EU Countries Demand Stricter Visa Rules for Russians
The countries want binding EU rules to curb visa shopping and block former Russian combatants as tourist visas for Russians topped 470,000 in 2025.
- On Thursday in Luxembourg, Poland, Norway, the Baltic states, and nine other nations urged Brussels to implement "new restrictive and binding visa measures" for Russians, arguing that current tourist access amid the war in Ukraine poses security risks.
- Hawkish nations argue rules are applied unevenly across the bloc, noting European countries issued more than 470,000 tourist Schengen visas to Russian citizens in 2025 as the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year.
- Migration Minister Johan Forssell told reporters at the Luxembourg talks that leisure travel during the war is unacceptable, calling for an end to "shopping weekends" and "fancy trips to Europe."
- Russian opposition figurehead Yulia Navalnaya argued in September that broad restrictions would be a "serious mistake," warning such measures feed the Kremlin's narrative that Europe is hostile to all Russians.
- Other European diplomats counter that travel helps expose Russians to different narratives, arguing against blanket punitive measures; the European bloc suspended visa facilitation agreements last November, leaving member states divided on tourist visa bans.
45 Articles
45 Articles
Democracy Digest: Czechia and Poland Urge Ban on Russian Tourist Visas
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In 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union had suspended its visa facilitation agreement for Russian citizens. The European Commission had also banned the issuance of multiple entry visas in November 2025. Today, some ten European countries are calling for the introduction of new measures to limit the number of Russian tourists to Europe. This article from the Estonian public media ERR returns to this request.
El Periódico
The Ministers for Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs of Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Iceland have issued a letter asking the European Commission to tighten the rules for Russian tourists wishing to travel to the Schengen area, which covers most of the territory of the European Union but also Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland itself.
Eleven European countries - nine Member States of the European Union (EU), Norway and Iceland - call on the European Commission (EC) to tighten the entry into the Schengen area of Russian citizens, especially those coming to Europe for tourism purposes, reports AFP.
The Netherlands has joined Sweden's request to bar Russian tourists from the EU. That "request is justified," said Minister Bart van den Brink (Migration, CDA) on Thursday in Luxembourg.
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