MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Last week, media reports emerged that EU member state embassies received a list of politicians, diplomats and military experts banned from entering Russia. On Saturday, a Russian Foreign Ministry source confirmed those reports.
"I shall say that I am extremely disappointed by the actions of our European partners in Moscow. Of course, decency is not a political category, but people somehow cross all lines, which causes nothing but disappointment, because how can such partners be trusted," Meshkov told journalists.
According to the diplomat, the ban list has been checked multiple times, and an individual decision was made regarding each official. Moscow does not view the transferal of the list to the European diplomats a political step, Meshkov said.
German lawmaker Karl-Georg Wellmann was the first to be denied entry into Russia on May 24 upon his arrival to Moscow.
The European Union, the United States and a number of other countries imposed several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions for its alleged involvement in Ukrainian crisis. Entry bans for several Russian individuals accused of meddling in the crisis were part of the restrictions.
Moscow compiled its own black list of persons from the United States and the European Union, but did not make it publicly available.
