The termination of the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens should not be excluded from possible scenarios. This was stated by the director of the consular department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ivan Volynkin, in a conversation with TASS.
“The Ministry is carefully recording calls from Europe to stop issuing Schengen visas to Russians. Many of these statements are made by obnoxious politicians or public figures – Rusophobes, and we perceive them accordingly,” he said.
At the same time, the diplomat added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is observing the “almost complete suspension” of issuing visas to Russians at the consulates of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia on the territory of the Russian Federation.
“Even seemingly impossible scenarios cannot be ruled out in the event of a radical deterioration of consular ties with the rest of the Schengen member states,” Volynkin said.
According to him, Moscow hopes for the preservation of the possibility of mutual travel of citizens of the Russian Federation and Europe, and the pragmatism and common sense of the European Union.
At the same time, the diplomat noted that if we “imagine the complete cessation of the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians as a reality”, Russia can count on establishing visa cooperation with these European countries on a bilateral basis. can “negotiate”.
Some EU countries have already stopped issuing visas to Russian citizens.
Who stopped issuing visas
Immediately after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, Latvia and Lithuania suspended the issuance of visas to Russian citizens “as a sign of solidarity with their people facing the aggressive actions of Ukraine and Russia”.
At the same time, the Czech Republic decided to suspend the issuance of visas to Russian citizens. Republic officials also visited the Russian consulates in Karlovy Vary and Brno, and St. It decided to close its diplomatic missions in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. The country recalled its ambassadors to Russia and Belarus.
On June 23, the Czech Republic decided that Russians and Belarusians will not be granted visas and residence permits until the end of March 2023.
On March 10, Estonia decided to suspend issuing visas to Russians. “Currently, it is planned to temporarily suspend the issuance of C and D visas to Russian citizens. This applies primarily to new visas,” he said.
On March 25, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that EU countries should stop issuing Schengen visas to Russians. On April 19, Poland suspended the issuance of visas in Kaliningrad due to a shortage of workers. On April 14, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland announced that the issuance of visas by the Polish consulate on the territory of the Russian Federation was almost completely stopped.
The Ministry noted that, by the decision of the Russian authorities, Polish diplomatic missions and consulates were deprived of the opportunity to use their bank accounts from which visa fees came. Earlier, Poland decided to expel 45 Russian diplomats for “out of status activities”, Moscow responded with the copless expulsion of 45 Polish diplomats.
On May 30, the Danish Embassy in Russia suspended the acceptance of documents for short-stay visas and residence permits.
Finland visa problem
On July 25, Finnish media reported that deputies of the main parliamentary parties in Finland supported the refusal to issue tourist visas to Russian citizens. The idea was supported by members of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), the Coalition Party, the “True Finns” party and the “Center of Finland” during a journalistic poll conducted by the STT agency and the Yle television company.
At the same time, Minister of EU Affairs and State Property Tytti Tuppurainen said that the issue of visas for Russians should be accepted at the level of the EU and Schengen countries, Finland does not plan to stop issuing visas unilaterally.
“Finland supports the European Union’s joint sanctions policy. However, the visa issue should be coordinated at the level of the EU and Schengen countries. The European Union has already frozen part of the visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia. There are preparations for other actions as well,” he said.