Rifkind told British radio Sunday that Russian officials "would not have reacted unless they felt very sore at what happened."
Rifkind spoke a day after the European Union issued a statement saying it considers the new ban, which was disclosed last week, as "totally arbitrary and unjustified in the absence of further clarification."
The Russian list includes scores of European lawmakers and heads of government who last year backed several waves of European and U.S. sanctions aimed at penalizing Moscow for its role in the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
Beyond travel bans on top Russian officials and businesspeople, U.S. President Barack Obama and European leaders slapped harsh economic sanctions on Russia's biggest financial institution, Sherbank, last September.
The Western leaders also blocked Russian energy companies from access to Western technologies used in deep water shale oil extraction.
Those sanctions, coupled with a sharp decline late last year in Russian oil exports and the free fall of the Russian ruble, pushed the Russian economy to the brink of recession earlier this year. Analysts expect the economy to contract more than 4 percent by year's end.
Moscow has strongly protested the Western penalties, while repeatedly insisting it is not playing an active role in the pro-Russian rebellion gripping eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin has described Russian troops seen or captured inside Ukraine as volunteers.
[voanews.com]
31/5/15
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Related:
Russian Travel Ban Damaging to Ukraine Peace Efforts (Frank-Walter Steinmeier)
European Union anger at Russian travel blacklist...
Italian foreign ministry wants Russia to explain criteria of entry denial...
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Moscow is "disappointed" with Europe's reaction to its move to ban dozens of European officials from visiting Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov was quoted by RIA news agency on Monday as saying...
ReplyDeleteMoscow's blacklist is an answer to the EU's travel bans on Russian officials, part of the bloc's reaction to Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.
JPOST.COM BY REUTERS
1/6/15
Evidence Grows of Russian Military Involvement in Ukraine ...
ReplyDeleteU.N. human rights monitors say there is growing evidence of Russian military involvement in the war in Ukraine. The U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has just launched its 10th report on the situation in Ukraine, covering the period from February 16 to May 15.
Russia denies its soldiers are fighting in eastern Ukraine, and it says those fighting with pro-Russian rebels are volunteers. Since Ukrainian armed forces captured two Russians last month, the Kremlin has refused to acknowledge them as members of the regular Russian army.
But U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic said monitors who interviewed the Russian soldiers in private on May 21 reached a different conclusion........http://www.voanews.com/content/growing-evidence-of-russian-military-involvement-in-ukraine/2803192.html
1/6/15
Liste noire russe: le Parlement européen contre-attaque...
ReplyDeleteLe président du Parlement européen Martin Schulz a annoncé mardi que l'ambassadeur de Russie auprès de l'Union européenne s'est vu interdire l'accès à son Assemblée en représailles contre l'interdiction faite par le Kremlin à 89 citoyens européens, critiques de la politique du Kremlin, d'entrer en Russie.
La liste noire russe a été notifiée aux diplomates européens jeudi. Elle comprend un certain nombre d'anciens ou d'actuels parlementaires européens qui ont critiqué ouvertement le président Vladimir Poutine et la position de la Russie dans la guerre en Ukraine.
Accès restreint du Parlement européen à l'ambassadeur russe
"A la suite de la publication de la liste noire de personnalités politiques et de responsables européens, le président du Parlement européen, Martin Schulz, a informé ce jour l'ambassadeur russe auprès de l'UE que dans la mesure où les autorités russes n'ont pas réussi à garantir la transparence de leurs décisions (...) il estime qu'il est maintenant justifié de réagir par des mesures appropriées", a souligné le bureau du président du parlement de l'UE. ..............rtbf.be
3/6/15
The European Parliament's decision to restrict access to Russian envoy Vladimir Chizhov is narrow-minded and absurd, a senior official at the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday...
Delete"This decision is both narrow-minded and absurd," said Konstantin Dolgov, the ministry's human rights envoy.
"The parliament should be open for dialogue, in this case, with Russian representatives," he said. "They [the parliament] have often been politicised and blind-folded regarding the situation in Russia and our foreign policy."
TASS
Tensions Grow Over Russia's 'Secret' EU Travel Blacklist ...
ReplyDeleteThe thing about secret lists is that you don't know if you're on one — until you find out you are.
Germany's conservative lawmaker Karl-Georg Wellmann learned this lesson the hard way. Arriving in Russia for an official visit last month, Wellmann ended up spending the night in the Moscow airport transit zone.
Much to his surprise, Wellmann says, airport officials informed him he'd been banned from entering Russia until 2019.
"We wanted to have political talks with senior members of the government, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's advisors," says Wellmann. "As a result, they were canceled, and German-Russian relations are strained."
So, too, are Russia's relations with the wider EU: Wellmann is just one of 89 officials from all over Europe who ended up on what, until recently, had been a secret Kremlin travel ban list.
High-profile members include Britain's former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union in Brussels Uwe Corsepius, and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.........http://www.voanews.com/content/tensions-grow-over-russia-secret-eu-travel-blacklist/2809265.html
5/6/15