COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Estonia decided on Thursday to ban people who hold tourist visas from neighboring Russia from entering the northernmost Baltic country because of the war in Ukraine.
“The ability of Russian citizens to visit Estonia en masse or visit Europe via Estonia is incompatible with the meaning of the sanctions we have imposed,” Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu was quoted by the Baltic News Service. said.
The European Union, of which Estonia is a member, has already banned flights from Russia after it invaded Ukraine. But Russians can still travel by land to Estonia and then fly to other European countries.
According to Reinsalu, the region’s main news agency, BNS, Estonia imposes sanctions, demanding that Russia “not be able to maintain a normal international life, also at the level of its citizens.” He added that they have seen “a huge increase in the number of Russian citizens moving to or coming to Estonia”.
BNS reported that exceptions to the sanctions imposed on Thursday apply to Russian citizens with long-term residence permits; visiting close relatives; workers engaged in international transport of goods and passengers, and people entering the country for humanitarian reasons.
The sanctions against Estonia will come into effect on August 18. Estonia and Russia share a border of about 300 kilometers (186 miles).
“I encourage other governments to follow these steps,” Reinsalu said.
France wants more oil from Russian client Venezuela to offset Russian oil sanctionshttps://t.co/gsWrMqPWMF
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 29 June 2022
Earlier this week, the leaders of Estonia and Finland urged other European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not take vacations in Europe while the Russian government is at war with Ukraine.
“Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on Twitter on Tuesday, and “It’s time to stop tourism from Russia.”
“It’s not true that Russians can live normally, travel to Europe, become tourists, as long as Russia is waging an aggressive, brutally aggressive war in Europe,” her Finnish colleague Sanna Marin told Finnish broadcaster YLE the day before. “.
It is reported that Russian companies have begun to offer car trips from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and from Lappeenranta airports in Finland, with direct connections to various destinations in Europe. The second largest city in Russia is located 300 km from the capital of Finland.
Visas issued by Finland and Estonia are valid in most of Europe’s visa-free zone known as the “Schengen area”, which is made up of 26 countries comprising of 22 EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Normally people and goods move freely between these countries without border controls. Nineteen other countries outside of this zone allow foreigners to enter Schengen visa.
Latvia has decided not to issue visas to Russians anymore because of the war. Poland said on Wednesday that it no longer issues tourist visas to Russians.
Criminal war: Russia cuts gas supply to Latvia https://t.co/O01fIaOZLO
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 30 July 2022
Source: Breitbart
