Moscow blasts E.U. for leaking list of Europeans banned from Russia

MOSCOW — Russia’s recent blacklisting of 89 Europeans was never going to be a positive development in relations, but the sniping over how it was handled may prove to be as diplomatically destructive as the action itself.

Russia’s top diplomat blasted European Union officials Monday for what he called “breaches of ethical norms” by allegedly passing on to journalists the names of Europeans, including senior politicians, who are barred from traveling to Russia in retaliation for Western sanctions.

“We provided the list at the request of the E.U. on the basis of confidentiality, and it immediately leaked to the press,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference Monday. “And the E.U., which normally doesn’t comment on leaks, gladly commented on it. So I also see some breaches of ethical norms here.”

The E.U. complained earlier that Russia’s decision to expand its blacklist was “totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification and transparency.” The E.U. also complained that it took multiple requests before Russia agreed to share the list even confidentially.

But in Russia, the fact that any of the names became public has revived a familiar complaint: that the West demands certain behaviors of Russia but doesn’t reciprocate.

Lavrov complained Monday that Europe’s approach to sanctions has been “an attempt to replace international law with their own political predilections.”

The Western sanctions against Russia are “absolutely illegitimate,” Lavrov said, repeating a common talking point among Russian leaders. But if there must be sanctions, then at least the West might appreciate that Russia “could not violate the fundamental law of international relations — the principle of reciprocity,” he continued.

“We responded with mutuality to a unilateral, unfriendly and unprovoked step. And we did that after we contained ourselves for a very long time,” Lavrov said.

Western leaders say the latest rounds of sanctions against Russia are in direct response to Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and to Russia’s involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Western leaders also have indicated that they could begin to roll back sanctions once all the terms of a cease-fire agreement in Ukraine are carried out.

Russia’s latest retaliatory move also has ties to the Ukrainian conflict. As Lavrov said Monday, those on the blacklist are leaders “who most actively supported the coup” in Ukraine — a reference to the protests in Kiev’s Independence Square that led to the February 2014 ouster of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych. Lavrov said Russia has blacklisted far fewer European leaders than Europe has targeted Russians.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state-owned Russian News Service on Monday that Russia would continue to answer any increased Western sanctions with measures of its own and would cancel the travel bans once the West eliminates its bans against Russians.

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