Russia and the West continue to impose counter sanctions against each other. Several days ago, at the insistence of the European Union, Moscow sent to a series of European embassies a list containing the names of 89 people from 17 countries, whose access to the Russian Federation was banned due to their critical attitude towards Russia’s policy line. The fact that the list was kept in secrecy and did not contain names of people who had critical attitude against Russia’s policy against Ukraine only raised doubts that it was a counter measure against the European sanctions imposed against Russian politicians and businessmen who took a stand on the Ukrainian crisis. A high-standing person from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, dissipated these doubts, saying that the “black list”, as it was called by the EU countries, was a response to the European sanctions against Russia. The list contains the name of a Bulgarian citizen, too. Ilian Vassilev who was Bulgaria’s ambassador to the Russian Federation between 2000 and 2006 was also included in the list. In Mr Vassilev’s view, he was included in Russia’s travel ban list, because his opinion towards significant projects regarding gas supplies and nuclear power engineering differed to Moscow’s stand.
As a matter of fact, the inclusion of Ilian Vassilev to the travel ban list can not be perceived as a counter sanction against Bulgaria. Last year Bulgaria banned the access to its territory of the Chairman of the State Duma of the federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Sergey Naryshkin, due to the EU sanctions imposed against Russia, although his official visit to Bulgaria was already negotiated. Sergey Naryshkin’s former counterpart Mihail Mikov who served as a President of Bulgaria’s National Assembly expressed his disagreement with the failure of Naryshkin’s visit, but Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its decision was based on the restrictive sanctions imposed by the EU. Now the Foreign Ministry of this country says that Bulgaria and its EU partners will try to receive explanations about each individual case, including the travel ban against Ilian Vassilev. However, it may turn out that Russia’s list can be amended and may include the names of other Bulgarians, whose access to its territory will be banned. Russia recommends to the citizens of the countries which imposed similar travel restrictions against the Russian Federation to check in their consulship whether their name was not included in the list, as there are many Bulgarians including high-standing officials who had critical attitude against Russia.
Some time ago Moscow imposed economic sanctions against European countries as a response against the EU restrictions which banned the access of Russian citizens on its territory. Bulgaria also suffered damages, because Russia imposed restrictions on the imports of food items from EU countries. According to some analysts, Russia may also impose restrictions on the imports of Russian oil to European countries. Regardless of Russia’s future measures one thing is for sure- the time of the privileged relations between Bulgaria and Russia is over and in return Sofia will be part of the international communities that will be arguing with Moscow.
English version: Kostadin Atanasov
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