Interview with Estonia’s PM: “Why we need a EU visa ban for Russians and Moscow’s statements on Dugina are unbelievable”
Interview with Estonia’s PM: “Why we need a EU visa ban for Russians and Moscow’s statements on Dugina are unbelievable”
2 comments
> We already have air-travel sanctions in place against travelling from Russia to Europe. But Finland, Estonia and Latvia are the only three countries who have a land border with Russia. All those Russian tourists are coming via our land borders. We can’t check everyone and we are bearing the burden of the Schengen countries. This is not right. We should close the loophole of these travel sanctions in the first place. Also, this is a moral issue: it’s not right that Russia citizens can easily enjoy their holidays in Europe while their country is waging a war against another independent country, killing and torturing Ukranians. The citizens of a country are responsible also for their country’s deeds”.
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> “We are not advocating an outright ban. In Estonia we give Visas for humanitarian reasons or to people who are visiting their relatives or family here, as well as asylum seekers and dissidents, who are free to enter our country. All these exemptions are possible and we’ve also done them. I think this answers all the arguments. But overall, we should have this ban. There are 10 million Schengen Visas issued to Russian citizens right now. In Estonia, we have a population of 1.3 million people. Even if only one million Russians came through our country, this would be a big threat for us. I think it’s not also fair that only three small countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Finland are bearing the burden of these Russian tourists.
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Sadly I have no hope the EU will do the right thing here. Countries close/bordering Russia want this, but others “know” better…