Greece and Cyprus oppose EU-wide visa ban on Russian tourists amid war in Ukraine

Cyprus and Greece on Friday opposed the EU-wide ban on Russian tourist visas in a similar stance taken by European nation Germany. Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania had pushed for the EU to instate a total ban on Russian travellers to the EU nations via land routes as air transportation has been suspended in response to Moscow's offensive launched in Ukraine. Greece and Cyprus became the latest two countries to reject the appeal of a tourist visa ban on the Russians made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. EU members are slated to discuss the tourist ban at a meeting in Prague at the end of August.  

"It would be a decision in the wrong direction," Kornelios Korneliou, the general secretary of Cyprus’ Foreign Ministry told Politico.

"We believe in people-to-people contacts and even Turkish nationals are granted visas by the Cypriot authorities, so we don’t consider that measure has any value for Russians," he furthermore added.

The Greek officials on Friday also objected to changing the status of Russian visas, in line with the measure taken by Finland. The Northern European country that shares its border with Russia announced that it will limit the tourist visas for the Russians to just about 10%, slashing the figures it had approved previously effective September 1.

European Commission rules out full ban on Schengen tourist visas for Russians 

In an official announcement, the Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said that while there has been a significant rush of Russian tourists into Europe, Finland has decided to slash the tourist visas for Russian citizens. Active dialogue has been continuing among several European Union member states to end the tourism for Russian citizens in Europe in order to pressurize the Kremlin to end its "special military operation" in Ukraine. 

The European Commission, however, ruled out a full ban on Schengen tourist visas for Russians, saying that it went against EU norms despite the calls from Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic to implement such a measure. The Schengen visa allows tourists to travel to any members of the Schengen Area for up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes.