Moscow issues 'retaliatory' expanded list banning German officials from Russia

In response to EU sanctions, Moscow on December 28 expanded list of banned german officials on a parity basis in corresponding to  retaliatory list of EU officials. In an official statement,  Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing that Russia decided to retaliate to  European Union’s actions Russia and ded more names to retaliatory list of representatives of EU member countries and institutions who are prohibited from entering territory of Russia. 

diplomat ded that Russian list was elongated to match existing EU list, according to TASS. Furr, Zakharova  condemned EU’s sanctions against Russia and Russian citizens calling measure a “far-fetched and absurd pretext.” EU h imposed sanctions on Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency and Russian citizens over a cyberattack against German parliament that was carried out in 2015. In a statement, EU hequarters announced that it h imposed a ban on Igor Kostyukov, he of Main Directorate of General Staff of Russian Armed Forces, and Dmitry Bin, a military intelligence officer. 

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[European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a media conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers at European Council building in Luxembourg. Credit: AP]

Meanwhile, as EU’s sanctions against high-ranking Russian officials came into effect, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, that EU's actions were ‘unfriendly and bitter’. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov h warned of similar retaliatory actions against EU for eroding diplomatic ties despite Russia’s international and legal obligations. EU accused Russia of launching a cyberattack on Bundestag after sensitive data of several EU MPS was stolen in a mysterious attack and email accounts of prominent EU politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel was compromised. 

Military unit 26165's involvement 

“This cyber-attack targeted parliament’s information system and affected its operation for several days,” AP quoted EU hequarters as saying. “Part of intelligence agency targeted is known as military unit 26165, or more commonly by monikers like APT28, Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, and Strontium,” it furr informed. EU imposed sanctions citing Moscow’s involvement, ditionally accusing agency of trying to hack into Wi-Fi network of Nerlands ’ Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2018. However, in a recent retaliatory measure, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zakharova said that Russian Foreign Ministry imposed like-wise sanctions and dispatched a message to EU’s mission in Russia with a notification. 

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(Image Credit: AP)