Russian diplomats in Paris have had their bank cards blocked from making fuel purchases, Russian Ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov told the state news agency, The Moscow Times reported.

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Meshkov … stated that a Belgian bank initially triggered the block, and subsequent attempts to pay for gas through a French bank were also rejected. “This is a precedent literally from this week, because before this, even since 2022, there had never been any problems from this point of view,” the ambassador noted.

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The diplomat called the frozen cards a “substantial blow,” citing the high fuel prices in Europe. He also complained that the embassy’s issues with its bank accounts have become “practically permanent.”

This financial squeeze follows a February 2025 decision by France to block the accounts of the Russian House in Paris [the Kremlin’s so-called “cultural humanitarian organization”— the Russian House—remains a key tool of Moscow’s political subversion], though the French Finance Ministry later allowed basic “life-supporting” payments to be processed directly through a bank employee, according to The Moscow Times.

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