The idea of Finland to ban the issuance of visas to Russians was not supported in the European Union

The European Union is not ready to support Finland’s proposal to introduce a complete ban on the issuance of tourist visas to Russian citizens. As reported with reference to the Czech edition of Seznam, the Minister of foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Petr Macinka admitted that the initiative of Helsinki did not find a response from most EU member states.

According to the minister, the lack of consensus within the union makes it impossible to adopt a single pan-European solution. In this regard, the Czech Republic, which in February 2022 independently limited the visa regime for Russians (leaving exceptions only for humanitarian cases), will continue to adhere to its own national policy. Macinca also noted that similar attempts to restrict entry at the EU level have been made before, but they have not been successful.