Moscow 10 September : Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said on Friday that Moscow is currently mulling possible retaliatory actions in reaction to Kiev’s decision of imposing an entry visa requirement that applies to Russian citizens. “We are discussing the issue in different departments .we will consider an array of aspects including those that are humanitarian,” Rudenko was cited by local media as saying.
“We don’t want to interfere with the lives of those Ukrainian citizens who wish to move out of the country and move to Russia.
It would be difficult to obtain visas for them” he said.
Rudenko stated the final decision had not been taken yet and that the answer does not have to be unidirectional, Xinhua news agency reported.
In a previous statement on Tuesday, Rudenko said Ukrainian citizens were able to enter Russia without visas up to January 1st 2023.
On July 1st Ukraine implemented a visa program for Russian citizens in response to an announcement by the government.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in June that his country opted to stop visa-free travel for Russian citizens due to “unprecedented threats to national security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
int/shs