Finland intends to ban Russian citizens from receiving Schengen visas for tourist purposes of entry into the EU. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin reaffirmed her stance on the evening of Monday, August 15, as part of the summit of the heads of government of the five Scandinavian countries with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Oslo.

“Russian citizens did not start the war, but at the same time, we must clearly understand that they support the war,” Marin said. “I don’t think it’s right for Russian citizens to enter the EU, the Schengen area, and go for a walk while Russia kills people in Ukraine,” stressed the Finnish chief of staff. The position is supported by her Danish colleague Mette Frederiksen.

The German chancellor, for her part, defends the refusal of a total ban on entry, referring to Russians who are fleeing the country, fleeing the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “All the decisions we make must not complicate the process of gaining freedom and leaving the country to escape the dictator in Russia,” Scholz said. “This is not a Russian people’s war, this is Putin’s war,” he said.

Finnish Prime Minister insists on discussing the issue in the EU Council

Sanna Marin asked to discuss the issue at the EU Council at the end of August. Frederiksen expressed his understanding of this call. Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson called for a unified EU approach to this issue, but did not take a specific position, as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre did, dpa noted.

The Finnish government meeting, which will consider the issue of restricting the issuance of Schengen tourist visas to Russian citizens, will be held on August 16, Finnish state television and radio station Yle previously reported.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has proposed limiting the acceptance of Russian Schengen tourist visa applications to one day a week. “In practice, this could mean that you will be able to apply for tourist visas on Mondays and Tuesday through Friday” – only for visas “for family, study, work or other good reasons,” he said.

Lithuania is following the decisions of Estonia and Latvia

The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also stated that it considers it necessary to ban the entry of Russian citizens at EU level. Lithuanian institutions responsible for areas such as state security, visa issuance and border control are evaluating decisions previously made in this regard by Estonia and Latvia.

Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly criticized the European Union’s policy of issuing visas to Russian citizens. “You can’t destroy the very idea of ​​Europe, our common European values, that is, you can’t turn Europe into a supermarket where it doesn’t matter who walks in and, most importantly, one person simply pays for the goods,” Zelensky said in a video message on August 12. He thanked the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries and other European countries for bringing the issue to the level of official discussion in the EU.

Expert: The idea of ​​collective guilt is inapplicable

Meanwhile, Jussi Lassila, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations, previously expressed confidence that the idea of ​​collective guilt is not applicable in a situation where opposition in the Russian Federation is suppressed and there is no real opportunity for protest.

The hope that the border closure would increase discontent within Russia and turn residents against Vladimir Putin’s regime, Lassila called it naive. The expert noted that the vast majority of Russians do not take a vacation abroad and will not be affected by this decision.