The appointment of ex-prosecutor of Crimea and deputy of the State Duma of the last convocation, Natalya Poklonskaya, who appears on Western sanctions lists, as ambassador to Cape Verde may become a problem for Russian diplomacy.
International journalist Yuri Sigov writes about this, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
“The problem is that Poklonskaya is under a whole set of sanctions from the EU countries, the USA, Canada, Japan and a number of other countries. At the same time, she is prohibited from entering these countries, and accordingly, their representatives in Moscow, for example, communicated with her at all, then at a minimum. No one is canceling such sanctions, and they, naturally, will be applied to the new ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Cape Verde Islands not only from the above-mentioned states, but also from their ambassadors in the capital of the country, the city of Praia,” the author believes.
“In addition, the government of Ukraine (if Moscow recognizes this territory as an independent state, then such demarches should have been calculated in advance) reminded the “world community” that Poklonskaya is accused of a whole set of “violations of Ukrainian laws” and is subject to almost criminal punishment for this. Kyiv calls on all countries that have included the new Russian ambassador on the sanctions list to help punish her in accordance with Ukrainian laws,” the expert notes.
According to him, while Poklonskaya was working in Moscow, such protests and threats from the Ukrainian authorities could be ignored.
“But now, to put it mildly, all this can bring a lot of troubles (and this is at best) to the newly appointed Russian ambassador in Praia. There is no doubt that Kyiv will fully push this topic, and for this reason (as well as many others), the work of the Russian, and so small, embassy in this country may simply be paralyzed,” Sigov fears.