The EU-discussed ban on entry of Russian tourists to EU countries caused discontent in Portugal, whose authorities declared, that sanctions should not affect ordinary Russians.
As stated in the message of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country, the purpose of the sanctions is to punish the “Russian military machine”, not ordinary citizens of the country. The Portuguese authorities will try to influence this issue at the European level..
Statements about the need to close entry to the EU countries for Russian citizens have increasingly begun to sound recently in some EU countries, especially in the Baltics. Support for this decision was expressed in Estonia and Latvia, and the Finnish authorities decided in September to significantly reduce the issuance of visas to Russians. Similar rhetoric in the EU countries began after the proposal of the Ukrainian president to limit the issuance of visas to Russian citizens..
Earlier, in Germany, as part of the consideration of the next package of anti-Russian sanctions, a draft EU decision on the ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens was submitted for discussion.. At the same time, the German chancellor noted, that "with difficulty" imagines such a ban.
Greece and Cyprus declared their negative attitude to the ban on issuing tourist visas to Russians. They were reminded of, that Russian tourists in their countries can leave up to 2 billion euros per season, and after the Russians are denied entry, they will simply choose other places to stay, including the resorts of the Russian Federation itself.
The authorities of Poland are trying to contradict the opinion of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry, Expressing, that an entry ban against Russians could allegedly reduce the activity of “Russian agents” in Europe. In Lisbon, these statements were considered something, like outright paranoia.
