Hungary does not plan to introduce visa restrictions for Russians

Hungary does not plan to introduce visa restrictions or complicate the procedure for obtaining visas for Russian citizens. This statement was made by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto following a telephone conversation with his Estonian counterpart Urmas Reinsalu.

“We talked about a proposal that would tighten the practice of issuing European visas to Russian citizens. Here we are in solidarity with the position of the German Chancellor and do not plan to introduce any toughening or restrictions,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook (the social network belongs to Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

The Minister also noted that it was about tightening sanctions against Russia. In particular, the Estonian government has already announced the preparation of proposals for the EU on the eighth package of sanctions, which will expand restrictions in the areas of the economy, energy and trade. “We don’t even want to negotiate energy sanctions,” Szijjártó said.

In a number of EU countries, there have been repeated calls to ban Russian citizens from entering the EU. Thus, Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have already suspended the issuance of visas to Russians. Estonia decided to close the borders for Russian citizens with visas that were issued by the republic. Exceptions are diplomats, persons with the right to free movement within the EU and those who have relatives in the country.

In addition, Finland decided to significantly reduce the number of visas issued to Russians. On August 16, the country’s government announced a reduction in the number of visa applications accepted in Russia to 500 per day. And from the beginning of September, an average of 100 applications per day for tourist visa applicants will be opened – about 10 times less than the current number.

At the same time, several EU countries spoke out against a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians. At first, the initiative was criticized by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Later, the authorities of Cyprus and Greece opposed. Also, the idea is not supported by the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell.

On August 30-31, a meeting of the heads of the EU foreign ministries is to be held. It is also planned to discuss changes in the Schengen visa code to limit the issuance of visas to all Russians, except for some specific categories. Also yesterday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the Baltic countries, as well as Poland and Finland, are considering introducing a ban on issuing visas to Russians at the regional level if the EU countries do not make a common decision.

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