Europe has turned its back on Russian tourists: crossing the border has become a lottery

Where to go and where not to go

It would seem that Europe’s attitude towards guests from Russia can’t get any worse. But, alas, judging by the statements of today, from October 20, our Western neighbors will become even more inhospitable to us – even for those non-refundable 80 euros that they charge for the application of Russians for Schengen.

What you need to know in order not to have false hopes.

To date, apart from the most categorical Lithuania, Estonia and the Netherlands, which have not resumed issuing visas to the Russian Federation after the pandemic, other European countries have not introduced a complete ban on entry based on the presence of a Russian passport – at least openly. By and large, the Schengen zone has been divided into two camps in relation to Russians: some promise “reasonable exceptions” for transit workers with a European residence permit, dissidents, humanitarian purposes, family members and business travelers – these are Latvia, Poland, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia and recently joined them Slovenia with Croatia. True, in fact, entry turns into a lottery.

Others accept applications for a visa, including from tourists, charging a non-refundable 80 euros for this, but they do not give any guarantees of a positive consideration, and more and more often they do not even answer the applicant, silently sending him his package of documents. “Consideration from 45 days without guarantees”, while demanding to present already purchased round-trip tickets and paid accommodation reservations, until recently, Denmark and Sweden sinned, while the most popular tourist destinations still received guests, demanding more in addition to the consular fee and “Euroinsurance” – a policy from a European insurer, paid online in euros, which is a priori impossible with the blocked Russian payment system.

“This is the first time that this situation has arisen, so the EU border services lack clear instructions on not allowing Russians on the grounds that their governments have developed,” explains the Russian visa broker. – Europeans are very susceptible to the letter of the circular, they are not able to make quick independent decisions, based on the situation, or are afraid. From here it turns out a lottery – how lucky.

According to the expert, it also happens that the “lottery” plays into the hands of tourists from the Russian Federation: some European border guards, on the contrary, skip through an oversight, which the lucky ones immediately signal in the thematic chats of Runet. But much more often, ground services of airports and border control at land crossings from the Russian Federation to Europe happen to “overthink”: not let transit workers with a residence permit of a neighboring European country or, as it happened recently, a Russian wife to her legal European spouse and children with citizenship of one of the Baltic republics . On the topic of each such case, Russian “border” publics also immediately begin to boil.

Further more. The Czech Foreign Ministry announced that from October 25, in principle, it will stop letting Russian citizens in, even with a short-term Schengen visa, and not only for tourism purposes, but also “to participate in cultural and sports events.” Announcing this, the Czech Foreign Minister stressed that all Russians would be banned from entering the Czech Republic, especially those arriving at the Prague airport.

“Until now, the Czech Republic allowed Russians with a detailed tour of the EU and a Schengen time limit, at least as transit workers,” explains the visa intermediary. – And now transit passengers from the Russian Federation will not even be put on a flight to Prague, as was already the case with Russian transit passengers flying through the home airports of Finnish and German carriers. Summary: do not take risks, do not plan a trip through the Czech Republic, no matter how tempting the prices for tickets from there to other European capitals are, after such a statement you can lose money, time, and nerves there.

At the same time, Bulgaria announced the suspension from October 20 of the agreement on visa-free entry into the country of Russian diplomats, even from this date they will need to go through waiting and interviewing. And the Runet chats dedicated to the Finnish Schengen are seething with indignation for the third day: tourists, including those who applied for a Finnish visa before September 20, when Finland announced a “restriction on the issuance of tourist visas”, received their documents back without any consideration at all, but paid 80 euros at the same time they were not returned. The indignant applicants share the details in chats and, based on the “set of deeds”, have already calculated that the Finnish consular workers raped about 60 thousand euros from Russian tourists for their silent inaction.

Meanwhile, the President of Lithuania calls to maintain the ban on the entry of tourists from the Russian Federation even after the state of emergency is lifted in connection with the conflict, since the Russians “need to be taught.”

And the Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the Russian Federation, having heard that direct flights from Moscow to the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus were being prepared for launch, said that official Cyprus would consider the arrival of Russians to the northern part of the island directly by flight from Russia or Turkey as a crime. Legal entry into the northern part of the island from the point of view of the EU – only through the border crossing in Nicosia from the Greek part, to get into which, citizens of the Russian Federation will need a Cypriot national visa, and for it – a bank statement with the movement of funds for the last 3 months, euro insurance, paid round-trip tickets and accommodation voucher.