MOSCOW, July 15. /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry's plans to initiate a request to the European Union to ban entry for Russian journalists and media representatives are groundless, says the head of the Moscow Union of Journalists, Pavel Gusev.

“Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has not progressed to the stage yet where it can initiate a ban on entering the European Union for our journalists. Ukraine should at least be admitted to the European Union for that,” Gusev said, adding that “those statements are silly and unfounded, and it is not worth paying any attention to them at all.”

Anton Gerashchenko, aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said on Monday the Interior Ministry would initiate a request to the European Union to ban entry for owners of a number of Russian television companies and a large group of Russian journalists.

“We will demand that the European Union should ban owners of Russian television companies and leading journalists from entering the EU territory,” he said. “The Interior Ministry’s position will be the following - to pool efforts with the Ukrainian government to have these citizens be banned from entering the European Union, Canada, the United States and other countries of the civilised world.”

The Interior Ministry would refer this initiative to the Foreign Ministry, Gerashchenko said. Among Russians subject to the entry ban he named those who had been awarded by the Russian government for coverage of developments in Ukraine, including Konstantin Ernst, Grigory Krichevsky, Ashot Gabrelyanov, Anton Zlatopolsky, and Yulia Bystritskaya.