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US does not want to harm Russian people – US Department of State on visa ban for Russians

The State Department announced the absence of disagreements with the citizens of Russia

© Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

WASHINGTON, August 12. /TASS/. The US authorities do not want their anti-Russian sanctions to harm the people of Russia, a Department of State deputy spokesperson has told reporters, commenting on Kiev’s call to G7 to stop issuing visas to all Russian citizens.

"About any visa ban, we’ve been very clear that we intend our actions to not harm or have significant impact on the Russian people. That is not who our disagreement with is on this," said Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson of the Bureau of Global Public Affairs.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said earlier in an interview with the Washington Post that Western countries should ban entry to all Russians. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, in turn, called on EU countries to ban the issuance of tourist visas to Russian nationals. According to her, visiting Europe is a privilege and not a human right. The Finnish Foreign Ministry stated that the country could introduce restrictions if a large number of Russians sought to travel to other European countries using visas issued by Finland.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on those initiatives, that there was no use trying to isolate Russia and Russians. According to Peskov, some countries forget everything because of their unfriendly attitude to Moscow. Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev slammed Kallas for her statement based on Nazism and emphasized that Zelenksy’s initiative was reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s ideas.

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