An IMGlobalWealth.news Report
The European Commission has moved to further restrict access to the Schengen Area for Russian citizens, limiting multiple-entry visas almost entirely to exceptional cases. The decision reflects Brussels’s view that Moscow’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine has fundamentally altered Europe’s security landscape.
“The bloc is not banning Russians outright, but it is signalling that mobility within Europe is now a privilege to be earned, not assumed”
“The new measures severely restrict the issuance of multiple-entry visas to Russian applicants,” said Commission spokesperson Markus Lammert in Brussels. “That being said, limited exceptions remain.” The rules, which are not retroactive, apply only to new applications.
The move builds on a series of measures introduced since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The EU suspended its Visa Facilitation Agreement with Moscow, making applications more expensive and time-consuming, and declared Russian travel documents issued in occupied Ukrainian regions invalid for Schengen entry. Baltic states went further: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania banned most Russian tourists outright.
Under the new rules, most Russians residing in the Russian Federation will only be eligible for single-entry short-stay visas. Multiple-entry permits, previously common among business travellers and regular visitors, will now be granted only in narrow circumstances. These include close relatives of EU citizens or of Russians already living in the bloc, transport workers whose duties require cross-border travel, and individuals deemed of “unquestionable integrity”, such as independent journalists, human-rights advocates, and members of civil-society organisations.
“Brussels argues that the fresh curbs are necessary to counter the “weaponisation of migration” and to reduce security risks linked to potential infiltration or misuse of the visa system”
Brussels argues that the fresh curbs are necessary to counter the “weaponisation of migration” and to reduce security risks linked to potential infiltration or misuse of the visa system. According to Commission data, Schengen countries issued more than 600,000 short-stay visas to Russian nationals in 2024, up from roughly 520,000 the previous year, despite the existing restrictions.
For the EU, the new regime marks another tightening of its stance towards Russia, less about diplomacy than about containment. The bloc is not banning Russians outright, but it is signalling that mobility within Europe is now a privilege to be earned, not assumed.
Sources: European Commission, Reuters, Euronews, EUobserver, Eurostat.
