Currently, 1,000 Russians can apply for a Finnish visa per day, but as of September 1 that number will drop to 500. Jussi Tanner, Director General of Consular Services at the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lan, told CNN that up to 20% of them. will be allocated to tourist visas, which means no more than 100 tourist visas will be issued per day.
The move comes after Estonia, another European Union country that borders Russia, banned even Russians with visas from entering the country. According to Reuters, that number is up to 50,000 people.
The Czech Republic and Latvia have also supported the visa ban and have also implemented measures restricting Russians from traveling into the EU.
The proposal was first made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who wants to prevent Russians from joining the bloc, where they can travel freely for 90 days within the EU’s common travel area, the Schengen area.
Not everyone agrees. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that while it is important to punish those in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, Europeans need to “also understand that there are a lot of people fleeing Russia because they disagree.” with the Russian regime.”
A senior German diplomat told CNN that Scholz’s argument has no basis in fact, “because anyone can apply for a humanitarian visa.” The diplomat believes that Scholz is mainly trying to “balance his party, which is divided between those who want dialogue with Russia and those who want to appear tough.”
Proponents of the Russian visa restriction believe that this argument is quite clear.
Alexander Stubb, a former Finnish Prime Minister and foreign minister who previously supported visa liberalization with Russia, told CNN: “It’s a sad reality, but the cost of war must be felt by Russian people.”
He said that “the only way to change the hearts and minds of the Russian people is for them to understand that what Putin is doing is a flagrant violation of international law. That means a total visa ban for with the Russians.”
Rasa Juknevičienė, former Lithuanian Defense Minister and current member of the European Parliament, said that “first of all, this is a security issue.”
Juknevičienė told CNN: “Russian citizens come to the EU mainly through Finland and Estonia. The official services of these countries are under great pressure.
It is unlikely that European leaders will reach a full agreement on this issue. While the EU has been largely united since the start of the war and has put together severe economic sanctions against Russia, there is a geographical fact that complicates any consensus between the two countries. 27 countries with very different economic and political priorities.
Countries to the west and south of the EU, which are somewhat protected from Kremlin aggression by sheer distance, are quick to remind hawks that Russia is a huge part of the vast region. larger than that of Europe.
As a result, bypassing Russia is not only extremely difficult, but it may not be particularly effective. Once the war is over, European economies will want to re-establish relations with Russia. Not only would this benefit those countries, but it could prove valuable in a post-conflict propaganda war to convince average Russians of the interests of European values.
Strategically, most serious figures also agree that any postwar European security plan would have to involve Russia and that Moscow would be better off actively participating and doing so. with neighboring European countries.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are countries like Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia that have suffered quite a bit at the hands of Russia, both at the hands of the oppressive Soviet dictatorship and, more recently, from Putin’s Kremlin threat.
These are competing factors that make dealing with Putin and Russia complicated.
Would the EU cooperate with Putin if he remained in power after the war? If not, how must the regime that follows must differ from that of Putin to satisfy the bloc? What would need to be included in a hypothetical treaty to assure various European leaders that Russia would not provoke further conflict? What concessions could the EU be willing to make to create a peace? In all of this, it is worth remembering that Ukraine is currently a candidate for EU membership.
All of these big questions create smaller questions, including what to do in a visa conflict. And the longer the war drags on, as the West’s options for sanctions and retaliation become increasingly limited, the more these questions will arise.
The hard reality is that these smaller questions, in and of themselves, must be balanced against any long-term outcomes that are the best-case scenario of these bleak times. And the blunt truth is one thing that will never change: Europe cannot simply ignore Russia.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Rasa Juknevičienė is a politician from Lithuania.
