Estonia stops entry for russian citizens with Schengen visas

From August 18, Estonia stopped allowing russian citizens with Schengen visas issued by the country

ERR reports.

As noted, approximately 25,000 russian citizens currently have such visas.

We will remind you that Estonia decided on this ban on August 11.

"The restrictions concern travel for tourism, attendance at sports and cultural events, and trips to the Schengen area for entertainment purposes; we no longer accept such people, and we will not let such people into Estonia," said Deputy Director General for Border Management at Estonian Police and Border Guard Board Egert Belitšev.

Those who come to Estonia with tourist visas can visit relatives: parents, children, and spouses.

In addition, exceptions are made for visits with humanitarian purposes: for example, for a funeral.

Those who arrived before August 18 will not be expelled from the country, but their visas will be canceled when leaving the Schengen zone.

Exceptions are made for those who transited through Estonia to a third country, for example, Britain, before the sanctions began and want to return home the same way.

As before, Estonia will admit russians with tourist visas issued by other Schengen states. But the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Reinsalu, declares that Estonia can also ban entry to them unilaterally.

Reference

The day before, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said he hoped for a joint EU decision to ban the issuance of tourist visas to russians.

Earlier, Finland decided to reduce the issuance of visas to russians by 90% from September.

The Estonian government announced on August 11 that it would not let in russians with Estonian-issued Schengen visas in a week, with a few exceptions, and the country had previously stopped issuing tourist visas to its citizens.

Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic do not issue visas to russians.

At the same time, these countries favor a joint decision of the EU, which made it possible to limit russians' access to Europe.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already expressed his opposition to this.

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