EU anger over the Russian travel blacklist!

Calls for the leaked list to be made public and for clarifications to be given regarding the names

89 EU politicians were surprised to discover that they were on a confidential Russian travel blacklist on Thursday. The people on the list were parliamentarians who have been outspoken critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in the Ukraine.

A Russian MP has formally requested that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to make the list public. A leaked list was published by the Finnish public broadcasting company Yle and includes politicians from 17 EU member states, including Greece, though there is no explanation given concerning why these people are persona non grata.

The move has been criticized by the EU as “totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification.”

It should be noted that the EU has also imposed sanctions and travel bans on Russia for its operation in Ukraine.