The European Union is considering a visa waiver program for Russian citizens. The perspective that Chancellor Scholz has towards the proposal is one of skepticism, and with good cause.
 |
| [EU visa ban on Russia] |
There is a concerted attempt being made by the European Union to prohibit, or at the very least severely limit, the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian nationals. There are now no tourist visas being issued by a number of nations, including the Czech Republic and Lithuania, for example.
Even further, the Baltic republics have stopped issuing other kinds of visas, such as professional and humanitarian entrance permits, which were among the documents that allowed Russian opposition members and others to flee their country at the outset of the conflict. As part of the preparation for leaving Russia, oppositional Russian websites strongly suggest applying for Schengen visas. Schengen visa applicants are subject to persecution in Russia for either political reasons or because of their sexual orientation.
Urmas Reisalu, the Foreign Minister of Estonia, has not given up on his goal of imposing a continent-wide ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens, and he is gaining support for this goal from Latvia. At the conclusion of the month of August, a gathering of EU foreign ministers will be holding a discussion on the plan.
The idea that Russians cannot have vacations in Europe while their countrymen are engaged in an aggressive war against Ukraine is the impetus behind the ideas for a travel restriction that are now being formulated. In addition to this, the President of Ukraine, Zelenskyj, is attempting to convince the EU to implement a blanket ban on the admission of Russian citizens.
Even going so far as to imply that such limits should even apply to Russians who left their nation in dissent during an interview with the Washington Post, he went to great lengths to prove his point. The head of state in Kiev was quoted as saying, "Send them back to Russia no matter what sort of Russians they are," and this statement was made publically available. When he called on Russians to leave their nation instead than paying the war with taxes, he contradicted his own remarks from back in March.
On the other hand, Federal Chancellor Scholz has a distinct viewpoint on the matter and "has significant difficulties" with the concept of placing a hold on visas. A blessing in disguise has arrived for the Russian state media in the form of new restrictions on admission.
They are currently working on convincing their countrymen that there is a widespread and undifferentiated hatred of Russia in the West in order to convince the population of the anti-Western course that their own government is taking in order to convince the population of the anti-Western course that their own government is taking. It should be made very obvious to anybody who deviates from the approved difficult route that they have little chance of being understood in Western countries.
Those in Russia who are opposed to the war and those who sympathize with the resistance are very disheartened by the attempts to prevent admission. Since the Covid pandemic, the picture of Russian mass tourism in the EU that has been projected by Estonians and Latvians no longer conforms to reality. This is because of the spread of the Covid virus.
Those Russian residents who are merely interested in a surface-level vacation, for example in Turkey or Thailand, have an easier time getting there since they do not require a visa and the prices are lower. Anyone in Moscow who trusts the pro-government media is likewise unlikely to go to the West since they get the impression that they are no longer welcome there. This is because they believe the media.
The number of people that go to the EU each year is much lower than it was before the corona epidemic. Anyone living in Russia who goes to the trouble of applying for a visa to visit a member state of the European Union is very unlikely to buy the Kremlin's propaganda against Western Europe and likely has deeper links or interests in the European continent.
It is important not to forget that there are now no direct flights operating between Russia and the EU, so tourists must depend on more time-consuming and complicated alternate routes. People who have family or acquaintances in the West, have studied abroad, have mastered Western languages, or have taken foreign courses make up an increasing percentage of the surviving Russian tourists.
They are people who live in cities and are mostly young Russians who are not afraid of growing adversity. To put it another way, the segment of Russian society that is most critical of its own administration and the direction it is headed is exactly that segment. Each each entrance restriction further estranges them as opponents of the political elite in Russia, who are already under intense pressure in their own country.
In addition, since Russian citizens are prohibited from traveling to Western countries, the channels via which perceptions and views of current global events that are not influenced by Moscow's official propaganda are prevented from entering the nation. When politicians in the West advocate for travel restrictions, they are unwittingly playing a part in the policies of the Russian government, which is housed in the Kremlin.
The latter has made it clear that it intends to use network blocking and media restriction in order to deny its own citizens, who are countrymen, the ability to get information that contradicts the narrative presented by the government. When travel restrictions are implemented, it demonstrates quite clearly how much individuals who disagree in Russia are left alone with the authority of the Kremlin in their own nation.
Already in a typically pessimistic frame of mind, this might push them farther away, making them even more dissatisfied with a West that prioritizes the concept of collective guilt above individual interaction.