Lavrov threatened the EU: we will not leave such attacks indifferent

“We will not leave indifferent to this type of attacks against Russia, the Russian leaders, the parliamentarians of the Russian Federation, our companies, which the European Union believes are guilty only of being registered in a country that the EU has decided to declare an aggressor without no motive and illegally, “Lavrov spoke at the conference, commenting on Brussels’ statements on the possibility of responding to Moscow’s restrictive measures against the Community.

According to the minister, Russia “has made it clear that it has announced persons non gratae of persons in the structures of the European Union and in some EU member states, which have made a decisive contribution to a new wave of sanctions against our officials. , including parliamentarians “.

“The fact that the European Union has declared that our actions are illegal and not based on international law means only one thing: the European Union believes that everything is allowed. When the European Union begins to threaten us with new sanctions, I begin to think that, in addition to all the sense of permissibility and infallibility, another obsession is taking over the European Union, I mean total impunity. It seems to me that this path leads to a stalemate, “said the head of Russian diplomacy.

“It just came to our attention then. If you look at the statistics related to everything that happened after March 2014, you will see who started this chain of sanctions, as well as why we cannot stop responding to this hostility,” emphasized S. Lavrov .

Moscow announced on April 30 that it had banned eight members of the Commonwealth and their officials from entering Russia in response to EU Council sanctions announced earlier this year by Russia over the imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navaln and the violent police response to protests by his supporters.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has indicated that the new measures will apply to Ivars Abolinis, President of the Latvian National Council for Electronic Media (NEPLP), Marius Baltinis, Director of the Latvian State Language Center, and Jacques Maire, Member of the French Delegation. to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (ESPA). Joerg Raupach, Head of the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office, David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, Asa Scott, Swedish Expert on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Ilmar Tomusk, Head of the Estonian Language Department, and Vera Jourova, Vice-President of the European Commission.

In a joint statement last Friday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and Sassoli condemned these Moscow measures as “unfounded” and added that the Community reserves the right to “take appropriate retaliatory measures.”

Tensions between the Kremlin and the EU have escalated due to the situation in Ukraine, the imprisonment of Navaln and the expulsion of diplomats from the chain countries.