PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“The current sanctions are unjustified. We will not turn a blind eye to this escalation. We support President Sassoli and the rest of the EU officials sanctioned by Moscow today. This attempt of intimidation will not succeed. We are convinced that this escalation is not the correct path for EU-Russian relations.”
The list published today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation targeting eight European officials comes on top of seven envoys from European embassies in Moscow expelled by the Kremlin this week.
During his last official visit to Moscow earlier this year, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said that the EU’s foreign ministers believe Russia is interested in confrontation, rather than cooperation, with the EU.