Another Scandinavian country may soon join the list of Europeans who have imposed an entry ban on Russian citizens. True, unlike Finland, for the period from February 24, 2022, only four citizens entered Norway from Russia: one in June and three in August. These are the official statistics.
However, Norway's justice minister last month “promised” that the country would impose a ban on Russia to “prevent the influx of Russian citizens”.
The minister stressed that the country is ready to take all preventive measures, while stating that changes can occur as soon as possible. “We will quickly close the border if necessary.”
The Finnish authorities recently announced that they have banned the entry of Russian tourists with tourist Schengen visas. “Finland will strictly restrict the travel of Russians to Finland for tourism purposes. Entry restrictions go into effect at midnight on September 30, 2022 and remain in effect until further notice, — Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Another European country — Lithuania — also introduced a ban on entry from Russia. The Lithuanian authorities also announced that they have already denied entry to a total of 153 Russian citizens since the entry ban came into force.
Estonia also confirmed that it denied entry to ten Russian citizens on the first day of restrictions. Last month, it was announced that Estonia would stop issuing Schengen visas and would also impose an entry ban on all Russians with valid visas starting September 19.
In this regard, the foreign ministers of the three Baltic countries stressed that further measures must be taken to address security threats.
“Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have agreed on a common regional approach and are now expressing their political will and firm intention to introduce temporary national measures for Russian citizens holding EU visas , in order to eliminate the inevitable threats to public policy and security and restrict entry into the Schengen area for Russian citizens traveling for tourism, culture, sports and business purposes, — the ministers noted in a joint statement.
The issue of Russian citizens has caused controversy among EU countries; while some countries support the idea, others oppose restrictions such as Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.