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Russian envoy hits out at EU for blacklisting Foreign Ministry spokeswoman

Vladimir Chizhov noted that this was the first case when an acting diplomat was subjected to restrictions for performing official duties

BRUSSELS, February 25. /TASS/. Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, has slammed the decision to include Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in the EU sanctions list for performing her official duties as a "very bad precedent".

"As for the content of the package of EU restrictive measures, the first package of so-called sanctions in many respects has signs of a formal approach: they took the names of 351 MPs of the State Duma (the lower house - TASS) and included them in the lists of restrictions. As for individual measures, everything is also quite strange there. It seems like this is a reaction to what is happening in Donbass, but if you read the wording, then most of the individual restrictions are attributed to the events in Crimea," Chizhov told reporters.

He cited as an example the inclusion of Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in the list of restrictions. "Here we are talking, in fact, about the first case when an acting diplomat is subjected to restrictions for performing official duties. This is a very bad precedent," the Russian envoy said.

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