SchengenVisaInfo.com says that the Czech Republic’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jan Lipovsky, recently said that the country will stop letting Russian tourists in on October 25. Follow hitsbuddy for latest news.
The ban will affect all Russians with a tourist visa, no matter where they got it, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs said in Prague.
This means that the ban applies not only to Russians who have been given a Schengen visa by the Czech government, but also to Russians who have been given a visa by another Schengen country.
Radio Free Europe said that Minister Lipovsky said the ban was because of the cruel bombing of civilians in Ukraine. He said that the Czech Republic can’t ignore this.
Also, Schengen visa delays mean that holiday plans have to be changed.
Before the Czech Republic, a number of other countries had already made the same decision in September and banned all Russian tourists from entering.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, which all have borders with Russia, had already banned Russian tourists from entering their countries on September 19.
The foreign ministers of these four countries said that the decision to ban Russians was made to protect internal security, public policy, and the safety of the Schengen Area as a whole. Also, these ministers had asked other EU countries to ban Russian tourists in the same way.
Krijnis Kari, the prime minister of Latvia, recently asked all EU leaders to stop giving Russian tourists tourist visas. He said that he doesn’t agree with the idea that letting Russians into the EU who are trying to avoid being called up would hurt the Kremlin’s military.
In the meantime, the European Union Council had planned that Russian travel documents issued in Ukraine would not be accepted in Georgia. According to schengenVisaInfo.com, the EUC had said that the EU ambassadors had agreed on a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on a decision to not accept Russian travel documents issued in the two countries above.
The decision was made because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its unilateral decision in 2008 to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are parts of Georgia.
