Europe’s refusal to issue visas to Russians from new Russian regions violates the law, says Zakharova

Moscow, (ST) – Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that the European decision not to issue visas to Russians residing in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk is inhumane sanctions and a policy of discrimination that violates international law.

Commenting on the European Union’s decision not to accept passports of Russian citizens residing in the new Russian regions, as well as in Abkhazia and South Ossetia for issuing Schengen visas, Zakharova wrote in a statement published on Wednesday on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to RIA Novosti: “The European Union has long proved that its actions in The field of visas is subject to cynical political tasks.”

Zakharova pointed out that, according to the recommendations of the European Commission and the European Foreign Affairs Authority, most of the member states of the European Union did not accept, before the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the passports of Russian citizens residing in some Russian regions, especially in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. She added that since now it has become a policy This discrimination, which strictly violates international law, is part of the laws of the European Union and the countries of the Schengen area, namely Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The Russian diplomacy stressed that the member states of the European Union, by practicing the policy of discrimination in the visa field, violate the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, as well as ignore their political obligations in the field of ensuring freedom of movement, according to the final statement of the Security Conference. and Cooperation in Europe that was signed in Helsinki in 1975.

Raghda Sawas