The government of Estonia has decided to limit the granting of temporary residence permits and study visas to citizens of Russia and Belarus, but Russians with visas from another Schengen country, such as Finland, can still travel through Estonia.
“Usually, Estonia has not yet canceled valid visas. However, this is something to consider. Estonia has granted more than 50,000 valid Schengen visas to Russian citizens, which is too many,” Reinsalu said on the Vikerhommik radio program, according to Estonian Public Radio ERR.
Russian citizens with visas from other Schengen states use Estonian airports to travel to other parts of Europe.
“Since there is no air traffic, these people have started crossing the western border either for tourism or for some other purpose. Tallinn and Riga airports have the highest pressure. But traffic has also increased in Finland. The situation brightened when Russia removed the restrictions regarding the coronavirus, which prevented Russian citizens from leaving the country,” said the minister.
Reinsalu follows pan-European restrictions
According to Reinsalu, the simplest “remedy” would be pan-European restrictions.
“As a general rule, this would require cutting off the access of Russian citizens to Europe, which is what Estonia will propose.”
“I will meet the EU foreign ministers in Prague later in August, where I will present a pan-European restriction plan,” the foreign minister promised.
“Finns refuse 50 percent of visas. I would call on countries in the region, especially those that share a border with Russia, to stop issuing tourist visas, which is unthinkable in wartime, and stop heavy border traffic,” he said.
“At the moment, we have to let in Russian travelers whose visas have been issued by a third EU country. We can talk about a transit corridor to continental Europe located on the eastern border of the EU. We should close it, together looking for a Europe-wide solution, but also immediately with similar national solutions as we did in the spring,” Reinsalu said to Ilta-Sanom.
According to Reinsalu, Latvia has a principle that could be modeled after. There, upon entering the country, Russian citizens must sign a document declaring that they condemn Putin’s war in Ukraine.