On November 9, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would not let the European Union (EU) province Moscow, forcing Moscow to take retaliatory actions in the visa sector that could harm national interests.
The statement came after the European Commission (EC) officially banned the issuance of new multiple European Union visas to Russian citizens on November 7.
Speaking on television, Ms. Zakharova accused many EU decisions, including the visa ban, of being a reality of provoking Russia into retaliatory measures. She said the EU hopes Russia will take a "mental" that will harm Russia itself.
The spokesman stressed that Russia would certainly take retaliatory measures.
However, she stressed that retaliation would be calculated based on Russia's national interests, not following the "scenario" the EU wanted.
She further explained that Russia has many options: Can respond "even" (ie Russia also bans EU visas), or use "combined" measures (combined in many ways), or "asymmetrical" (ie retaliation in another field, not related to visas), depending on which way is most appropriate. The spokesman also said that many of the Western decisions were actually just a "responsive investigation" of Russian society.
Ms. Zakharova criticized the EU's move, pointing out that the bloc is harming its own economy. She compared that the EU is "putting aside" legal, documented tourists with financial potential from Russia, while having to bear the costs for other groups.
However, experts in the Russian tourism industry do not seem to appreciate the practical impact of this ban.
The Russian Tourism Industry Association (PCT) previously noted that in fact, Russian tourists had almost no entry visas for European Union members many times even before the ban was officially issued.
Therefore, this new restrictive measure is expected to not significantly reduce the flow of tourists to Europe, which is already at an " insignificant" level.
