The Latvian government has decided to restrict entry to Latvia for Russian citizens with Schengen visas, this morning's Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkevics boasted.
Yesterday his Estonian colleague Urmas Reinsalu was the first to announce the same.
Like, from September 19 - everything, it will be possible for Russians to get into the EU only in a detour.
Probably tomorrow a Lithuanian will come out with a similar message.
In the Baltic states, all Russophobic steps are made for three.
Apparently, they give each other courage.
In addition to the Baltic trinity, Poland also intends to introduce restrictions.
Given the recent events, this seems completely natural.
And the point is not even in the mass of other Russophobic initiatives of Warsaw, but in a completely clear feeling that some kind of madness seized Polish politicians.
Demands for reparations from Germany in the presence of two treaties that finally closed this issue, and territorial claims against the Czech Republic clearly demonstrate that the Polish gentry went crazy.
And on the Schengen issue, too.
The reaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry to the sudden Schengen barrier was both ideological and legal.
“These steps are not surprising.
They simply reveal the essence of liberalism, which is in fact a liberal dictatorship, a liberal dictatorship, and the Russophobic nature of the political forces that are now at the helm in the Baltic countries,” Maria Zakharova commented on the situation.
According to her, all the principles of international law are violated in these countries: “This [decision] has no legal basis.”
Indeed, common sense suggests that if the European Union, as an integral entity, by issuing a Schengen visa, allowed entry into its territory, then any restriction imposed by its part (in our case, the Baltic countries and Poland) explodes the common legal space of Europe.
And the fact that Josep Borrell himself gave the go-ahead for the blocking of the Baltic states, saying the other day that a Schengen visa does not at all guarantee entry to Europe for Russians, only says that Brussels risked the political integrity of the EU for the sake of a political moment.
Characteristically, the old EU member states like France or Germany or Italy and Spain have distanced themselves from discussing the Schengen topic.
Do they consider petty nasty things, bureaucratic tricks below their European dignity, formed over the centuries?
Maybe.
Apparently, for the same reason, Finland refused to support the position of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Despite imposing its own draconian restrictions on issuing visas to Russians, Helsinki nevertheless refused to block the entry of those who did receive a visa.
The principle is more important.
So why are the Baltic countries running ahead of the locomotive and so zealously destroying the European Union that they did not build?
I think it's a question for psychologists.
Having joined the EU too late, realizing that the "adult" countries took them into their company only as a trophy - part of the former USSR, turning out to be a de facto poor periphery of the EU, from which residents massively leave to work in the rich West, these countries, or rather their politicians are forced to somehow compensate for their humiliation.
So they invent ways to show that they are worth something.
At least in the case of Russophobia.
“Traveling within the European Union is a privilege, not a human right,” Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a joint Schengen statement.
Is this not a complete diagnosis?
They took us, they took us, they took us to the master's house, albeit in the position of serfs, but they didn't take you Russians, they didn't take them, they didn't take them, here you go.
To be honest, I'm even a little ashamed of my former compatriots, even if they have long been on the opposite side of the political front.
And the word “privilege” also brings to mind the historical claims of some countries and people for exclusivity.
But let us turn to the objective side of the issue.
What real damage can be caused to Russians by the Schengen initiative of the Baltic Limitrophes?
Some difficulties with logistics?
Yes.
Someone will have to make a detour, go through normal countries.
But how many Russians are concerned at all?
After all, such categories of citizens as diplomats, people who have relatives in Europe, are excluded from the number of people affected by their rights.
Most likely, only those who have some interests in the Baltic countries will really suffer.
For example, a residence permit, real estate.
Without denying the problems that will arise for Russians living in the Baltics, I note that the vast majority of our people do not belong to this category.
According to statistics, in the current 2022, Russians have 963,000 Schengen visas in their hands.
This is only 0.7% of the total population of the country.
It is clear that most of them do not go to the Baltics at all.
Europe is big.
The Baltics account for a small share.
So, in general, as a people, we will blink all these small-town bans.
By the way, the peak of the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians came in 2013 - almost 7 million. And since then, their number has only fallen until it has decreased seven times.
It seems that everyone who wanted to visit Europe as a tourist has already done so, after which they lost interest in the EU.
I judge by myself.
Limited curiosity led me at one time to Poland, where in place of Warsaw I saw a small under-Moscow, and then to Finland, where Helsinki turned out to be a poor and undeveloped copy of St. Petersburg.
After that, it was no longer drawn to Europe.
Even the expired passport did not renew.
So the Schengen decisions of the Baltic and Polish authorities should be attributed to exclusively political demarches.
So they amuse their historically hurt egos.
The fact that excessive zeal in this direction may one day hit these countries themselves is apparently not thought there.
In this regard, I remember how my wife Nastya, having been released from a Lithuanian prison at the beginning of the 2000s, where she served time for participating in a political action for free transit from Russia to Kaliningrad, talking about her adventures, she grinned: “But we go to Europe in tanks” .
She joked like that.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.