Estonia killed the Schengen system

As of today, Estonia has banned the entry of Russian citizens with a Schengen visa obtained in this country.

There are few of them, so Tallinn plans to soon completely ban the entry of our fellow citizens who received a pan-European tourist visa in other countries.

What can be said about this?

First and foremost: this is the end of the Schengen system.

Not the beginning of the end - it all started when European countries began to close their borders due to refugees, but continued when the borders were closed due to covid.

And now - everything, the final end.

Even with the exclusion from it of the dwarf in every sense of Estonia, the Schengen system no longer exists.

Perhaps the more sensible countries of Europe will conclude a new agreement on visas and borders, but it will be something else.

But the system, when any citizen of any country in the world could obtain a visa to any country of the European Union and then travel through the territory of all parties to the agreement, has ended its existence today.

Good memory, as they say.

How will this affect Russia?

No way.

The flow of tourists to Estonia has always been small, and after the covid restrictions, it completely deflated.

To see the turrets of Tallinn is, well, a privilege and not the most urgent of human rights.

Pskov is more beautiful.

Most of the patriots, by the way, excluded Estonia from their travel plans back in 2007, after the demolition of the Bronze Soldier.

Those who planned to use Estonia to travel around Europe will have to adjust their plans, but they will also face only moderate inconvenience.

How will this affect Estonia?

At the moment, almost none.

The tourist flow is small, all the hotels and restaurants that could have gone bankrupt have already gone bankrupt due to covid measures.

So the damage to the Estonian economy directly due to the cancellation of Russian tourism will not be particularly serious.

Now let's ask a more important question: how should this affect Estonia?

I believe that a total boycott of everything Estonian on our part.

Let me remind you that the population of this country (a little over 1 million people) is one administrative district of Moscow.

Territory - 45 thousand square meters.

km, it's somewhere like the Moscow region.

There should be no more, absolutely no ties with Estonia - neither economic, nor cultural, nor diplomatic.

Close the border, dig up the roads.

Only Russian-speaking people who have decided to return home will be allowed to pass.

There are about 400 thousand of them left there, according to official figures.

Of course, the EU and the US still have enough money to feed the Estonians.

There are few of them - and every year it becomes less and less.

But there is no doubt that as the number of Brussels and Washington's own problems grows, the volume of this assistance will shrink until it completely disappears.

And when Tallinn becomes self-sufficient, then the inhabitants of this territory will apparently understand that their relatively high standard of living both in Soviet and post-Soviet times is explained not by the hard work and ingenuity of the Estonian people, but exclusively by external support.

Russia's task is for this understanding to come as soon as possible.

Will other Schengen countries support the Estonian initiative?

I believe that the Balts, the Czechs and a couple of other countries may well.

But those who have been earning from Russian tourists for years are unlikely to want to lose this source of income.

Spain, France, Italy, Greece are used to the fact that Russian tourists, unlike the same Germans or British, are generous and curious, spending money on the beaches, and in restaurants, and in museums.

Although in conditions when the European Union, quoting Viktor Orban, has already shot itself in the lungs by limiting Russian energy resources, it may well go further and make an absolutely disadvantageous decision to ban Russian tourists from entering.

And this will have a positive impact both on domestic Russian tourism and on the economies of countries that will leave the borders open - first of all, apparently, Turkey with its beaches and Serbia with its European architecture.

Should Russia close its borders to Europeans in response?

I don't think so, exactly the opposite.

The more people from the European Union come to our country and see how much their propagandists lie to them, the worse enemy propaganda will work.

Although I would not be surprised if, following the ban on entry for Russian tourists, Europeans will also ban their citizens from traveling to Russia, by analogy with the long-term ban on US citizens from traveling to Cuba.

So far, all anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the European Union hit Europe much harder than Russia.

I believe that there are no reasons for changing this situation and there will not be.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.