Moscow Is Disappointed with Europe's Reaction to Ban on Officials' Travel to Russia

Moscow is "disappointed" with the European Union's reaction to the news that Russia has banned dozens of European officials from entering the country, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said Monday. The list, which features 89 names, was leaked to the press Saturday (document below).

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini described the move - seen as a retaliation against the sanctions imposed by the EU in response to the Ukraine crisis - as "arbitrary and unjustified." Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused officials on the list of "actively supporting a state coup" in Ukraine.

Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, said that no one was on the list "by accident," and that all those banned from entering Russia had "directly contributed or keep contributing to the undermining of Russia-EU relations."

Speaking at a press conference Monday, Lavrov said Russia had "responded reciprocally to a unilateral, unfriendly and unprovoked step. And we did that after we restrained ourselves for a very long time."

Rumors of a blacklist had been circulating for a while, and several European officials have been turned away from Russia in recent months. German lawmaker Karl-Georg Wellmann, who chairs the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group, was denied entry at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on May 24 and was slapped with an entry ban until June 2019.

Related: Lithuania Thinks the Russians Are Coming - and It's Preparing with Wargames

Speaking at a press conference Friday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed these suspicions, and announced that Moscow had forwarded a list of personae non gratae to "several European embassies." According to reports, Russia had requested that the list not be made public.

Poland is the country with the most blacklisted officials, with 18 of its politicians now barred from Russia. The Baltic states - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - are also heavily represented, and together with Poland, make up 50 percent of the names on the list.

British intelligence agency MI5 Director General Andrew Parker and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are among the British names on the list, as is former Belgian Premier Guy Verhofstadt, who heads the Liberal bloc in the European parliament.

Several officials reacted to the news with humor, including Verhofstadt, who tweeted that FIFA president Sepp Blatter and French far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen were more welcome in Russia than he was.

Sepp - Guy Verhofstadt (@GuyVerhofstadt)May 29, 2015

French researcher Pierre Verluise, who is affiliated to the Foundation for Strategic Research and also runs French geopolitical website diploweb.com, described the leak as "bad timing." Speaking to VICE News Monday, Verluise noted that tensions between Russia and the EU had been "de-escalating" in recent weeks, in light of an improved situation on the ground in Ukraine and fewer deaths as a result of the conflict. The list, said Verluise, may have "turned the tension up a notch."

Verluise said that while the "blacklist" was unlikely to compromise EU-Russian relations, it was nonetheless "symbolically significant."

"It shows Russia not as a victim, but as a power," said the researcher, adding that the list was intended to send a message back to the Russian people, who are facing economic difficulties as a result of the EU's sanctions. The decision to release the list, explained Verluise, is as much about internal politics as it is about Russia's foreign relations.

Related: 'It Is a Government Crime': The Coffins of Russia's Ghost Soldiers In Ukraine Are Coming Home

In July 2014, the EU imposed an array of sanctions on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and the resulting conflict in Ukraine. As part of the sanctions, Europe imposed economic restrictions on Russian banks, slapped travel bans on members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, and placed an embargo on the import and export of arms to Russia.

In May, Russia ended its contract with France for the sale of two Mistral amphibious assault ships, after France suspended delivery of the vessels over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Verluise said that while the travel ban list "complicates the de-escalation of sanctions," it probably won't result in tougher restrictions. "That's not part of the EU's mandate. The EU is a tool for peace and compromise, and at times, it makes compromises itself."

Here is the full list of banned European officials: 

List of EU officials blacklisted by Moscow published by Liberation.fr

Follow Pierre Longeray on Twitter @PLongeray

Watch the VICE News Documentary "Russia's Ghost Army in Ukraine."

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