EU makes it harder for Russians to travel with plan to suspend fast-track visa deal

The European Union is expected to suspend a fast-track visa agreement with Russia to head off a row with Nordic and eastern European members calling for a total ban on Russian tourists.

France and Germany have come out strongly against a ban on all travel into the EU, warning that it could play into President Putin’s hands by fuelling his anti-western propaganda.

“We caution against far-reaching restrictions on our visa policy, in order to prevent feeding the Russian narrative and trigger unintended rallying-around the flag effects and/or estranging future generations,” said a Franco-German diplomatic paper circulated among foreign ministers.

“We need to strategically fight for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Russian population — at least the segments not yet completely estranged from ‘the West’.”

Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, almost a million Russians have legally entered the EU via land borders in neighbouring countries, mainly Finland, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania, after European sanctions banned Russian aircraft.

Most of the visas into the EU’s passport-free Schengen travel zone are issued by other European countries such as Italy, Cyprus or Portugal, to the irritation of nations that border Russia or those such as the Czech Republic, which has banned Russians.

The compromise proposal to freeze a 2007 visa facilitation deal will force Russian travellers to provide more documents, leading to travel delays while checks take place and bringing an increase in the cost of an entry permit to €80, from €35.

The decision is expected to be agreed in principle by EU foreign ministers in informal talks in an attempt to avoid a split over proposals for a ban from Finland, Denmark, Poland and the Baltic countries.

 “It is very provocative to me that you see Russian men on European beaches in southern Europe and at the same time Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 years cannot even leave their country but have to fight for their freedom,” said Jeppe Kofod, Denmark’s foreign minister.

The Kremlin vowed to hit back at any new visa restrictions and said that calls for a ban showed the extent of anti-Russian prejudice in the EU.

“Step by step, Brussels and individual European capitals demonstrate an absolute lack of reason,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman. “This mix of irrationality, bordering on the insane, allows for such decisions to be discussed.”

The move to suspend visa facilitation will be billed as a first step and is expected to reduce the numbers of Russians entering the EU, with closer scrutiny of applications for any links to Putin’s regime.

Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Lithuanian foreign minister, warned that countries would unilaterally refuse Schengen visas for Russians unless the EU agreed a way “to significantly limit the flow of tourists from Russia to Europe”.

“If all 27 EU countries fail to reach an agreement, a regional solution for the countries most affected by the flow of Russian tourists may be sought,” he said.

EU figures last week showed that since the start of the invasion, 998,085 Russian citizens have entered the EU through land borders. More than 300,000 entered Finland, with Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia also recording a high number of entries.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said: “Travel to the EU has had zero transformative effect on Russia. Since visa facilitation in 2007, Moscow has attacked Georgia, launched a war on Ukraine, committed multiple crimes — all of it with overwhelming popular support. To transform Russia, shut the door on Russian tourists.”