Amsterdam: Russia Releases Blacklist of EU Politicians

Local Editor

Moscow had issued a blacklist of politicians from the European Union, barring them from travelling to the Russian Federation in reaction to the EU sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine, the Netherlands said.

"Russia yesterday handed over a list of people to diverse EU embassies who may not enter Russia any longer," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a weekly press conference.

Moreover, the Kremlin prepared the list to retaliate against the bans imposed by the 28-nation bloc on Moscow over Crimea's decision to join Russia in a 2014 referendum as well as the Kremlin's involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, Rutte added.

The Dutch premier further said that two Dutch lawmakers and a Dutch Member of the European Parliament [MEP] were among those blacklisted.

Amsterdam rejected the fresh round of retaliatory measures by Russia, claiming that the list "was not based on international law, was not transparent and could not be challenged" in a court of law, Rutte declared.

The Russian blacklist consists of 89 names, according to a letter from Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, which was tweeted by Belgian MEP Mark Demesmaeker.

Meanwhile, an unnamed spokeswoman for the EU diplomatic service in Brussels was quoted as saying that Russia had recently imposed travel bans on some European figures, but had so far refused to provide a list of those targeted.

"We take note that the Russian authorities have decided to share the list. We don't have any other information on legal basis, criteria and process," the spokeswoman said.

Earlier this week, German MP Karl-Georg Wellmann, the head of the German-Ukrainian parliament group, was also denied access to Russia.

In a separate development, Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian food safety regulator said in a statement that "imports of fish products from Latvia and Estonia to Russia will be halted shortly," citing violations of veterinarian services by the Baltic States.

Over the past months, Moscow had been targeted by a series of sanctions by Brussels and Washington, who accuse the Kremlin of supporting the pro-Russia forces operating in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin, however, had denounced the accusations as groundless and enforced restrictions on some food imports from the US, the EU, Norway, Canada and Australia in a tit-for-tat move.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team