KREMLIN HITS OUT AT FIVE EU COUNTRIES ALREADY ON ITS LIST OF UNFRIENDLY COUNTRIES

Fri 22 July 2022:

Five EU nations are now listed twice on Russia’s list of unfriendly countries, which already included all EU members, as Russia announced on Friday that it intended to sever diplomatic ties with them.

The ability of their embassies in Russia to hire local staff is a key factor in the status changes for Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, described it as an additional step.

The new regulations prevent Croatia and Slovenia from hiring Russians for their embassies, while placing strict upper limits on all three other countries. More restrictions, according to Peskov, may be imposed.

He said the new diplomatic punishment was the result of unfriendly policies by those countries, though he gave no details.

Russia began its list of unfriendly countries last year, initially containing only the Czech Republic and the US. It has since expanded to include all nations that laid sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has demanded that the countries on the list pay for Russian goods in roubles, a demand that most nations have resisted. The demand for rouble payments is intended to support the rouble’s value as well as to give Russian banks that have been cut off from global financial networks by the sanctions access to hard currency.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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