The subject has fueled discussions and the press since the call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “send all Russians home” at the beginning of the month of August. This was followed on August 9 by the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, who said: “Stop giving tourist visas to Russians. Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right.”
As the Russian business daily reminds us Kommersant, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Poland have already suspended issuing visas to Russians. Finland has decided to halve their grant from September.
France and Germany are already speaking out against a global European ban, relays the conservative site Vzgliad, citing a working document shared by the two countries with the other members of the Union, of which the German agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) was made aware. “We need to think about a smart way to use visa leverage,” we read there. Visa applications will have to be carefully considered to avoid any threat to European security. However, one should not overlook the importance of “the experience of living in democracies” what a trip to Europe represents, especially for the younger generations. This is why it is necessary “continue to ensure individual contacts with Russian citizens who are not related to the government of Russia”, is it still advanced.
always according to Vzgliad, Austrian European and International Affairs Minister Alexander Schallenberg also spoke out against the measure. “We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater, the total ban on granting visas would definitively break the contacts established with Russian civil society”, did he declare. The head of European diplomacy, J