‘Visa genocide’: Senior diplomat blasts European restrictions on Crimea residents

‘The EU’s ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens living in Crimea is a blatant violation of human rights, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said, adding that the policy is an attempt to make ordinary people the hostages of a political agenda.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after a meeting with the new deputy secretary general of the European Union diplomatic service, Aleksey Meshkov said: “Today, I raised the question about the visa genocide of Crimean residents, and I raised it in a very harsh way. Because it is not right to make 2.5 million people hostages of their [European] political objectives and demand that they change the citizenship that they had once accepted. This is nonsense.”’
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