EU to tighten travel rules for Russians, but no visa ban

European Union countries agreed Wednesday to make it harder for Russian citizens to enter the 27-nation bloc, but they failed to find a consensus on imposing an outright tourist ban in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
At talks in the Czech Republic, EU foreign ministers were desperate to put on a show of unity and further punish President Vladimir Putin for launching the war over six months ago.
Still, they couldn’t bridge differences over whether Russian citizens, some of them possibly opposed to the invasion, should also pay a price, said AP on Wednesday.
The plan now is to make it more time-consuming and costly for Russian citizens to obtain short-term visas to enter Europe’s passport-free travel zone – a 26-country area made up of most of the EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland known as the Schengen area.
The move will be done by freezing a 2007 agreement to ease travel between Russia and Europe. The EU already tightened visa restrictions on Russian officials and businesspeople under the accord in May.
A total of 998,085 citizens of Russia have legally entered the EU through land border crossing points, mostly Finland and Estonia, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine by 22 August, according to data from Europe’s border agency, Frontex.
The majority of Russians who entered the EU during the above-mentioned period held residence permits, valid visas, or dual citizenship. / Compiled from wires – Argumentum.al