Sergey Shoigu has mocked the notion that entering the bloc is some kind of privilege<\/p>\n
The European Union has become a \u201chuman rights exclusion zone\u201d rather than a coveted destination for visitors, a top Russian security official has said.
\nBrussels last week banned EU states from issuing multi-entry visas to Russian nationals. Reacting to the bloc\u2019s newest visa restrictions, Sergey Shoigu, secretary of Russia\u2019s Security Council and a former defense minister, mocked comments by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who claimed that \u201ctravelling to the EU is a privilege, not a given.\u201d
\n\u201cPerhaps a special permit should indeed be required to enter such a human rights exclusion zone,\u201d Shoigu jokingly remarked in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Thursday.
\nRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously criticized Kallas\u2019 framing, asking whether her remark applied to \u201cmillions of illegal migrants enjoying dine-and-wine privileges in the EU\u201d or only to \u201claw-abiding tourists who pay for visas and want to see sights like the Eiffel Tower or shop in Milan.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Spike in Ukrainian males entering EU \u2013 Eurostat<\/p>\n
Shoigu argued that the EU has \u201ctransformed from a trade and economic project into a military bloc\u201d that searches for pretexts to spend more on weapons, thus mirroring NATO\u2019s posture. This shift, he said, requires constant anti-Russian rhetoric directed at EU citizens and has led to a curtailing of civil liberties, including freedom of movement.
\n\u201cThe Europeans have abandoned the values they preached for many years. They no longer need freedom of expression or free press. Dissenters \u2013 people with healthy constructive views \u2013 are being persecuted,\u201d he claimed. He blamed Western elites for advancing an \u201cimaginary \u2018rules-based order\u2019\u201d and positioning themselves as \u201cthe ultimate arbiters of truth.\u201d
\nPoland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, countries that cite historic grievances with Moscow, have long urged Brussels to add broad travel restrictions to its sanctions policy. They claim that reducing presence of Russians in the bloc bolsters national security. Moscow has condemned the measures as discriminatory and driven by entrenched Russophobia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sergey Shoigu has mocked the notion that entering the bloc is some kind of privilege The European Union has become a \u201chuman rights exclusion zone\u201d rather than a coveted destination…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t