Poland, Baltic countries to ban entry of Russians with short-term visas as of Monday

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – Starting Monday, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will ban the entry of Russian citizens holding short-term Schengen visas as part of a regionally coordinated restriction that complements the suspension of the EU’s visa facilitation agreement with Russia.

The 27 EU member states officially decided last week to fully suspend the bloc’s visa facilitation agreement with Russia following the initiative of Estonia, Latvia, and Finland.

As of Sept. 12, Russian citizens no longer enjoy preferential treatment when applying for a Schengen visa.

In practical terms, they are required to pay a higher fee of €80 ($80) instead of the previous tariff of €35 and can expect a longer waiting time before their case is handled.

Besides the EU-wide decision, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – all former Eastern Bloc members that share a border with Russia – agreed as a common regional approach to restrict the entry of Russian tourists at their borders to protect national order and security.

Under the decision, the border guards of the four countries will stop admitting Russian citizens who hold a short-term Schengen visa, even if the document was issued by another EU member state.

The measures, which enter into force on Sept. 19, are temporary and will exempt dissidents, humanitarian cases, family members, and holders of residence permits, the top diplomats of the four countries said in a statement.

- Restrictions on visa procedure

In February, the EU partially suspended its visa facilitation agreement with Russia, mainly targeting government officials, diplomats, and businesspeople.

Ordinary Russian citizens started to experience de facto difficulties in applying for EU visas soon after the war broke out, since most EU countries reduced their consular staff in Russia.

An EU-wide visa ban was proposed in August by Estonia, Latvia, and Finland after the call of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who asked for increased diplomatic pressure on Moscow.

The initiative was strongly supported by the Czech Republic, which was the first EU country to stop issuing visas for Russian applicants in February, and Poland, which introduced similar measures in April.

Estonia and Latvia also stopped issuing visas for Russian applicants in August, while Finland cut their number by 90%.

In the end, EU countries failed to agree on an EU-wide blanket ban, mainly because Germany, France, and the European Commission opposed the proposal, arguing that the EU should not cut all the ties with Russian society.

According to European Commission statistics, as of Sept. 1 over 963,000 Russians held valid visas to the Schengen area.​​​​​​​