Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on his Twitter account that the opportunity to enter Europe is a privilege, not an unconditional right, and therefore Russian citizens should be banned from entering the EU. He noted that while air communications with Russia were closed, the cargo belonged to the neighboring countries of the country (Estonia, Latvia, Finland).
“Stop issuing tourist visas to the Russians. Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right. Air traffic from the Russian Federation is closed. Schengen countries issue visas to Russians, while Russia’s neighbors – Latvia, Estonia, Finland (single access point) bear the burden. “Now it’s time to stop tourism from Russia,” he said.
He wrote on Twitter.
initiative from the past
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said European attempts to stop tourism from Russia come from countries that are no longer hostile to Russia. According to him, the calls of EU politicians are similar to the calls that came from the center of Europe 80 years ago.
“As a rule, such statements come from countries that we already consider hostile countries. In their hostilities, of course, many of these countries go into unconsciousness and reach such statements that we heard literally 80 years ago from the center of Europe…” Peskov drew attention.
“Terry nationalism” and unlearned lessons
Maria Zakharova, representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, evaluated Callas’ words as another step of hatred towards Russia.
“This is towel nationalism that is centuries old, covered, named and camouflaged in different ways. Now for outsiders the curtain has been lifted and the whole landscape in which Europe has covered this nationalism has fallen”- aforementioned Zakharov to the magazine Kompaniya.
According to him, the European Union has not made any real attempts to resolve the Ukraine crisis in recent years. He believes what happened was “part of his policy of practicing hatred against Russia.”
“Now they have to decide what kind of world and what kind of Europe they represent: for a Europe of common standards, human rights, human values, the rule of law and equality of all before the law or xenophobia, atrocious ideology, strictly colonialist separation of thoughts and people. But this is not our problem, it is the problem of the NATO-centric link that has now broken the chain in Europe,” added the Foreign Ministry representative.
Later, on her Telegram channel, Zakharova reminded Kallas of a number of fundamental international agreements, which, according to Estonian Prime Minister Zakharova, “did not learn at the institute.” The representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited the 1975 Helsinki Law, which was signed between the OSCE countries, as an argument. It refers to free movement within Europe and contacts between people, institutions and organisations. It also recalled that all States that joined the OSCE in Vienna in 1989 committed to “respect the freedom of every person to move and reside within the borders of each State and to respect the right to leave and return to any country, including his own”. . to his own country.” He also reminded the relevant articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Nazi nonsense”
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, called Kallas’s statement “Nazi nonsense”.
“After the Ukrainian rug, another Nazi nonsense about Russian citizens was published by an Estonian aunt: “Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right.” Medvedev further quotes on his page, “Your freedom is not your virtue, it’s our fault.” I want to remind. “in contact”.
On the morning of August 9, Medvedev, on his Telegram channel, compared Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Adolf Hitler’s desire to “hold accountable the entire population of Russia.”
About Estonia’s chances of becoming a state
Vladimir Dzhbarov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council International Committee, in response to the words of the Prime Minister of Estonia named For Estonians, it’s the privilege of living on land that actually belongs to Russia.
“In general, Estonians live on the territory of the Russian Empire. Peter the Great conquered these lands from Charles XII, who won the Great Northern War (1700-1721). Moreover, Russia paid the Swedes a lot for these lands (for the purity of participation). Therefore, it is a privilege for Estonia.”
— wrote Jabarov.
“The sooner Estonia realizes this, the better its chances of preserving its statehood,” he said.
“Relapse of racist thought”
Dmitry Novikov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Relations speech In a statement with socialbites.ca, he said the statement was a “relapse of racist thinking” that should be condemned by the world community.
“The fact that visiting any country is a privilege is a complete reversion of inherently racist thinking and absolutely unacceptable things that should be condemned by the entire so-called world community, including politicians in the USA and Europe. The idea is silly and I think it will definitely be appreciated by EU and US representatives,” he said.
Contradictions with EU and EC
European Commission (EC) representative Anita Hipper reminded that in the background of Kallas’s statement, the visa law of the European Union (EU) does not, in principle, include the possibility of stopping the issuance of short-term visas. For Russian citizens, only each EU country can decide on individual cases. According to him, the EC “contacts with EU countries, including those who want to restrict the issuance of visas, but does not comment on these contacts.”
This is not the first time the European Commission has been reminded of the impossibility of stopping the issuance of short-term visas, including for Russian citizens.
In addition, according to the news that Financial Times based on an unnamed EU official, the European Union leadership was also skeptical of Callas’ statement.
“You don’t want to completely ban all Russians from traveling to the EU, otherwise how are we going to interact?” – said the representative of the European Union.
According to him, Russians who do not support military action in Ukraine should also be able to “travel”.
Source: Gazeta
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