Russian Foreign Ministry official says incident with Chinese citizens on Russia-Kazakhstan border had ’no political context’

Alexey Zaitsev, the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department, said Wednesday that a recent situation in which five Chinese citizens were refused entry into Russia was not related to politics and will not affect the countries’ relations.

“It’s obvious that the situation that occurred in Astrakhan was devoid of political context. I’m confident that what happened will not affect the overall state of bilateral relations in any way,” Zaitsev said. “It appears that inflating the hype is beneficial solely to our common detractors, who are trying to drive a wedge into the friendship between Russia and China.”

On August 4, reports emerged that the Chinese Embassy in Russia had demanded an explanation for a July 29 incident in which the rights of several Chinese citizens were violated at the border between Russia and Kazakhstan. According to the embassy, five Chinese citizens were “repeatedly interrogated for four hours” and then denied entry into Russia. Their tourist visas were reportedly canceled.