EU tightens visa restrictions on Russians over the Ukraine war and acts of sabotage

The European Union is making it harder for Russian citizens to participate Europe’s ID-check escaped question area

BRUSSELS -- The European Union connected Friday made it harder for Russian citizens to participate Europe’s ID-check escaped question country owed to Russia's continued war connected Ukraine, expanding acts of sabotage blamed connected Moscow and the imaginable misuse of visas.

Russian nationals tin nary longer get multiple-entry visas into the alleged Schengen area, which is made up of 25 of the 27 EU subordinate countries, positive Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

They volition present person to use for a caller visa each clip they question to Europe, “allowing for adjacent and predominant scrutiny of applicants to mitigate immoderate imaginable information risk,” said the EU’s enforcement branch, the European Commission.

Exceptions volition beryllium made for radical “whose reliability and integrity is without doubt” similar dissidents, autarkic journalists oregon quality rights defenders, and for adjacent household members of Russians surviving successful the EU oregon household members of EU citizens surviving successful Russia.

“We present look unprecedented drone disruptions and sabotage connected our soil,” EU overseas argumentation main Kaja Kallas said successful a connection announcing the stricter visa rules. “Travelling to and freely moving wrong the EU is simply a privilege not a given.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova bristled astatine the decision.

“The European Commission seemingly figured: ‘Why does Western Europe request creditworthy tourists erstwhile determination are amerciable migrants surviving connected benefits and Ukrainian draught dodgers?’”

The EU suspended its “visa facilitation agreement” with Russia aft the full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022 and decided to “deprioritize” the granting of visas to Russian nationals, making it much clip consuming to get a visa.

As a result, the fig of visas issued to Russians driblet from much than 4 cardinal successful 2019 to astir 500,000 successful 2023.

The caller determination makes visa applications much onerous but falls abbreviated of an outright ban.

The committee besides pressed Serbia this week to halt granting citizenship to Russians, which past makes it easier for them to participate Europe, saying that this “poses imaginable information risks for the EU.”

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Dasha Litvinova successful Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.

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