Russia Issues Travel Ban on 89 EU Politicians     

Moscow has issued a list of European Union politicians barred from Russia in response to EU’s own sanctions and travel bans on Russian officials imposed over the annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin's alleged role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said.

AFP quoted Rutte as saying on Friday that Russia had submitted a list of people, who might not enter Russia any longer, to “diverse EU embassies”.

Two Dutch MPs and a Dutch MEP were on the list, according to Rutte.

Former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt, who heads the Liberal group in the European Parliament, was also on the list, the newswire quoted his spokesman Jeroen Reijnen as saying. Reijnen added that Verhofstadt was banned after calling for an independent international investigation of the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

Eighty-nine names are on the list, according to a letter from Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. The letter also said that Russia had asked for the list not to be made public, AFP said.

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