Germany has issued only a small number of humanitarian visas to Russian citizens threatened by the Putin regime since Russia's war against Ukraine began.

So far, 73 humanitarian visas have been issued, as the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) informed the FAZ.

A total of 241 commitments were made for admission to Germany.

According to the ministry, the reason why no more humanitarian visas were issued was that the applicants had not yet visited the German missions in Russia or wanted to wait and see whether their situation would continue to deteriorate before moving to Germany.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) told the FAZ: "Russia's increasingly brutal aggression against Ukraine is being accompanied by ever-increasing internal repression, particularly against the press, against human rights activists and members of the opposition.

We offer Russians who are being persecuted and threatened protection in Germany.” At the end of May, Faeser had already promised Russian citizens who were being persecuted and threatened “quick and unbureaucratic admission”.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior had announced that it was also possible for them to apply for humanitarian visas not only in Russia but also from other countries.

No visa for Navalnyj comrades-in-arms

In practice, however, humanitarian visas are sometimes refused, even to those who are openly opposed.

For example, the German embassy in Tbilisi did not even invite Wadim Kobsev, a comrade-in-arms of the imprisoned anti-corruption fighter Alexey Navalny, for an interview, despite the documented persecution in Russia.

In a refusal from the embassy to his visa application, it said that "no serious political persecution could be determined".

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the EU foreign ministers want to discuss in Prague whether Schengen visas should continue to be issued to Russian citizens.

Unlike Poland or the Baltic states, Germany has opposed the cessation of visas.

Then no more humanitarian visas could be issued, according to the BMI.