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September 19, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news
The Baltic states and Poland will start turning away Russian vacationers as of midnight Monday, a transfer to tighten restrictions in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania together with Poland reached an settlement earlier this month to restrict issuing Schengen Zone visas because of “a severe risk” to safety posed by an inflow of Russians.
The Schengen zone includes 26 largely EU international locations that enable unrestricted motion inside their borders.
The journey ban means Russian residents shall be unable to enter 4 out of the 5 European Union international locations that share a land border with Russia. The fifth, Finland, has determined to stay open to visa holders however has diminished the variety of consular appointments out there for these trying to journey to Europe.
Exempted from the brand new ban shall be Russian dissidents, journalists, truck drivers, refugees in addition to residents of EU international locations and people visiting relations in Europe.
The rule will even not apply to humanitarian circumstances, relations, holders of EU residency permits, diplomatic missions and different “respectable exceptions.”
In a joint assertion printed on Sept. 8, the prime ministers of the 4 international locations said that “journey to the European Union is a privilege, not a human proper.”
“Among the many Russian residents getting into the EU/Schengen space, there are individuals coming with the intention of undermining the safety of our international locations, insofar as three fourths of Russian residents assist Russia’s conflict of aggression in Ukraine,” the assertion stated.
“Latvia, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia have agreed that measures are adopted on the frequent grounds of defending the general public coverage and inner safety, in addition to guaranteeing the general security of our shared Schengen space,” the assertion famous.
Commenting earlier on the EU resolution to droop a visa settlement with Moscow making it more durable for Russian residents to acquire Schengen visas, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated it was “ridiculous” and would make life extra difficult for Europeans as effectively.