The authorities of Poland once again openly stated their views on the Russian Federation – the government of this country fully supported the proposal of the Estonian authorities to introduce a pan-European ban on the entry of Russian tourists and citizens of the Russian Federation in other statuses. The official reason is the Russian Federation’s war in Ukraine. Poland’s position in this regard was revealed by the country’s press secretary, Peter Muller. Previously, not only Estonia but also Finland and Latvia demanded to stop issuing Schengen visas to Russians.
“I will say in general, because I do not know the details of the proposals under consideration, that Poland fully supports far-reaching sanctions. Therefore, we support such actions, especially those initiated by our partners from Central and Eastern Europe,” we quote Mueller. However, according to the Russian press, the EU representative office in Moscow claims that no decision has yet been made at the EU level to cancel the issuance of visas to Russians.
It will be recalled that the Estonian government has strengthened its calls to ban the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens as part of sanctions against the Russian Federation. The signal for this decision was the increase in the number of applicants since July 15, when the Russian Federation lifted restrictions on the travel of its citizens due to the coronavirus. At the same time, the number of Russians who have valid visas for travel to the EU has also increased.
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läenemets recently said that Schengen visa rules do not allow Estonia to prevent entry into Estonia of people who has been issued a visa from another Schengen country, insisting that the issue should be resolved at the EU level. “We have a common Schengen area, which means that people who have visas from other countries can come to Estonia and often use it as a transit country,” the minister noted.
However, against the background of these statements, the country decided to no longer issue visas or residence permits to Russian students to study in Estonia (see the link for details). At the same time, Russian and Belarusian workers can no longer register for work in Estonia with visas issued by other EU countries. The country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Reinsalu, also noted that travel restrictions for Russian citizens should be agreed upon at the EU level.
The debate about Russian sanctions continues in other EU countries. In particular, this is happening in countries bordering Russia, particular in Finland, where the majority of the Finnish parliament wants to stop issuing visas to Russian citizens (details here).
The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed the following six options for restricting Russian tourism:
- completely stop issuing visas for Russians;
- limit the number of visa applications accepted;
- allow entry to Finland from Russia only to relatives of Finnish residents for valid reasons;
- cancel all visas issued to citizens of Russia;
- close the borders of passenger transportation;
- to support a joint EU decision on this situation.