Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu has urged the rest of the European Union states to reduce the staff of Russian embassies in different countries, a day after the Estonian government announced a cutback of Russian diplomats as of February 1.
«The other countries in the community should reflect on this,» Reinsalu told the EUobserver news portal before arguing that Russian diplomats «do not work to promote peace» with the West.
Reinsalu pointed out, however, that whether or not to reduce diplomatic personnel is a sovereign decision of each country, but demanded that EU institutions impose new sanctions against Russia.
In this sense, he stressed the need to expel Russian banks from the international SWIFT system, the interbank platform that allows the transmission of information to facilitate international transactions.
In addition, he called for a ban on companies from EU countries offering financial services to clients of Russian origin and for measures to prevent the import of raw materials from Russia.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
