German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday questioned the tourism ban as a European Union sanction against Russia. In a meeting with leaders of the Nordic countries, he defended that “the important thing for Germany is that it is understood that many people are fleeing Russia because they do not agree with the Russian regime.”
“All the decisions we make must not make it more difficult to leave the country, to escape from the leadership and the dictatorship in Russia,” Olaf Scholz was quoted as saying by Reuters. He was opposed by Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland, who defended the withdrawal of Russian tourists to guarantee the payment of sanctions.
Sanna Marin had already defended in an interview with YLE radio that “it is not correct that, while Russia wages an aggressive and brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians live a normal life, traveling around Europe as tourists”, cites The Guardian.
The Finnish position is in line with the call that Volodymyr Zelensky left in an interview with The Washington Post, in which the Ukrainian president considered that “the most important sanction” would be “closing the borders because the Russians are taking over the land of others”. They must “live in their own world until they change their philosophy”, considered the Ukrainian head of state.
At the moment, leaving Russia by air is complicated because the country’s airlines are prohibited from flying over much of European territory. But what Zelensky is asking for, with the support of several European Union nations, is to completely close the doors of the Western world to the Russians.
The fear of a total ban on entry into European territory is motivating the Russians to rush to apply for Schengen visas, which allow them to travel within 90 days to any of the 26 European countries in the Schengen area – for tourism or to work.
Source: Observadora
