Russia: Summoning of the Russian Ambassador to the EU

The Secretary-General of the European Commission, Ilze Juhansone, and the Secretary-General of the External Action Service, Stefano Sannino, jointly summoned the Ambassador of Russian Federation to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, on Monday to condemn the decision of the Russian authorities from last Friday to ban eight European Union nationals from entering the territory of the Russian Federation.

Ambassador Chizhov was informed of the strong rejection and firm condemnation by the EU institutions and EU Member States of this decision, which was purely politically motivated and lacks any legal justification.

Secretaries-General I. Juhansone and S. Sannino also recalled Russia's expulsion of Czech diplomats and the executive order of the Russian Federation of so called “unfriendly states”, expressing their grave concern for the cumulative impact of all these decisions on the relations between the EU and the government of the Russian Federation.

They also noted that the EU reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response.