Germany Calls on the EU to Tighten Restrictions on Tourist Visas for Russians
Germany is calling on its European partners to tighten restrictions on Russian citizens entering the European Union on tourist visas. Officials in Berlin believe that the large number of such visas poses security risks in light of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and recent acts of sabotage.
In particular, German authorities are investigating the actions of a Belarusian citizen, who also holds a Russian passport, in connection with the alleged planning of an attack on Leipzig Airport using drones and explosives.
According to preliminary reports, the man entered the Schengen Area on a tourist visa issued by the Italian Embassy in Minsk.
Against this backdrop, the German Foreign Ministry has expressed concern over the number of tourist visas that European countries continue to issue to Russian citizens.
“The number of visas issued to Russian citizens for vacations in the European Union is too high,” said a representative of the German ministry.
According to sources close to the German government, the scale of tourist visa issuance to Russians runs counter to the spirit of the sanctions imposed due to the war against Ukraine. Furthermore, in their view, this practice makes it more difficult to monitor who exactly is entering the EU and for what purpose.
According to Euractiv, in 2025, Italy issued more Schengen visas to Russian citizens than any other EU country.
At the same time, Italy, France, and Spain received about three-quarters of all visa applications from Russians.
On the opposite end of the spectrum were the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic have virtually halted the issuance of visas to Russian citizens by imposing national restrictions that go beyond pan-European measures.
At the same time, a number of other EU countries continue to issue a significant number of Russian visas, and in some cases, the number is even increasing.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a foreign and security policy expert from the ruling CDU party in the Bundestag, called on the European Union to immediately suspend the tourist visa program for Russians.
He called the current practice “unjustified” from both a security and a moral standpoint, and urged that the issuance of visas to Russians be reduced “to an absolute minimum.”
“The excessive issuance of tourist visas to Russians runs counter to Europe’s strategy of isolating Russia. It creates a false impression of normalized relations for wealthy Russians—precisely those who benefit from the Kremlin’s reign of terror,” Kizewetter stated.
Thus, Germany is insisting on stricter controls over the issuance of tourist visas to Russian citizens and believes that, following a series of incidents, security concerns should become one of the main criteria for making such decisions.
Earlier, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump proposed imposing a fee of $103,265 for new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers. At this point, this is only a proposed rule, not a final requirement.
The U.S. has made the visa fee program, with fees of up to $20,000 for 50 countries, permanent.
The U.S. has revoked more than 175,000 visas since Trump returned to power.
