Finland and Estonia call for EU ban on tourist visas for Russians

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09.08.2022 - 17:45

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euronews.com:

The leaders of Estonia and Finland want other EU countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not be able to travel to Europe on holiday while the Kremlin carries out a devastating war in Ukraine.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas wrote on Tuesday that “visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right” and that it is “time to end tourism from Russia now”.

In response, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared Kallas to a “Nazi”.

A day earlier, her Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin said in a TV interview that "it is not right that while Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians can live a normal life, travel in Europe, be tourists."

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Euronews recently that the government would move to limit the number of tourist visas issued to Russians, but hoped the EU would take a common stand on the issue and stop granting new visas completely.

Estonia and Finland both border Russia and are members of the European Union, which banned air travel from Russia after it invaded Ukraine. The last remaining passenger rail link between Russia and the EU ended in March when the high-speed service between St. Petersburg and the Finnish capital Helsinki stopped running.

However, Russians can still travel by land to both Finland and Estonia and are apparently then taking flights to other European destinations.

Finnish media recently reported there was a brisk business for car hire between St. Petersburg to and from the airports in Helsinki, and Lappeenranta in southeast Finland - which have direct connections to numerous European destinations.

Russia’s second-largest city is about 300 kilometres from the Finnish capital.

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