Western countries must ban all Russians from entering their territory. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with The Washington Post, published on Monday, August 8. According to him, all previously imposed sanctions against Russia are “weak” compared to closing borders to Russian citizens for a year and introducing a complete embargo on the purchase of Russian energy resources.

“The most important sanctions are closing the borders, because the Russians are taking over foreign territory,” emphasized Zelensky. “Let them live in their own world until they change their philosophy.”

At the same time, the Ukrainian president noted that this measure should also affect Russians who left the country due to disagreement with the war in Ukraine. “Whatever Russian you’re speaking, send them back to Russia. Then they’ll understand. They’ll say, ‘This war has nothing to do with us. The entire population can’t be held responsible, can they?’ Maybe this population has chosen this government, and they don’t fight with it, they don’t argue with it, they don’t yell at it,” Zelensky said.

Kremlin: Attempts to isolate Russia have no prospects

Commenting on Zelensky’s proposals, the Russian President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that “the irrationality of thinking in this case goes out of scale.” “This can only be viewed in an extremely negative light. Any attempt to isolate the Russians or to isolate Russia is a process that has no prospects,” he emphasized.

According to Peskov, European countries that “are trying to punish Russia” are already “actively paying the bills for it”. “And sooner or later, these countries will also begin to wonder if Zelensky is doing everything right, if our citizens should pay for their whims,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Brussels: There is no EU-wide procedure to stop issuing short-stay visas

Several EU countries are actively discussing the possibility of banning the issuance of visas to Russian citizens. In particular, Estonia, Latvia and Finland have already presented this initiative. At the end of February, the EU suspended the simplified visa regime with Russia. At the same time, the European Commission ruled out the complete cessation of issuing visas to Russians as this is contrary to EU standards.

There is no legal provision in the European Union to ban the issuance of short-stay Schengen visas to foreigners, including Russians, European Commission (EC) spokeswoman Anita Hipper said on Tuesday. However, she said, “Member States have considerable leeway to restrict or stop issuing long-stay visas or residence permits under their national legislation.” “At the same time, the visa code, which regulates the issuance of short-stay visas, does not provide for procedures to ban them,” Hipper told a news conference in Brussels.

“There will always be categories of people who must receive visas. For example, in humanitarian cases. And also for family members, journalists or dissidents,” he explained. At the same time, the EC representative clarified that “Member States should consider each short-stay visa application on the basis of a specific situation”.