Russia Releases Travel Ban Blacklist

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte used a weekly press conference on Friday to announce that two Dutch parliamentarians and a Dutch member of the European Parliament were on Russia's blacklist.

Russia has published a blacklist of 89 European Union politicians and military leaders banned from the country.

The move is said to be in response to EU sanctions placed on Moscow over Crimea and Ukraine.

International media report:
“Russia yesterday [Thursday] handed over a list of people to diverse EU embassies who may not enter Russia any longer,” Rutte said.

According to a letter from Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, the list contains 89 names, Belgium MEP Mark Demesmaeker tweeted.

The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed the letter was genuine, adding that Russia had requested the letter not be made public.

Moscow created the list in response to EU imposed sanctions and travel bans over Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its supposed involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Rutte said.

An unnamed spokesperson for the EU diplomatic service in Brussels said Russia had banned several European politicians in recent months from entering the country, but that they had so far refused to provide a list of those targeted.

“We take note that the Russian authorities have decided to share the list. We don't have any other information on legal basis, criteria and process,” the woman told the AFP news agency in a statement.

Head of the Liberal group in the European Parliament, and former Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstaft, has also been blacklisted, his spokesperson Jeroen Reijen said.

“Verhofstadt is banned from entry to Russia. He is on a blacklist with around 80 people,” Reijen said, adding the ban came after the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) called for an independent international investigation into the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed eight of its citizens were also on the list, but did not make public any names.

“It is very striking behavior which, unfortunately, does not improve Russia's image and we have asked for a clarification for this conduct,” the country's foreign minister Margot Wallstroem was quoted by the Swedish TT news agency as saying.

Finland's public broadcaster, YLE, reported Greens party MEP Heidi Hautala was also on the list of those banned from entering Russia.

Rutte said meanwhile his government rejected Russia's action and would “let Moscow know in no uncertain terms.”

The list, Rutte added, “was not based on international law, was not transparent and could not be challenged in a court of law.”

Germany demanded Russia make the list public as well as how it could be legally contested.

“The (German) government expects the Russian authorities to publish any ‘barred' list as well as the judicial means of contesting it,” the country's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday criticized the travel restrictions, describing them as not "particularly clever."

German MP refused entry

Last Sunday, Russia refused entry to German parliamentarian Karl-Georg Wellmann who has strong links to Ukraine despite his invitation to participate in political discussions.

German media reported that Russian authorities put him back on a plane bound for Berlin and placed an entry ban on him until 2019.

“In Wellmann's case, the German government will demand transparency and legal rights for each comparable case,” Berlin said on Friday.

In light of Wellmann's entry refusal, Moscow's deputy foreign minister Alexei Meshkov said Russia could think about making the names on the list public.

“We feel that our policy aimed at protecting the personal information of those on the list of those being barred from entering Russia is better than that of our Western partners of shouting names from the rooftops,” Russian news agencies reported him as saying.

Anyone who believes they may be banned from entering the country is able to go to a Russian embassy to find out, Meshkov added.

Nick Clegg is among 89 European Union politicians

Press Association reports Nick Clegg is among 89 European Union politicians and other senior figures who have been banned from entering Russia.

The name of the former deputy prime minister reportedly appears on a confidential Russian "stop list" handed to the EU's ambassador by the authorities in Moscow earlier this week.

Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, Defence Minister Philip Dunne and former defence minister Andrew Robathan are also understood to be among those barred from the country.

The Foreign Office strongly condemned the Russian action saying there was "absolutely no justification" for the list which appears to have been drawn up in response to EU sanctions against Moscow.

The disclosure comes after a number of EU politicians had tried to travel to Russia in recent months only to be told at the border that they could not enter because they were on the list.

An EU spokesman said the list had now been handed over after repeated requests for details from the EU and the member states concerned.

"The list with 89 names has now been shared by the Russian authorities. We don't have any other information on legal basis, criteria and process of this decision," the spokesman said.

"We consider this measure as totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification and transparency. We are keeping in close contact with the member states involved."

The Foreign Office said that existence of the list would make no difference to EU sanctions imposed in response to Russia's support for separatist rebels fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.

"There is absolutely no justification for this list. And the Russian authorities have not provided any legal basis for the list or for the names on it," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

"If Russia thinks this action will cause the EU to change its position on sanctions, it is wrong. The way for Russia to get the sanctions lifted is to remove its troops from Ukraine and comply with its obligations under the Minsk agreements.

"The EU and member states are urgently seeking more transparency from the Russian authorities for this move.'"

MI5 director general Andrew Parker and the former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers are among the other British names on what appears to be a leaked version of the list circulating online.

Other names include the former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and the French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy.

jlw/jil (AFP, Reuters, Press Association)