{"id":1114395,"date":"2026-07-27T15:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1114395\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T15:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:37:12","slug":"montenegro-ends-visa-free-entry-for-russians-amid-2028-eu-membership-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1114395\/","title":{"rendered":"Montenegro Ends Visa-Free Entry for Russians Amid 2028 EU Membership Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Montenegro will require Russian citizens to obtain visas starting Nov. 1, the small Western Balkan nation\u2019s government<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.me\/en\/article\/montenegro-fully-aligns-its-visa-policy-with-the-european-union-citizens-of-numerous-countries-can-now-apply-for-a-montenegrin-visa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> announced<\/a> Monday, as it tightens border rules in line with EU standards to join the bloc by 2028.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNationals of countries whose visa regimes were previously not aligned with that of the European Union (Belarus, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and T\u00fcrkiye) will require a visa to enter Montenegro as of Nov. 1, 2026,\u201d Montenegro\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Montenegro has for years remained one of the few European countries to offer visa-free entry to Russians for up to 30 days. It saw a massive influx of anti-war Russian citizens after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Local media<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dan.co.me\/vijesti\/drustvo\/crnu-goru-napustilo-preko-14-000-rusa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> reported<\/a> this spring that 14,000 out of the 21,000 registered Russians left Montenegro following news of Podgorica\u2019s plans to introduce visas.<\/p>\n<p>In Monday\u2019s statement, Montenegro said it was \u201cmitigating any potential adverse effects\u201d by partnering with a third-party visa processing center, and that it planned to introduce an e-visa system in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Montenegro adopted the euro in 2002 and applied for EU membership in 2008. It also followed the EU in imposing financial restrictions and travel bans on Russia for its annexation of Crimea in 2014, and then the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMontenegro&#8217;s accession as the 28th member state by 2028 is within reach,\u201d European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/live-news\/20260605-eu-leaders-push-faster-expansion-at-balkan-summit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> said<\/a> at an EU-Western Balkans summit in June.<\/p>\n<p>AFP contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montenegro will require Russian citizens to obtain visas starting Nov. 1, the small Western Balkan nation\u2019s government announced&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1114396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[6560,2000,299,5187,1699,6863],"class_list":["post-1114395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-balkans","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-visas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116992688043313283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114395","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=1114395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1114396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}