The Saeima of Latvia has declared Russia a sponsor of terrorism due to violence against civilians and attacks on the civilian population, according to the website of the parliament.
Also, the Latvian Parliament called on the EU countries to immediately suspend the issuance of tourist visas to Russians and Belarusians.
“For many years, Russia has supported and financed terrorist regimes and organizations in various ways – directly and indirectly – as the largest supplier of weapons to the Assad regime in Syria and in cases such as the poisoning of Skripal or the downing of the MH-17 aircraft. In Ukraine, Russia has adopted a similarly brutal, immoral and illegal tactic, using inaccurate and internationally banned weapons and ammunition, targeting civilians and public places with disproportionate brutality.”
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevich said that residents of the republic who received Russian citizenship will no longer be issued residence permits. After receiving a Russian passport, they "will have to leave Latvia."
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with The Washington Post that Western countries should ban all Russians from entering their territory, as well as expel Russian citizens so that they “change their philosophy.” This was followed by a statement about the ban on only tourist visas from the Prime Minister of Estonia, and the head of the Czech Foreign Ministry, Jan Lipavsky, advocated the complete suspension of Schengen visas for Russian citizens. He said he would call for this during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague at the end of August. But the European Commission (EC) clarified that the EU visa code does not provide for the termination of the issuance of short-stay visas throughout the EU.
In May, the Czech Senate (Upper House of Parliament) recognized the crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine as genocide of the Ukrainian people. On May 10, the Lithuanian Seimas recognized Russia as a terrorist state: a resolution calling Russia "a state supporting and carrying out terrorism" was adopted unanimously by 128 votes. The document states that Russian troops committed massive war crimes on the territory of Ukraine, most of the dead were in Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Borodianka and Gostomel. On April 21, the parliaments of Estonia and Latvia were the first in the world to recognize Russia's actions in Ukraine as war crimes and genocide.
