European Parliament member sent home without permission to attend Nemtsov’s funeral

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Latvian European Parliament member Sandra Kalniete’s attempt to enter Moscow to attend Boris Nemtsov’s funeral was planned to provoke an international incident. According to officials in Moscow, Latvia was notified in advance that Kalniete is currently barred from traveling to Russia, in accordance with retaliatory sanctions levied against the European Union.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says Kalniete is on the sanctions list because of her “anti-Russian activities.”

Kalniete is denied entry into the Russian Federation because of her anti-Russian activities, in accordance with [Moscow’s] response to the EU’s actions against a number of Russian officials. Please note that the Latvian government was notified about this in advance. For these reasons, Ms. Kalniete’s arrival in Moscow is hard to characterize as anything but an attempt to provoke an incident.”

Sandra Kalniete said she spent several hours in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, before being informed that she is barred from entering Russia. Border guards, she says, delivered this news, citing part of the Russian Border Crossing Act, which forbids individuals from entering the country, if “it’s necessary to ensuring the defense or the security of the state or the public order, or the protecting the safety of the population.”

“What am I?” Kalniete asked reporters. “Some kind of biological weapon? Traveling to attend Boris Nemtsov’s funeral is in no way connected to any political acts.”

In addition to Kalniete, Russia also prevented the speaker of the Polish Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, from attending Nemtsov’s funeral. (He was supposed to lead the Polish delegation.) Russian Foreign Ministry officials explained that Borusewicz, too, appears on the sanctions list levied in retaliation against the European Union.