Ban Russian tourists? The European Union is divided over visa restrictions for ordinary Russians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing in one direction. “Let them live in their own world until they change their philosophy,” said V An interview with the Washington Post This month. “This is the only way to influence Putin.”

Calls are growing to ban EU visas for Russians, but not all Ukrainians agree

It has the support of the European Union countries that share a common border with Russia – the Baltic states and Finland – as well as from Poland and the Czech Republic.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in an email that the travel ban is “another way to get our message across to the Russian people that the Kremlin must stop its genocidal war against the Ukrainian people.” “People change their way of thinking once their privileges are cut off and their well-being is affected.”

But other members of the European Union, notably Germany and France, are vehemently opposed to this idea. They say it would be unfair and unwise to punish all Russians for what Call German Chancellor Olaf Schultz Putin’s war. They argue that visa restrictions may curtail the dwindling number of escape routes for critics, and could trap more people in the Kremlin’s echo chamber, leading to allegations of Western persecution.

“You risk making the EU the bad guy in the eyes of Russian citizens who may not support the regime or support the war,” said an EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private talks at the fore. – Until the meeting in Prague.

Wednesday’s hearing is unlikely to determine who should be allowed to visit and on what terms. A second EU diplomat familiar with the discussion said it would be an informal start of the “discussion” and not the last word on what, if any, comes next.

One possibility The compromise is the complete suspension of the 2007 visa facilitation agreement with Russia, which would make obtaining tourist visas more difficult and expensive for Russian citizens, According to diplomats.

Although Zelensky suggested in his interview with Post that travel restrictions should apply to all Russians, including expatriates, there appears to be little support for such a move.

Most of the current debate centers around short-stay visas that allow travel for up to 90 days throughout the 26-country Schengen area. More than 4 million of those visas were issued in Russia in 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic, according to EU numbers.

Member states are discussing how to keep their doors open to human rights activists and dissidents, as well as whether and how to create exceptions for groups such as family members, students, and scholars.

Since the Russian invasion, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia Estonia has stopped issuing short-stay visas to Russian citizens. In addition, Estonia moved to the Champions Previously issued short stay visasLatvia requires Russian travelers entering on current visas to sign statements opposing the war.

Meanwhile, Finland announced that it will reduce the number of visas issued to Russians by 90% from September 1.

“It is not true that at the same time that Russia is waging a brutal and savage war of aggression in Europe, Russians can lead a normal life, travel in Europe, and be tourists. This is not true,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin For Finnish Public Broadcasting Channel.

This summer, Europeans took over the news reports of Russian luxury cars at Helsinki Airport. With a widespread ban on Russian flights, Russians wanting to vacation in Europe had to travel to neighboring countries and fly from there.

But Finland and the Baltic states say there is a lot they can do on their own to curb Russian tourism and avoid it being misused as a transit route. Officials complain that many Russian tourists come on short-stay visas issued by other Schengen countries.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis wrote: “We must say a clear ‘No’ to the free Russian passengers at the border. In an opinion piece for Politico which called for “visa solidarity” within the European Union

Like others who advocate curbing Russian tourism, he suggested that visas should remain available on humanitarian grounds — “leaving Europe’s door open to democratic activists and those persecuted by the authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Minsk.”

Other leaders and officials say the idea of ​​targeting ordinary Russians to punish Putin is wrong.

Some question whether the ban on tourism will, in fact, cause the general Russians to oppose the war, not to mention the government.

Anna Arutonyan, a Russian-American journalist and writer, wrote: “The notion that forcing Russians to stay at home would somehow make them change Kremlin policy is dubious even if the Russian state were a democracy, and utterly absurd given that it is anything but.” a Opinion article for the Moscow Times.

“There is absolutely no historical evidence that closing borders makes people push for democratic change,” she said. “There is only evidence to the contrary.”

In a discussion paper distributed ahead of this week’s meeting, France and Germany argue against a blanket ban on the grounds that experiencing life in democracies firsthand could have “transformative power” for Russians, according to German news agency DPA.

“Our visa policies should reflect this and continue to allow people to communicate in the European Union with Russian citizens who are not associated with the Russian government,” the newspaper said.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said on Tuesday that the EU visa debate showed an “absolute lack of reason”.

“These are very dangerous decisions that may be directed against our citizens,” he said, “and they cannot go unanswered.”

Kate Brady in Berlin and Marie Ilyushina in Riga contributed to this report.