Moscow calm about restricted access for Russian EU envoy to European Parliament

 Russia’s Foreign Ministry is not dramatizing situation amid the restricted access for the country’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov to the European Parliament, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

"I think that one can in fact not visit that assembly as there is nothing to do there, either without restrictions or with restrictions," Ryabkov said. "That’s why taking into consideration the sentiment of the majority of members of this assembly, everything what they can say and any decisions they can adopt are figured out in advance easily," he said.
The diplomat stressed that "unfortunately, there is less common sense in these decisions in regard to Russia with each month."

Moscow has repeatedly stressed over the past few days that the introduction of its black lists of persons barred from entering Russia is "not a caprice" but a "legal and proportioned measure in response to the unacceptable restrictions for the Russian representatives’ entry to the EU under far-fetched pretexts," he said.

The demands of the blacklisted Europeans to "give explanations" as well as claims that this is an unlawful measure and attempts to devise a sort of retaliatory steps just reflect their "intellectual political squalor."

"This proves that people do not see anything around themselves and are unable to perceive the reality as it is. One can only regret that such people are involved in the decision-making process in the EU in this or that degree," Ryabkov said.

This absolutely relates to the initiators of the restrictions for access of Chizhov to the European Parliament, he said.