Russian hysteria in Brussels and a number of other European capitals “does not help to rectify the already difficult situation in relations between Russia and the European Union.”
On April 30, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that eight citizens of the countries of the European Union and representatives of official structures of the EU were barred from entering the territory of the Russian Federation as a response to Western sanctions.
In particular, the list includes President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, Chairman of the Latvian National Council for Electronic Media Ivars Abolins and a member of the French delegation to PACE Jacques Mayor.
These measures were taken in response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union on March 22 against 11 individuals and four organizations from different countries, including Russia, for “violations of human rights and their abuse.” There were two Russian citizens on the sanctions list. They are banned from entering the countries of the community, and their bank accounts will be frozen there if discovered.
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Moscow is ready to restore interaction with the European Union, if a reciprocal interest is shown in this.