New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that Russia should do what serves its interests without responding in kind to visa restrictions against Russian citizens.
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov might probably get angry with me because the Foreign Ministry always acts in a tit-for-tat way – ‘they spat on us, so we should also do the same and so on, they blocked visas to us, so we should also block visas to them.’ We shouldn’t do anything that does not serve our interests,” the Russian head of state said at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the leader suggested expanding the practice of visa-free entry to Russia for tourist groups, noting that the country would only benefit from this. Regarding visas with other countries, according to Putin, Moscow shouldn’t “cling to reciprocity.”
However, The EU has imposed a number of packages of sanctions against Russia, including targeted restrictive measures (individual sanctions), economic sanctions and diplomatic measures. The EU has also adopted sanctions against Belarus in response to its involvement in the invasion of Ukraine.
The aim of the economic sanctions is to impose severe consequences on Russia for its actions and to effectively thwart Russian abilities to continue the aggression. The individual sanctions target people responsible for supporting, financing or implementing actions which undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine or who benefit from these actions.
(Vinayak)