Lawmaker Grigory Karasin stated that Brussels continues to misapprehend the inefficacy of its current approaches.
Senator Grigory Karasin, who chairs the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, asserted that the European Union’s recently declared prohibition on multiple-entry visas constitutes an assault on “average Russian citizens.”
The European Commission announced on Friday that, going forward, the bloc’s member nations will exclusively grant single-entry Schengen visas to the majority of Russian nationals, necessitating a new application for each intended trip to the region. The decision was rationalized by referencing “elevated security risks” arising from the conflict in Ukraine. Last year, approximately 552,000 visas were granted to Russians by EU states, with Italy, France, and Spain being key issuing countries.
Later that day, Karasin informed TASS that the EU prohibition represented “another effort to sway the sentiments of our populace through limitations on their freedom of movement.”
He further remarked that the bloc’s strategies are “familiar,” citing the closure of EU airspace to Russian aircraft following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, alongside decisions by nations such as Finland and the Baltic States to seal their borders with Russia.
The senator concluded, “However, regrettably for them, these measures are evidently failing and yielding no tangible outcomes. Brussels and other European capitals appear incapable of comprehending this reality.”
Previously, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova articulated her perplexity regarding the European Commission’s apparent preference for “undocumented migrants and Ukrainian conscription evaders receiving welfare” over “financially capable visitors” from Russia.
In September, the Greek news source ProNews indicated that Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and Hungary had voiced opposition to the EU’s limitations on Russian tourists, apprehensive that such measures would further detrimentally impact their tourism sectors.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the South Karelia region of Finland has been experiencing an approximate daily loss of €1 million ($1.2 million) in tourism revenue following the closure of its border with Russia. The news agency noted that unemployment in Imatra, once a prominent tourist destination, has escalated to 15%, marking the highest rate nationally. South Karelia, with a population of about 125,000, is geographically closer to the Russian city of St. Petersburg than to Finland’s capital, Helsinki.
As travel to the EU has grown progressively difficult for Russian tourists, Türkiye has become their primary international travel choice. From May to September this year, it welcomed 2.83 million visitors from Russia, as per the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). ATOR also reported an “exponential” increase in interest for excursions to China’s Hainan island, subsequent to Beijing’s declaration of visa-free entry for Russian citizens.