Can Russian citizens be excluded from the EU and Schengen? | Europe | News and current affairs from across the continent | DW
My Russian friend Artjom likes Finland. There are beautiful lakes, friendly people and clean air. He knows the country because he has been there several times. Artyom lives in St. Petersburg and normally uses the simplified visa procedure of the Finnish consulate in his city, which has been valid for years.
He does so even now, when direct flights to the European Union are closed to Russians. Since The invasion of Ukraine, EU airspace is closed to Russian aircraft. And in return EU planes are also no longer allowed to fly to Russia.
That’s why Artyom drives a car. Every few weekends, he travels to Helsinki and back – a journey of just under 400 kilometers (250 miles) each way, which takes almost five hours. It’s faster if he only drives to Lappeenranta, Finland’s largest city near the Russian border.
Unlike Artyom,thousands of other Russian tourists do not return to their countries. . Many of them drive from the Russian border directly to Helsinki-Vantaa airport to fly further west on vacation.
The EU is closed
According to the Finnish media, Russians have applied for almost 60,000 Finnish visas since the beginning of the war. Most of the Schengen visa applicants came from St. Petersburg. And it is this gateway to the European Union that is now worrying many in the EU. With the Kremlin bombing Ukrainian cities, there’s no way Russians can enjoy their summer vacations inside the European Union, officials say.
The Baltic countries have ceased to be travel destinations for Russians for months. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia no longer issue tourist visas to citizens of Russia. Latvia allows Russians to enter the country only after the death of a close relative.
The heads of government in Finland and Estonia recently urged other EU countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. According to Yle’s survey, 58 percent of the population in Finland no longer want tourist visas for Russians.
The EU-wide ban came into force
Schengen visas for Russians will be discussed at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague at the end of August. A Schengen visa can be issued for a short-term stay, allowing a person to travel for tourist or business purposes for a maximum of 90 days in any member state of the zone.
Russian citizens can still apply for a Schengen visa
The European Union has 27 member states, but not all of them belong to the 26-member Schengen area. The four Schengen countries – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – are not members of the European Union.
Dmitri Lanko, from the Department of European Studies at St. Petersburg State University, criticized “the effort to punish all Russians.” He told DW that Russian passport holders are also “Tatars, Chechens and representatives of all peoples of the Russian Federation without exception, including Ukrainians living in Russia.”
EU “privilege”
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kalas shocked both sides of Twitter with a message that stated: “Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the quote “nonsense” from Estonian fantasists. He wrote on Telegram that “it is a real privilege to be lucky enough to see Russia in all its diversity and glory.”
Alexander Gorokhov, of the Federation of National and International Tourism Organizations, told DW that the war of words is “emotionally driven”. According to him, it was worth remembering that Russian tourists bring money, even if only on a transit trip.
“I think these countries should fight to turn this flow of transit tourists into a real tourist flow with overnight stays, etc.,” Gorokhov said. Governments should not fight tourists “because of geopolitics”, he said.
In St. Petersburg, Artyom said he would rather not get involved in geopolitics either, especially since neither he nor his friends would have ever voted for Vladimir Putin. However, he said he understood the visa ban.
For now, Artyom is planning a short Lappeenranta trip for this weekend – taking advantage of the opportunity as long as possible.
This article was originally written in German.