German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was skeptical of calls to introduce a total ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens because of the Russian armed invasion of Ukraine. “This is Putin’s war, so I don’t like these calls,” he said at a major summer press conference in Berlin on Thursday, Aug. 11.

According to Scholz, the European Union has already imposed sweeping sanctions against members of the Russian leadership, and “this will continue.” At the same time, the Federal Chancellor emphasized that he considers it unfair to introduce penalties against all Russians. The Estonian government has already decided to ban Russian citizens with valid Estonian-issued Schengen visas from entering the country. On August 4, Latvia suspended issuing visas to Russian citizens indefinitely. The initiative to ban Russian citizens from entering the EU will be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague.

The day before, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba called on the EU and G7 countries to stop issuing visas to Russians: “I urge all EU and G7 countries to stop issuing visas to Russians.” russians. President Volodymyr Zelensky rightly insists on this. The Russians overwhelmingly support the war in Ukraine. The right to cross international borders should be denied until they learn to respect them,” Kuleba wrote on his Twitter microblog.