Moscow says banning Russians from entering EU recalls ‘Nazi policies’

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has denounced some member states of the European Union (EU) for barring all Russian citizens from entering the bloc, saying the move recalls “Nazi policies.”

Speaking at the plenary session of the First International Anti-Fascist Congress, which is part of the ‘Army-22’ international military technology forum, Shoigu said on Saturday that such calls to bar Russian citizens from entering the EU are reminiscent of “Nazi policies.”

“We are now witnessing another vivid manifestation of Nazi policies: speaking from high podiums, [European officials] are actively promoting the Russophobic idea of barring all Russian citizens from entering EU countries,” the Russian defense minister said.

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland and the Netherlands have already limited the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens, while Finland said earlier this week that it would be reducing the number of entry visas available to Russians by half.

Calls have been mounting for the European Commission to bar Russian tourists from entering the EU in response to Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine that commenced on February 24.

The operation has drawn waves of unprecedented sanctions against Moscow from the United States and its European allies, including France and Germany. However, Paris and Berlin have so far refused to follow Baltic and some central European countries on their travel ban initiative, citing freedom of travel principle.

Elsewhere in his remarks on Saturday, the Russian defense minister sounded the alarm that the results of the Nuremberg trials detailing crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis were purportedly being reassessed in a number of countries, particularly in the Baltic region.

“SS legionnaires’ marches have become a tradition in Estonia and Latvia; monuments and obelisks are being erected in honor of war criminals. Nazi slogans are openly proclaimed in the streets of Lithuanian cities,” Shoigu said.

The Waffen-SS was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS) organization.

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The minister said many Ukrainians had not accepted the policy of the Kiev authorities aimed at what he called rehabilitating Nazism, and inciting hatred toward everything connected with Russia.

“Including the residents of Donbass, who did not indulge the ruling regime in its Nazi aspirations. Then a brutal punitive operation was launched against them,” Shoigu stated.

Russia says the operation was launched in Ukraine to demilitarize and “de-Nazify” its neighbor and to “liberate” the Donbass, which is composed of the two breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The Russian military has said it has fully captured Luhansk and has concentrated its efforts to seize the other region.

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