Latvia proposes to ban the issuance of tourist visas to the EU for Russian citizens
In its call, Latvia joined Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Finland and Estonia, who previously spoke with the CEO. The European Commission was previously told that they were not considering the issue of a ban on issuing visas to all citizens of the Russian Federation and that EU rules did not accept a total ban on issuing visas to Russians. Still don’t envision such a scenario
Updated at 17:20
Latvia has become another strange one, calling for an end to issuing stable visas to Russians. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics declared, — sponsor of terrorism because of the events in Ukraine.” And he proposes to introduce a ban on tourist visas to the EU for Russian citizens. Not allowed to this “Gazprom” a large amount of gas in Latvia because of the “discovery of the conditions for the selection of gas.”
Also Latvia since August 1 suspend the validity of the permit with Russia on the facilitation of travel for residents of border areas, which has been in force since 2010. As used in the Latvian Foreign Ministry, the reason is that Russia closed the visa-issuing consulate in Pskov at the end of April. was military support. All employees of the consulate were declared persons free of charge, they were ordered to leave Russia.
Some residents of the region actively adhere to the maximum permissible risk of entry, but before the closure of consulates, says editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Pskovskaya Pravda” Maxim Andreev:
– To be honest, this is a surprise for me, because I have postponed that it was the decision of the Latvian side. His consulate in St. Petersburg was also closed, and, accordingly, the Pskov office.
– Common triggers for abuse of the visa system?
– It’s hard to say this in some absolute numbers, but, obviously, there was such a category of people, because in both Estonia and Latvia, residents of the border regions have both relatives and burials, well, such people need the right to a simplified procedure for using . I think there are thousands of people involved. It is a well-known fact that in the Pskov region the number of passports and the number of visas is higher than the average for Russia than in the neighboring region, for example, the Novgorod region, well, simply because the borders are nearby, the consulate is nearby, it is quite easy to get a visa, and there are a large number of people, they took, went to rest, study, someone had some business connections. Currently, they do not meet the requirements as new, because the usual way does not work. In St. Petersburg, as they say, appointments for September are already being made, in the same consulate, for example, in Finland. Well, some people lament that getting to a weekend in Riga is acceptable, as many people are accustomed to coronavirus restrictions, and now it is not supposed to be possible there. But, of course, this is still not a massive problem.
Always on the list calling for a boycott of tourists from Russia are already four countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland and Estonia. On this earth, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said saidthat everything goes to the fact that the West will stop issuing Schengen visas to Russians. In the European Commission answeredthat this issue is not addressed, that the visa application rules do not provide for the possibility of a complete ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to citizens, and that the EU designates directed “first and foremost” against restrictions and the economic elite of Russia.
Could a visa boycott be on the EU agenda? Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the Institute of Political Expertise, argues:
Evgeny Minchenko director of the International Institute of Political Expertise
While there is no complete understanding, an understanding will be achieved in application, but some already defined or stricter attitude to the documents that are given for a visa, and to the person who received the visa, is in principle possible.
So, for example, in Germany, the rules for issuing visas to Russians have already changed a little,
editor-in-chief of the Berlin Telegraph magazine Alexander Boyko. A complete ban, called for by the Baltic countries, is not yet supported by the FRG:
– Citizens of Germany very easily receive in the Russian Federation both six-month and annual visas, and so on. From the German side — In general, Germany made it a little easier for journalists, made it easier for students, and for entrepreneurs and interested organizations, helped with defense, and so on, it, of course, made things worse. But visa cases for Russian citizens go on as usual. Of course, if we take, say, for five years, now, unfortunately, out of 100%, somewhere around 30% are received by Russian citizens, but they do.
– How can the EU react to such a decision of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, if they still realize it is on the agenda of democracies?
– I think that this will fail on a successful campaign, everything will be unexpected from the energy sector and, most likely, with the pumping of the Nord Stream pipeline. — one”. And if, after all, America, so to speak, puts pressure on or agrees to some kind of coalition, then this is quite likely. But, on the occasion of the event, not in this case, maybe this November, in December of the year. Now EU citizens, including German residents, are not interested in the issue of support or not much support, because if just two months ago there were a very large number of German residents against Russia, now it has weakened a little. Literally tomorrow there will be a big demonstration of housing in the Bundestag, and people are in favor of reducing consumption costs, for electricity, for water, and so on. and at present the German government does not want to worsen relations and understand that as soon as it gets a little cold, people meet on the islands, and Germany solves a lot of problems today.
Sergei Utkin, Head of the Statistical Evaluation Group at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, comments:
Sergei Utkin Head of the Group of International Statistical Evaluations Institute of World Economy and Relations RAS
In recent months, several EU countries have suspended the consideration of documents for tourist visas from Russian citizens. Among them are Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Norway, and from July 1, Belgium joined them.