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Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union

Submitted on 2023-02-25 22:25:48

Comment by the Russian Permanent Mission to the EU on the Tenth Package of Anti-Russian Sanctions Adopted by the European Union


The latest EU restrictive measures against Russia, like all previous ones, are illegitimate. They were adopted without the approval of the UN Security Council and are therefore unlawful. The EU cannot be ignorant of this, which means that all its words of commitment to the UN Charter are mere lip service.

For the first time, the EU sanctions "package" has included a prohibition on the transit of certain goods via the territory of the Russian Federation. It is nothing less than an attempt to put pressure on third countries' trade relations. Such actions are detrimental not so much to Russia as to international trade at large, creating artificial obstacles to the best routes for the delivery of goods that have taken years to develop.

The tenth "package" ban on Russian media violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides that "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression", including "freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers". The EU’s justification of its decision to suspend broadcasting in its Member States as being in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights does not stand up to scrutiny. Its freedom of expression provision is explicitly violated. Evidently, Brussels is not only infringing on the rights of the Russian media representatives, but also on those of its own citizens. The ЕU seems determined to totally isolate the Europeans from an alternative viewpoint. This way one can expect that tomorrow people in Europe will be cut off from any other sources of information that refuse to disseminate EU visions of pseudo-reality.

The tenth "package" will certainly not be left without a response. The main difference, though, is that the aim of the Western restrictions, as stated by the EU leadership, is to hit the Russians hard, while our response does not seek to worsen the socio-economic situation of the Europeans.


Source URL: https://russiaeu.ru/en/node/7644