The\u00a0upcoming 21st EU sanctions package<\/a>\u00a0goes some way on this, blocking visas for any Russian current or former combatants in Ukraine (though\u00a0deserters may<\/a>\u00a0be excluded). <\/p>\n Too little, too late \u2026 again<\/p>\n Like every such EU measure, it is welcome, yet too little and too late. If the preceding 20 packages had been issued and implemented all at once in 2014, when Russia first attacked Ukraine, the full-scale invasion would never have happened and hundreds of thousands of people would still be alive. Cowardice is costly in the long run.<\/p>\n Western countries should ban not just uniformed aggressors, but all Russian business and private visits, with narrow humanitarian exceptions. <\/p>\n The EU should also follow Estonian foreign minister\u00a0Margus Tsahkna\u2019s suggestion<\/a>\u00a0and ban the provision of maritime services (a blow against the shadow fleet) and stop the export of aluminum oxide to Russia\u2019s arms manufacturers; this is a legal, profitable and\u00a0shameful<\/a>\u00a0business for Ireland, which takes over the EU\u2019s rotating six-month presidency in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n Such measures are blunt. They mean economic and personal hardship. A visa ban has particular political costs. It hits pro-Western Russians, including admirable, innocent ones. It closes off any plan to destabilise Russia by encouraging brain drain. It may hamper attempts to provoke disunity in the Russian elite. <\/p>\n But no plans along these lines have proved effective so far or are likely to work soon, if ever. The only real \u2018Russian opposition\u2019 is the armed forces of Ukraine. <\/p>\n Anyone sincerely hoping for a free, democratic Russia should support Ukraine\u2019s victory by all means possible, including intensifying pressure on the Kremlin regime.<\/p>\n Having pumped my casual Russian acquaintances for information, I try to unsettle them. <\/p>\n They ask where I learned Russian and why. I reply tersely but truthfully, \u201cI was deported from the Soviet Union,\u201d leaving them to worry who was really quizzing them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With luck that may cast a shadow on their day. But not long or dark enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I hear Russian spoken on the street my ears twitch. I try to start a casual conversation,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1027844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,1699,218481,226411,225611,226409,218479,225609,226410,218480,225610],"class_list":["post-1027843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-identifier4308","tag-identifier4401","tag-identifier4403","tag-nameeu-and-the-world","tag-namerussia","tag-namesociety","tag-termcodeeu-and-the-world","tag-termcoderussia","tag-termcodesociety"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116753523416836785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1027844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5df8c9332b8d8764f6bab41de8217822-600x450.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/wYWpM8KCqn78iKzdeo5X1GiCVloUpkCv-600x370.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n