Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk said that Warsaw has developed a set of measures that will allow Russians to be denied visas.
According to him, the Polish authorities support the suspension of the visa facilitation agreement for Russian citizens. However, the diplomat noted that not all EU countries agree to impose a single visa ban on Russians.
“The major member states, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, oppose it,” Wawrzyk said.
“Poland is working on a new solution, as it is impossible to overcome the resistance of these countries to suspend the visa facilitation agreement for Russian citizens,” said the Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland.
That is why Warsaw has been negotiating this issue with some European states for several weeks. Wawrzyk pointed out that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as the Czech Republic and Slovakia, share Poland’s position. “Decisions on this issue can be expected in the coming weeks,” the diplomat said.
Poland has not been issuing tourist visas to Russians for several months. Currently, only Russian diplomats, truck drivers and other citizens of the Russian Federation who have to cross the border to work, as well as family members of citizens of Poland or other EU countries, and holders of a Polish Card, a document confirming their Polish descent, can obtain a visa.
On July 28, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said the country favors ending the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians.
“Poland is fully committed to far-reaching sanctions. So this kind of action <…> We support it,” he said.
The Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have already banned the issuance of visas to Russians. Denmark and the Netherlands do not issue short-stay visas to Russians. The issue of banning the issuance of visas to Russians in Finland is being discussed. In addition, the Latvian Parliament called on the European Union to stop issuing visas to citizens of Russia and Belarus.
From August 18, Estonia will no longer allow Russians with Schengen visa issued by it.
Review of visas and residence permits
On August 14, Latvian President Egils Levits called for an inspection of visas and residence permits previously issued to Russians. He believes that from now on, permanent residents of Latvia should not be granted a residence permit who decides to acquire Russian citizenship. Also, on August 5, the Latvian embassy in Moscow indefinitely suspended the acceptance of visa applications from Russians.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Relations, described the Latvian President’s proposal as “pure Nazism” and a violation of rights and freedoms at the national level.
“Even the idea of such an overhaul is disgusting. To put it bluntly, this is Nazism in its purest form and a violation of rights and freedoms on a national basis,” he said.
According to the MP, Levits “wiped his feet on his own national legislation, the implementation of which apparently depends on the political situation.”
No unity in visa policy in the EU
On 10 August, the German government put up for discussion a draft EU resolution banning the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians as part of the next package of sanctions, but discussions on this issue are not yet complete.
Besides tourists, students and “civil society representatives” are among those who are asked to be banned from entering the EU. At the same time, the European Commission guarantees that countries are obliged to provide documents to family members of EU residents, humanitarian workers, journalists and residents.
The German Foreign Ministry noted that the initiative will be discussed at the EU foreign ministers meeting to be held in Prague at the end of August. At the same time, diplomatic agency representative Andrea Sasse called the idea “too hypothetical”, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he “forced” such a step.
Representative of the European Commission, Anita Hipper, pointed out that the EU visa law does not include the possibility of stopping the issuance of short-stay visas, including Russian citizens.
“In humanitarian situations, for example, there are always categories of citizens who must be granted visas for family members, journalists or dissidents,” Hipper said.
The EC representative reminded that the European Union partially suspended the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. However, he explained that this decision affected businessmen, diplomats, officials and did not concern ordinary citizens.
At the same time, he stated that EU countries “can independently examine any issue related to the issuance of a short-stay visa in a given situation”.
The US also opposed the ban on issuing visas to Russians. Commenting on the Ukrainian authorities’ call to stop issuing visas to Russians, Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vedant Patel said the restrictions should not harm the Russian people.
“As for any visa ban issue, we have made it clear that we want our actions not to harm the Russian people and have no significant impact, we have no disagreement with them on that matter,” he said.
The Kremlin stated that they hoped the EU would think soberly about giving Schengen to the Russians. Russian authorities stressed that Moscow would react extremely negatively if Russians were denied Schengen visas.