Chizhov announced retaliatory measures to the EU’s refusal from a simplified visa regime

Russia intends to announce retaliatory measures to the European Union’s refusal of a simplified visa regime after it receives official notification of this. Such a statement did Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the EU Vladimir Chizhov in an interview with Izvestia.

“We will formulate our international legal position when we receive an official notification from the European Union with the appropriate wording,” Chizhov said. He noted that a counter-reaction to the EU’s actions is “inevitable”.

Chizhov added that European countries had supported freedom of movement for a long time, but now they “have actually taken the path of self-isolation.” According to Chizhov, such steps are harmful to the EU “both economically and politically.”

On August 31, a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the EU countries was held in Prague, at which, among other things, the issue of a ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens was discussed. Several EU countries, including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, actively support this initiative, while a number of countries oppose it.

As a result, the EU countries came to a compromise and decided to terminate the simplified procedure for issuing visas. “This means that the number of visas issued will significantly decrease, it will be more difficult and longer to obtain visas,” said EU diplomat Josep Borrell.

Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that if a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians is adopted, Europeans may also face inconvenience when traveling to Russia. He promised that Russia would not leave such decisions unanswered.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia should not close and take mirror measures on EU visa restrictions.

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