As of mid-September, the list of EU countries that banned entry to Russians and decided not to issue them Schengen visas includes: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia , Czech Republic, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Four of the above countries have a common border with Russia. These are Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. They most recently agreed to stop issuing Schengen visas to Russian citizens and ban them from entering their countries from September 19, 2022.
Earlier, the Baltic republics and Poland supported the EU decision to suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. However, they insisted that stricter measures should also be applied, so they decided to introduce their own entry ban and stop issuing visas to Russians.
“Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have agreed on a common regional approach and hereby express their political will and firm intention to introduce temporary national measures for Russian citizens, holders of EU visas, in order to eliminate the imminent threats to public policy and security and restrict entry into the Schengen area for Russian citizens traveling for tourism, culture, sports and business purposes”, — these countries said in a joint statement.
Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Belgium also stopped issuing visas to Russian citizens. The Czech Republic was one of the first to take this step. Slovakia and Belgium just yesterday decided not to issue Schengen visas to Russians anymore.
Netherlands also no longer issue visas to Russians. The Dutch authorities restricted Russian citizens in visas back in April. This happened after Moscow declared the staff of the Dutch embassy persona non grata.
Most countries — among them Denmark and France — decided only to suspend the visa facilitation agreement, while some have not yet made official statements on this issue.