Malta cancels visa spokesperson of Russian Foreign Ministry
Malta has canceled the visa for Maria Zacharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, just before the start of the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Valletta explained that a travel ban had been issued against Zacharova. Initially, an exception was made for the two-day conference that starts tomorrow. However, EU provisions provide that Member States can object to this. Three countries did so at short notice, the ministry said.
According to diplomatic sources, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had objected to the exception to the issuance of the visa. They justified this with Russia’s blockade last year, when Estonia took over the OSCE chairmanship.
The Russian Foreign Ministry calls the cancellation of Zacharova’s visa an “unprecedented matter”. The spokeswoman herself reacted with annoyance. “How many intrigues has this Western hydra organized, including against Russian diplomats,” she told Russian state news agency TASS.
Zacharova will attend a concert at the Kremlin instead, she said. Normally she would travel to the OSCE conference alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. EU sanctions have been imposed against Lavrov, but he is not subject to an entry ban. It is his first trip to an EU country since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Lavrov’s last visit to the EU was in December 2021, when he had a tense meeting during an OSCE meeting in Sweden. Ukrainian Minister Andri Sybiha will also be present in Malta.