Moscow blasts E.U. for leaking ‘blacklist’ of banned Europeans

Russia’s top diplomat blasted European Union officials Monday for what he called “breaches of ethical norms” by allegedly passing on to journalists the names of Europeans, including senior politicians, who are barred from traveling to Russia in retaliation for Western sanctions.

“We provided the list at the request of the E.U. on the basis of confidentiality, and it immediately leaked to the press,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference Monday. “And the E.U., which normally doesn’t comment on leaks, gladly commented on it. So I also see some breaches of ethical norms here.”

The E.U. complained earlier that Russia’s decision to expand its blacklist was “totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification and transparency.” The body also complained that it took multiple requests before Russia agreed to share the list even confidentially.

But to Russia, the fact that any of the names became public appears to have revived a familiar complaint: that the West demands certain behaviors of Russia, but then does whatever it wants whenever it wants in return.

In general, Lavrov complained Monday, Europe’s approach to sanctions has been “an attempt to replace international law with their own political predilections.”

The Western sanctions against Russia are “absolutely illegitimate,” Lavrov said, repeating a common talking point among Russian leaders. But if sanctions there must be, then at least the West might appreciate that Russia “could not violate the fundamental law of international relations — the principle of reciprocity,” he continued.

“We responded with mutuality to a unilateral, unfriendly and unprovoked step. And we did that after we contained ourselves for a very long time,” Lavrov said.

Of course, the United States and the European Union do not consider the sanctions unprovoked. Western leaders say the latest rounds of sanctions against Russia are in direct response to Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and to Russia’s involvement in the ongoing separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Western leaders have also indicated that they could begin to roll back sanctions once all terms of a cease-fire agreement in Ukraine are carried out.

Russia’s latest retaliatory move also has ties to the Ukrainian conflict. As Lavrov said Monday, those on the list are leaders “who most actively supported the coup” in Ukraine — a reference to the protests in Kiev’s Independence Square that led to the February 2014 ouster of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych. Lavrov said Russia has blacklisted far fewer European leaders than Europe has targeted Russians.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state-owned Russian News Service on Monday that Russia would continue to answer any increased Western sanctions with measures of its own, and would cancel the travel bans once the West eliminates its bans against Russians.

But absent major developments in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, the likely next step in the sanctions standoff will simply be whether the status quo will continue. The European Union must vote unanimously to continue sanctions if the current roster of anti-Russian measures is to extend past midsummer.