EU Nations Push For Visa Crackdown on Russian Tourists

A group of European countries has called on the EU to make it harder for Russians to holiday in Europe as the war in Ukraine grinds through a fifth year.

EU interior ministers were discussing the issue, raised in a letter by Poland, Norway, the Baltic states and another nine members of the free-movement Schengen area, at a meeting in Luxembourg Thursday.

“It has been deeply troubling to witness increasing numbers of Russian tourists enjoying leisure travel on European beaches and in European resorts while missiles and drones continue to strike civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” read the letter seen by AFP.

The bloc has suspended its visa facilitation agreement with Russia and last November moved to deny Russians multi-entry visas.

The number of visas issued to Russians has dropped sharply from more than four million before the war to about half a million in 2024.

Hawkish EU countries argue that is not enough and complain about an uneven application of the current rules across the bloc.

More than 470,000 tourist Schengen visas were issued to Russian citizens in 2025, many multi-entry, according to the letter.

“I want there to be no more shopping weekends. I want there to be no more fancy trips to Europe while Ukrainians are dying on the battlefield,” Sweden’s migration minister Johan Forssell told reporters arriving at the Luxembourg talks.

“This situation is completely insane and it needs to be stopped.”

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Tourist hotspots France, Spain and Italy are among the countries that issue the most visas.

The letter dated June 2 called for “new restrictive and binding visa measures”, arguing that easy access to Europe also posed security risks, amid fears the Kremlin aims to destabilise the bloc through hybrid attacks.

Better measures were needed to identify Russians who fought in Ukraine and prevent them from entering Europe, the signatories wrote.

While proponents argue ordinary Russians should feel more impact from the war, other EU nations say it would be wrong to use visa restrictions as a blanket punitive measure.

Travel to Europe also helps expose Russians captive to a tightly controlled media environment at home to different narratives and ideas, argue some EU diplomats.

Russian opposition figurehead Yulia Navalnaya said in September that broad restrictions would be a “serious mistake” as they would feed the Kremlin’s narrative that Europe is hostile to all Russians.