Poland announced the cessation of issuing visas to Russian citizens. Also, the country's authorities are working on a concept that will allow Russians to be denied visas at the pan-European level. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Piotr Wawrzyk. A decision will be made in the coming weeks, he said.
According to Wawrzyk, Poland is in favor of expanding the EU sanctions, especially regarding the suspension of the agreement on visa facilitation for citizens of the Russian Federation. However, Germany, France and the Netherlands oppose this, so Poland is preparing a new concept.
He noted that Poland has not issued tourist visas to Russians for several months. Those are the exception. who needs to cross the Polish-Russian border for work – truck drivers, diplomats. This list also includes persons with a Pole's card, family members of citizens of Poland and other EU countries.
On August 11, it became known that Estonia would not let Russians into the country with Schengen visas issued by the republic. The authorities of Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also spoke out for a ban on issuing visas to citizens of the Russian Federation. At the same time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he could hardly imagine stopping the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians. He stressed that it is not ordinary Russians who are responsible for the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, but the authorities.
