EU executive calls for tighter visa restrictions on Russians

The EU executive has called for tighter restrictions on issuing short-stay visas to Russians in response to the Kremlin’s escalation of the war against Ukraine and partial mobilisation order.

Announcing new guidelines on Friday, Ylva Johansson, the EU commissioner for home affairs, told reporters that EU member states needed to carry out stricter checks when issuing short-stay visas for the bloc’s border-free travel zone, Qazet.az reports according to Guardian.

“We should be very, very restrictive in issuing these kind of [Schengen] visas in the security situation we are in,” she said, citing Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats, the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions, the Russian president’s mobilisation order and what she called the “attacks” on Nordstream pipelines. ‘There is an escalation of the security threat. That is why we are presenting new guidelines,” she said.