Russia Will Not Leave This Unanswered: Peskov

If Schengen visas are banned for Russians, Russia will not leave this unaddressed. This was stated by Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, to reporters.

“These are very serious decisions that will be directly aimed against our citizens. Of course, such decisions cannot go unanswered, that is understandable. The response will be one that best aligns with our country's interests and protects the interests of our citizens,” Peskov said.

It is expected that the “visa issue” will be discussed at the informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers on August 30-31 in Prague. Moreover, the European Commission told RIA Novosti that EU member states can independently restrict the issuance of visas, but there will always be groups of people who must be granted visas, for example, in humanitarian cases, family members in the EU, as well as journalists or dissidents.

Recently, calls have been made in several European countries to ban all Russians from entering Schengen Agreement countries. Estonia supports such a ban, while the Finnish government has previously stated that it will reduce the number of visa applications accepted from Russia by half starting in early September, down to 500 per day. In addition, the Latvian parliament has adopted a statement urging EU countries to halt the issuance of visas to citizens of Russia and Belarus.

The German government has also put forward a draft decision to the EU regarding the ban on issuing Schengen visas to Russian citizens as part of a new sanctions package. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stated that he finds it hard to imagine the implementation of such a ban.