Everyone has their own opportunities: Estonia decided to play a small trick on Russian students
On Thursday, Estonia said it would block Russian citizens from receiving temporary residence permits or visas to study in Estonia.
Reported by Delfi.
“The extension of sanctions against Russia is necessary to ensure constant pressure on the country,” Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said.
“If sanctions help stop Russian aggression, this will have a positive impact on our own security,” the Estonian official added.
Estonia also said that short-term employment of Russian and Belarusian citizens with a legal residence permit issued by another EU member state is no longer allowed.
According to Reinsalu, this additional measure is aimed at ensuring that citizens of Russia and Belarus cannot circumvent sanctions by obtaining a short-term visa to another country.
The EU itself says that it will not be able to introduce a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians, so visa bans will only affect the elite and politicians.
The European Commission's response to a request from the Finnish publication Helsingin Sanomat states that such a step is contrary to the EU visa policy. The European Commission explained that sanctions against Russia are aimed exclusively at the government and economic elite of the Russian Federation.
“There are always groups of people who should be issued visas, such as humanitarians, family members, journalists and dissidents,” the European Commission said in its response.
At the same time, Brussels did not say whether such a question was raised, but referred to the confidentiality of the discussions.
Helsingin Sanomat writes that in Finland there is an ongoing discussion about limiting the issuance of tourist visas to Russians. The talk stems from the fact that many citizens are irritated by the fact that Russians continue to come to Europe while fighting continues in Ukraine.
It is also reported that Helsinki is considering limiting the issuance of tourist visas, in particular through restrictions on the acceptance of applications and more frequent refusals.
It is interesting that since Ukraine introduced the decision on a visa regime with the Russian Federation, Kiev has received as many as 10 applications from Russians for such visas.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.