Ahead of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that several Eastern European countries could decide to limit the movement of Russian diplomats within the Schengen Area.
Landsbergis noted that a decision to restrict the movement of Russian diplomats is unlikely to be made at the EU level but could be implemented by several countries on the eastern flank of the European Union at the national level.
In practice, this could mean that Russian diplomats would be unable to use biometric passports, thereby restricting their travel across Schengen countries.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that Russian diplomats should not have the freedom to travel throughout Europe, as they are working to undermine this freedom.
Poland is introducing restrictions on the movement of Russian diplomats within its territory. These restrictions will apply to both the Russian embassy and consulates. Specifically, diplomats from the Russian embassy will be limited to traveling within the Masovian Voivodeship (with Warsaw as the administrative center), while consuls will be restricted to the voivodeships where they work. The restrictions will not apply to the Russian ambassador in Poland.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has indicated that it will retaliate against Polish diplomats and consuls in Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, and Irkutsk.
