Urmas Reinsalu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia declarationAuthorities will close entry to Russian citizens, regardless of which country issued the Schengen visa.
“From September 19 at 00:00, the ban on entry into Estonia from the external borders for citizens of the Russian Federation will come into effect, regardless of which country has issued a Schengen visa. <...> The call to Russian citizens is this: do not come to Estonia, you are not welcome here, ”the man said.
According to Reinsalu, three more countries will impose similar entry restrictions. “Lithuania, Latvia and Poland will also implement a ban from now on,” he said.
The website of the Polish government has already published joint statement four countries: “Temporary national measures based on a common approach should come into force in each country separately by 19 September 2022.”
“We emphasize that this is not a complete ban on entry and that justified exceptions mutually agreed to facilitate the transit of dissidents, humanitarian cases, family members, residence permit holders, goods and transport services, diplomatic missions, travellers will be maintained. and from Kaliningrad etc. ”says the document.
On September 6, the European Commission approved a proposal to stop the visa facilitation agreement with Russia altogether. It has to be approved by the European Council in the coming days and will come into force by 12 September.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed closing the entry of Russians into Europe. According to him, the isolation will allow the entire population of Russia to “take account”.
“Russia Opened”
The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, announced the response measures for restrictions on entry to the European Union, stressing that the interests of Russian citizens “will be the priority” when taking any decision.
“The absolute priority in the development of response measures and, of course, they will follow the hostile policy of the European Union, the interests of our citizens and the maintenance of national security will be issues,” the diplomat said.
According to Zakharova, Russia “will not close itself off to the inhabitants of the European Union” because it is “an open, truly free country that respects all peoples, regardless of the intellectual abilities of its elites”.
“Anyone who wants to visit Russia and see its cultural and civilizational uniqueness with their own eyes will definitely have the opportunity to do so,” he promised.
The representative of the diplomatic department expressed confidence that the EU’s suspension of the visa facilitation agreement with the Russian Federation does not meet the interests of Europeans. “Behind the absurd statement that Russian tourists are allegedly posing a threat to the national security of EU countries is the desire to collectively punish our compatriots for their patriotism in recent months, support for special operations and generally thoughtless implementation. Washington’s instructions,” the diplomat believes.
Soviet and Latvian composer Raimonds Pauls criticized He stated that the ban on the entry of Russian artists to the Baltic countries should not harm cultural figures due to the political situation. “This is a very complex process. No matter what I say – they will attack me from one side and the other. I am in favor of artists being able to easily cross the border and perform,” he said. “It started well in Soviet times, but it ended as it was. All the money was already decided there ” added Pauls.
Independence from ROC
Latvia Saeima urgently supported Draft law on the independence of the Latvian Orthodox Church (LPC) from the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC MP). The changes ensure that the LOC, with all dioceses, parishes and institutions, is fully independent and not dependent on the authority of any church outside the country. The charter of the church will be updated by October 31st.
In the annotation to the bill, the authors explained the need for change by the fact that ROC “justified the war at both the church leadership level and the clergy level.”
ROC condemned the Latvian Seimas’ independent declaration by the LOC on autocephaly and stated that parliamentarians do not have the authority to make such decisions. “A rare case: the provincial parliament, where the Church is constitutionally separated from the state, independently declares the Church’s autonomy and proposes to the Church to remake its statutes. And they set a deadline. They totally mixed up God’s and Caesar’s!” – aforementioned TASS Adviser to Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill.
Since 1992, the Latvian Orthodox Church has the status of a self-governing church within the Russian Orthodox Church.
Source: Gazeta
