Former Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski called for sanctions against celebrities who support Russian President Vladimir Putin. The MEP made this proposal in an interview with El Confidential. Additional sanctions should be introduced in the event of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan, said Waszczykowski.
According to him, to contain Russia, more sanctions should be imposed than in 2014, and the public should “be aware of the price that has to be paid for Putin’s imperialist policies.”
“We must impose sanctions on celebrities who support Putin: businessmen, athletes, artists or scientists who travel without any consequences. It is unacceptable for Spartak Moscow to play in Madrid while Russian soldiers are fighting in the Donbass or in Kazakhstan,” the MEP said.
Waszczykowski said the Russian president wants to end NATO’s so-called open door strategy and withdraw troops from the eastern flank. The interlocutor of the publication compared such goals of Putin with what happened in Europe in the 19th century, when there were no such international institutions as the OSCE, NATO and the EU.
The ex-minister also recalled Putin’s attitude to the collapse of the USSR.
“A few years ago, he declared that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy in the world and the worst catastrophe in the history of Russia. He wants to restore the power of Russia to the level of the USSR. During the Cold War, two countries ruled the world. We cannot return to this undemocratic state,” Waszczykowski said.
On January 12, a bill was published on the website of the US Senate, which proposes to impose sanctions against Russia in the event of its invasion of Ukraine. The property of the President of Russia, the Prime Minister, the heads of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff in the United States will be blocked, they will also be banned from entering the country.
The Kremlin assesses the bill published by the US Senate as extremely negative, the proposed restrictive measures can actually be equated with an initiative to sever relations between the two countries, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
In January, the Council of the European Union (EU) extended for another six months, until July 31, 2022, economic sanctions against Russia imposed in 2014 due to the situation in Ukraine.
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