Lavrov told how the European Union disrupted the visa-free regime with Russia
Russia will not introduce a visa-free regime for EU countries, since its citizens do not have a mirror right. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this today, speaking at the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
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“The principle of reciprocity plays a role here. I think it is not appropriate for Russia to unilaterally reveal itself. We cannot switch completely to a visa-free regime with those who restrict entry to themselves with visa requirements. Although we are ready to conclude appropriate agreements with each country,” Lavrov said.
He said that even before 2013 there had been a very intensive process of preparing an agreement on visa-free travel between Russia and all countries of the Schengen area.
“We wanted to go for a visa-free regime for a wide category of citizens. First of all – athletes, tourists, scientists, businessmen. The agreement was ready. We concluded an agreement on readmission to relieve the EU’s fears that our citizens will remain, just as a million Ukrainians have fled now,” Lavrov said.
According to him, the process was stopped because “several Russophobic EU countries said: for political reasons, we will not support the signing of a visa-free agreement with Russia until a visa-free regime is provided to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.”
“Pure politicking did not allow this agreement to be accepted. This was long before the Ukrainian events and before the European Union, following Washington’s lead, imposed sanctions. Although later they tried to pretend that they froze the agreement in response to Ukrainian affairs,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov explained how the European Union disrupted the visa-free regime with Russia.