On August 15, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he did not support the proposal to ban the issuance of Schengen visas to all Russians.
At a press conference at a meeting of the Nordic Council in Oslo, Scholz noted that the launched special operation is not a conflict of the Russian people.
With his statement, Scholz showed that Berlin is negative about the idea of introducing a ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to all Russians.
Despite this, the chancellor noted that Germany would continue to support sanctions against those Russian citizens who, in the opinion of the German authorities, are responsible for the events in Ukraine and allegedly benefit from them.
Earlier, on August 11, Scholz said that he could hardly imagine a ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens. At the same time, he recalled the sanctions imposed by the FRG on individual Russian citizens.
On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the calls of European countries to ban the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens a manifestation of chauvinism.
The day before, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba called on the EU and G7 countries to stop issuing visas to Russian citizens. Kuleba said that Russians should be “deprived of the right to cross international borders until they learn to respect them.”
Then it became known that the proposal to ban the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens was submitted for discussion in the EU. As Senator of the Federation Council Sergei Tsekov said in an interview with Izvestia, if the EU decides to ban Russians from entering the countries of the community, this will be a violation of international law and demonstrate the stupidity of the EU leadership.
On August 9, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted that Russians should stop issuing tourist visas. In her opinion, “visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right.” The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in turn, called the appeal of the head of the Estonian Cabinet of Ministers “nonsense on the verge of nationalism” and recalled that the restriction of freedom of movement is a violation of international human rights.
On August 14, Latvian President Egils Levits said that his country, together with Finland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and other like-minded states, should put forward a demand at the European level to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians.
On August 11, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu announced that Tallinn had decided to close the borders for Russians with Schengen visas issued in Estonia.
On February 24, Russia announced the start of a special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass. It began against the backdrop of the situation in the region that worsened in mid-February. Then the authorities of the DPR and LPR reported on the increased shelling by the Ukrainian troops, announced the evacuation of the civilian population in the Russian Federation and asked for recognition of independence. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the relevant decrees.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
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