The EU’s decision to completely suspend its visa facilitation agreement with Russia is “ridiculous”, the Kremlin said today. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Moscow was now considering ways to respond. EU foreign ministers yesterday agreed to completely suspend that deal with Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine, meaning Russians will have to wait […]
Tag: Visa
Finland: Step ‘in the right direction’ the restriction on Russian visas
The European Union’s move to suspend an agreement to facilitate visas for Russian citizens because of Moscow’s war in Ukraine is a step “in the right direction” if implemented by member states, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Wednesday. “This is moving in the right direction, but once again we have seen that so […]
Germany and France reject imposing a complete visa ban on Russian citizens
Germany and France reject a proposal to ban the entry of Russian tourists or visitors to the European Union with a joint position document. “We need to think of clever ways of leveraging the important leverage of passport visas,” said the text distributed by the services of Annalena Burbock and Catherine Colonna to the foreign […]
FT: EU to suspend Russian visa deal
EU foreign ministers are this week to back the suspension of the bloc’s deal with Moscow to facilitate the issuance of permits in a bid to reduce visas issued after some eastern member states threatened to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists, according to a Financial Times report. As a first step, ministers plan […]
Germany: Fewer visas for Turkish citizens
After the pandemic, many Turks are planning holidays in Europe. However, several – including businessmen – complain about the visa issuance process. The holiday home in Holland was booked, the cooking in Gelsenkirchen had already started – even the brother-in-law’s favorite beer was already in the fridge. Teacher Jagmur Aslan invited her sister Andalet and […]
Russian expats should shut up about possible visa bans
By Leonid Bershidsky There is one issue on which Russians opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine have passionately sided with the Kremlin. It is about the proposal of some European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. This unfortunate alignment represents a failure of vision and leadership for the […]
Zelensky: EU should not be ‘supermarket’ for Russians with money
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday Friday made a new appeal to the member states of the European Union to ban the granting of passport visas to all citizens of Russia, in order to become a “supermarket” for anyone who has the means to travel to them. He hastened to add that this proposal does not […]
EU: Visa ban for Russian citizens wins support of Czech presidency
The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has backed calls by some member states to ban visas for Russian citizens across the bloc because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said his government would seek consensus on the measure, which has so far won […]
Visa regime for Russians enters Kyiv from July 1
Kyiv will introduce a visa regime for Russians from July 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced today, almost four months after the start of the Russian military invasion of its neighboring country. The Ukrainian government is expected to make a formal decision to this end within the day “to address the unprecedented threats to the […]
Germany is facilitating the issuance of visas to Russian critics of the Kremlin
Germany is speeding up and facilitating the visa process for Russian critics of the Putin government, as the recently agreed criteria make it easier for them to travel and live in the country, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Monday. Human rights activists, NGO workers and civil society groups linked to Germany, and journalists and […]