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Europe’s latest symbolic debate (and solution) over how to punish Russia for its Ukraine war.

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Are Russians coming to Europe to tan on Mediterranean coasts as the Kremlin wages a brutal war in Ukraine — or are they escaping an autocratic regime and being exposed to European democratic values?

That is part of the debate the European Union just had, as leaders met in Prague to discuss the possibility of an EU-wide ban on Russian tourist visas . The debate divided the bloc. Western European countries like Germany and France opposed any ban that might punish ordinary Russians and play into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-Western propaganda. Meanwhile, former Soviet states and those in Russia’s neighborhood — countries like Estonia and Finland — have pushed for a ban since most Russians are transiting through their territories , and they see depriving Russians of this privilege as putting another pressure point on Putin’s regime.

On Wednesday, the EU reached something of a compromise: Foreign ministers agreed to suspend a 2007 agreement that facilitated Russian visas to the Schengen zone — that is, the EU member-states without internal border controls. This will likely make it more difficult and more expensive for Russians to get tourist visas, but it isn’t a blanket ban. At the same time, European states bordering Russia can take their own measures to restrict visas, as some already have done .

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said “business as usual” can’t continue, with Russians coming to the EU for leisure or shopping trips. But the bloc did not “want to cut ourselves off from those Russians who are against the war in Ukraine.”

The EU found consensus on this issue, which, really, was more symbolic than substantive; no one really thinks Russian tourists are going to swing Putin’s decision to perpetrate war in Ukraine. But it was a reminder that Western solidarity, six months into the war, still takes work.

“The one thing that everyone agrees on in Europe is that we can’t change geography,” said Minna Ålander, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs as of September 1. “Russia will stay our neighbor, and we will have to deal with Russia, one way or another, after this war ends at some point. But then there’s this fundamental disagreement on how to deal with Russia.”

Many European countries, Germany included, still see a need to maintain connections with Russia, and are very clear that punishment should focus on Putin and his cronies rather than on the rest of the Russian population. Others, especially those former Soviet states or those along Russia’s borders, more fully feel Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an existential security threat and want to stop and deter Moscow as fully and deliberately as possible.

This visa ban debate hinged on this longstanding split. But, as many experts said, the debate over Russian tourists is a sideshow to larger questions on continued economic and military aid to Ukraine. And for that, greater tests are ahead: namely, the energy crisis already on Europe’s doorstep.

The case for and against banning visas for Russian tourists

On July 15, Russia lifted border coronavirus restrictions , just in time for summer travel season. Because of Western sanctions, Russian aircraft can’t fly over, or to and from, the European Union . So once those Covid restrictions were lifted, many Russians started crossing the border into places like Finland , to visit there and, as some reports have suggested, as a way to transit to other European countries, by, say catching a flight from Helsinki to Rome or Madrid . Though border crossings were reportedly still below pre-Covid levels in July , DW reported that, according to Finnish media, Russians have applied for almost 60,000 visas since the beginning of the war.

It is hard to say exactly how Russians are using these visas. Some have argued that some Russians might not be lying around on the beach. Instead, they may be artists, students, academics, or others who are using these visas as a pathway out of Russia to do the work or studies they can no longer do within it. “They want the opportunity to be able to work if possible in Europe,” said Judy Dempsey, a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and editor in chief of Strategic Europe. “The problem is they tend to come to Europe, on a tourist visa, they have to keep renewing the tourist visa — they go back to Turkey or Armenia. They don’t like going back to Moscow, but they always have to keep renewing their visas.”

Visas for humanitarian reasons — like Russians seeking asylum from persecution — have always been allowed, but the EU states that opposed the tourist visa ban think the more avenues for Russians to get out and experience the world outside of a closed regime, the better. Germany and France both argued in a paper that the EU should not “underestimate the transformative power of experiencing life in democratic systems ... at first-hand, especially for future generations.”

Governments like Greece and Cyprus opposed the ban. Spain and Portugal also did, saying they wanted to punish “Putin’s war machine” and not ordinary Russians. (All also happen to be, er, nice vacation spots with strong tourism industries.) The case that Russians will vacation in Europe and all of a sudden fall in love with democracy may be a bit too idealistic — as many experts pointed out, Russians could easily vacation for many years in European capitals, and that didn’t prevent the Ukraine war. But traveling to Europe could still help counter some of the Kremlin’s anti-Western propaganda.

“The Russian government is saying in the domestic propaganda that ‘oh, the situation in Europe is terrible. We’re squeezing them, they’re totally dependent on us for energy. We’ve got the upper hand,’” said Jacob Kirkegaard, a Brussels-based senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “I don’t think there is any doubt if Russians traveled around Europe, especially in the holiday destination, they will see that actually Europe is not falling apart. Yes, prices are up a bit. But that piece of Russian propaganda is easily dispelled once you come here.”

Many of these EU officials and states also argued that any ban would play right into Putin’s propaganda, and he would exploit it to claim that the West is Russophobic.

Still, the EU states that supported a visa ban largely dismissed the idea that people-to-people contact would somehow change hearts and minds. And Putin isn’t all of a sudden going to say nice things about the EU if it doesn’t enact a ban. Kristi Raik, director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the International Center for Defense and Security, said course Putin would use a visa ban as propaganda, but that shouldn’t guide EU decision-making. “We have our own narrative — and we have to be better at communicating that sometimes. But the fear of how Putin presents it can’t be a reason when we have political and security interests for blocking tourism,” Raik said.

And states like Estonia and Finland and Latvia have argued that there are practical and national security reasons for such a ban. Those countries have to deal with screenings and border checks. As experts pointed out, it’s the Estonian or Finnish border officials who have to deal with added responsibilities, like making sure any Russians doing some European shopping aren’t violating sanctions by bringing back too many luxury goods.

Some experts dismissed the idea that Russian tourists are posing any real security threat, but many countries that support a ban see it in much grander terms — that this is about increasing pressure on the Putin regime in any way possible, another targeted sanction to get more and more people dissatisfied with the regime.

Those EU governments supportive of a visa ban say pretty simply: Hey, Russians shouldn’t get the chance to vacation while their government is waging war in Ukraine and creating a spiraling humanitarian and refugee crisis on the continent. Those who can travel to Europe are likely Russians of some means, and while they may not be oligarchs or within Putin’s inner circle ( most of those people were already banned from travel anyway ), their ability to go on summer holiday legitimizes Putin’s war.

Pretty much no one believes that stopping Russians from getting tourist visas will change the course of the war in Ukraine. As Ålander pointed out, it’s far too late for that, and it’s just not how Russia works. But a ban is still a targeted sanction, one still left in the EU’s toolbox. “Sanctions are, at the moment, the best leverage that the EU has now,” Ålander said.

The EU found a middle ground on tourist visas, but this was a pretty easy test

The EU absolutely did not agree on how to approach these tourist visas, but the plan it came up with largely manages to appease all sides: it won’t cut Russians off from Europe completely, but it will make it a bit harder, and pricier, for Russians to travel there. At the same time, states in Russia’s vicinity are taking their own measures to curb Russian arrivals, which is also likely to reduce the number of Russians traveling to Europe.

Poland and the Czech Republic stopped issuing tourist visas to Russians shortly after the war began . Earlier in August, Estonia stopped issuing tourist visas to Russia. Finland is cutting the number of visas it issues to Russians by 90 percent . Other countries continue to approve visas, and because the Schengen zone doesn’t include border checks, those Russians can travel anywhere, but tighter controls from Russia’s neighbors are likely to mean fewer Russian tourists overall.

Again, as many point out, tourism isn’t the biggest issue Europe, or the West, faces on Ukraine. So much of this is a debate over symbolism, and representative of how different parts of Europe interpret their relationship with Russia now and after the war ends.

These rifts have existed throughout the war, even as, broadly, the West has rallied to support Ukraine and impose bruising sanctions on Russia , the fallout of which has also boomeranged around the world. Still, even as the West has tried to act in lockstep, there have always been some gaps. Some countries are giving way more weapons to Ukraine. Some countries are hosting more Ukrainian refugees . Some EU countries have gotten exemptions to some of the bloc’s harshest measures against Russia.

The question is how well the West’s cohesion will last under even greater pressures. Alexander Libman, a professor of Russian and East European Politics at the Free University of Berlin, said that the visa ban shouldn’t really be the focus because it was always going to have minimal policy impacts. “There is a potential for much bigger divisions, and I guess they will have to do with energy crisis,” Libman said.

Germany is facing tremendous price increases as Russia cuts off natural gas. Germany, like other parts of Europe, is embracing measures to cut back energy usage ahead of winter, but it is hard to assess how tumultuous or disruptive the crisis will be when it’s still summery and warm. Countries like Germany are emphasizing European solidarity in confronting the looming crisis, especially as Russia threatens and chokes off the continent from energy sources. But there are cracks here too; some politicians in Germany are talking about opening Nord Stream 2 . Hungary, probably Putin’s biggest defender within the EU, just signed a deal with Gazprom .

The energy crisis may strain political will, and most importantly, resources. As Libman pointed out, if countries have to pour money into battling inflation and providing assistance to their own populations, it may mean less a weakening in support for Ukraine than an inability to maintain it. Putin, at least, is likely banking on these strains across Europe — which was always his goal, no matter where Russian tourists traveled.

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A Growing Backlash Against Russian Tourists Is Dividing Europe

L aplandia greets the shopper with the powerful aroma of smoked salmon. The sprawling warehouse of a store—located on the outskirts of Lappeenranta, Finland—opens to a display counter stocked with great slabs of the fish on plastic trays, some of it cured with herbs, some of it sprinkled with local lingonberries. But Elena wasn’t there for fish. On the morning of Aug 31, the 30-year-old Russian (who declined to give her last name to avoid social media criticism) had driven about 125 miles from St. Petersburg, Russia to buy warm clothing and shoes for her young son, plus other household supplies that EU and American sanctions had made it difficult to find at home . There was an urgency to her shopping as she beelined past the candy-colored heaps of plastic sandals and gigantic bags of chips, to a row containing industrial-sized bottles of laundry detergent—aware of a looming decision by the Finnish government “I’m worried they’re going to close the border again,” she said. “So we’ve been stocking up. This is my third trip in a week.”

Elena had reason for concern. Ever since Aug. 8, when Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called for Western countries to ban visas for Russian tourists, some European countries have been taking the suggestion very seriously. On Sept. 1, Finland—which shares a 830-mile land border with Russia—began sharply restricting the number of tourist visas it issued, from 1,000 to 100 per day. And the day before, when Elena made her third trip to Laplandia, the E.U.’s foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Prague to make it harder—but not impossible—for Russians to travel. If some of those ministers have their way, more restrictions could be coming.

“It’s not right that at the same time as Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians can live a normal life, travel in Europe, be tourists,” Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin told broadcaster Yle on Aug. 8.

Read More: ‘There’s an Atmosphere of Fear.’ With Flights Banned, Russians Are Fleeing By Train for Europe

Marin’s country is one of the few access points into Europe after the E.U. imposed a blanket flight ban to and from Russia three days after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Since Russia lifted its remaining COVID-19 restrictions on July 15, the number of people driving across at border station Nuijamaa near Lappeenranta—as well as others—has surged. “I would say it has grown about 5% per week,” says Petri Kurkinen, deputy chief of the local Finnish border police. “Right now, we’re at about 3,000 people per day.”

Many of those people, like Elena, had just come for a day’s shopping and would return to Russia that same evening. But others would travel to coastal cottages in Finland for summer vacations or drive straight to the airport in Helsinki, the country’s capital, and then board flights for Spain, France, and Greece. According to Frontex, the E.U.’s border agency, more than 1 million Russians have done just that since the invasion, most of them via Finland and Estonia, which also shares a land border with Russia.

For some of Europe’s leaders, the sight of Russian tourists sunning themselves on their beach or sitting in outdoor cafés while some of their fellow citizens participate in the devastation of Ukraine, was morally untenable. They also worried about the security threat. “What do the chemical attack in Salisbury in 2018, the Czech arms depot explosion in 2014 and the killing of a Chechen dissident in Germany in 2019 have in common?” wrote Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in a statement to TIME. “The answer: Russian agents using European tourist visas. We can see a clear pattern. Amidst aggressive Russia next door, the risk of Russian agents posing as tourists in [the] E.U. is logically higher than ever. And they do not just spy, they are often an active part of Russia’s hybrid and information warfare that’s happening alongside conventional war.”

On Aug. 18, Estonia stopped issuing tourist visas to Russians and stopped permitting entry under ones previously issued. Since then, it and other countries like Lithuania, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, have advocated for an outright ban on all Russian tourists throughout the Schengen Area—which covers 26 European countries and stretches across most of the continent. (European travel for other purposes, such as humanitarian reasons, visiting family, or to seek asylum, would remain protected.) “I simply don’t think that it is appropriate that at the same time when Ukrainian men and families have to defend their country, Russian men and Russian families can enjoy beaches in southern Europe,” says Estonian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Urmas Paet, who serves as vice-chair of the E.U.’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Beyond that moral reasoning lies a political calculation: that increasing the pain for those Russians with enough disposable income to travel in Europe will encourage opposition to the Putin regime. “So far, people from Russian cities don’t actually feel the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” says Paet. “The majority of soldiers come from poor provinces, not from Moscow and St. Petersburg. But if Europe bans tourists from coming, it will also increase the understanding in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And that may influence policy making.”

Yet other countries, including Germany, France, Spain, and Greece, have pushed back against that argument. Some leaders say that it is unfair to punish ordinary Russians for the policies of their government, particularly in an authoritarian country where the costs of dissent are high. Others contended that a visa ban would impede the work of dissidents attempting to collaborate with their counterparts outside Russia. “While limiting contacts with regime representatives and authorities to areas of vital EU interest, we need to strategically fight for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Russian population—at least the segments not yet completely estranged from ‘the West,'” read a joint memo from France and Germany, according to a Reuters report on Aug. 30.

Opponents to the ban also expressed doubt that, in a country where it remains illegal to refer to the war as, in fact, a war, it would generate enough dissatisfaction inside Russia to have any kind of meaningful impact on the regime. “The political argument is completely misleading because less than a third of the Russian population has a passport to travel abroad,” says Marie Dumoulin, director of the Wider Europe program at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Instead of leading to policy change, it would instead be “a wonderful argument for Kremlin propaganda. It will be presented as proof that it’s not about Russia waging a war against Ukraine, it’s the West waging a war against Russia, because the West is Russophobic. The Kremlin will say, ‘see, they don’t like Russians, they don’t want to see Russians in Europe.’”

Read More: In a War of Ideas, Banning Russian Propaganda Does More Harm Than Good

Ahead of the Prague meeting, tension between E.U. states over the proposed ban had grown quite sharp. But with European unity at stake, the bloc’s foreign ministers managed to reach a compromise, and decided to suspend a 2007 agreement that facilitated visas for Russians. (It’s unclear when this will take effect.) As a result, the cost of a tourist visa will rise from 35 euros to 80, the amount of documentation required from applicants will increase, and the length of time for obtaining a visa will stretch from a maximum of 10 days to 15.

The ECFR’s Dumoulin sees the decision as a success simply because it represents a compromise. “At some point, European unity is itself a policy goal. And it’s a much more important goal than setting symbols.”

Yet others aren’t so sure. The decision represents “a step in the right direction,” according to MEP Paet, but it “doesn’t go far enough.” And because it doesn’t prevent some countries from taking further action, as Finland and Estonia have done, the debate may not be over yet. As the border closures of the pandemic have shown, the Schengen agreement requiring visa-free travel among member states can be more flexible than expected in certain cases.

Those cases include security risks. “By the end of the meeting in Prague, a big number of E.U. countries were convinced that 12 million Russian citizens with valid, long term Schengen visas is a problem to E.U. security,” Lithuanian minister of foreign affairs, Gabrielius Landsbergis, wrote to TIME. “Thus, E.U. member states bordering Russia may apply national or regional security measures. Together with Estonia, Latvia, and Poland, in the coming weeks, we will seek to find solutions that will allow us to significantly limit the flow of Russian tourists.”

Back in Lappeenranta, which sits less than 40 miles from its sister city Vyborg in Russia, Finns are largely happy with the new restrictions, says Mayor Kimmo Jarva. The city has a long history of peaceful ties with its neighbor to the south, and in fact, counts some 3,000 Russian-speakers among its population of 72,000. Lappeenranta’s economy also relies—or has relied— heavily on Russian shoppers for years. “Before COVID, there were about 4,000 Russians coming every day,” Jarva says. “Now we are losing about 1 million euros every day. That started with COVID, but even now, many think we shouldn’t let them come. Although his city is “suffering economically,” Jarva says the sacrifice is worthwhile.

From his window in city hall, Jarva can gaze out at a cemetery where every headstone, he says, belongs to a soldier shot by Russians in the Second World War. That memory helps explain the local population’s desire to show its support to Ukraine—and just maybe irk Russian tourists.

So every evening at 7:30 p.m. for the past month, city hall speakers have boomed Ukraine’s national anthem. “We wanted to show our support, but also put a little bit of pressure on Russians, because we think it’s wrong that they can come and live a normal life,” Jarva says of the initiative. “Our citizens told us to do something. This is democracy.”

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PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Travel & study.

Information on travel and study opportunities in the EU

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Schengen visa, study in eu.

The European Union does not apply a general ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian nationals. Furthermore, the vast majority of European Union Member States have not closed their borders to Russian travellers and continue to issue visas, including for tourism purposes. In 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russian nationals could enter the EU and thus continued to enjoy the freedom of movement in Europe.

Visa application process

The fulfilment of entry conditions and purpose of stay is always checked during control at the EU external borders. Russian citizens need to be in possession of a valid visa to enter the Schengen Area.

First-time visa applicants have to appear in person at a consulate or an authorised visa application centre when applying for a short-stay Schengen visa to have their biometric data (10-digit fingerprints and digital photographs) collected. This data is stored in the Visa Information System (VIS) . The VIS is a means for Schengen countries to exchange data on visa applicants to facilitate the process and enhance security.

The procedure of collecting biometric data is simple and discreet, taking a few minutes. Frequent travellers to the Schengen Area do not have to have their fingerprints scanned for each visit, as the VIS stores scans for further visa applications over a 5-year period, irrespective of where the previous visa application was lodged.

This requirement is waived for children under the age of 12 and persons who cannot physically provide fingerprint scans.

Applications should be lodged at the consulate or visa application centre of the country of destination. Check the countries currently in the Schengen Area . For practical questions, applicants should first contact the Schengen consulate of their main country of destination or an official visa application centre in Russia.

Visa applicants are strongly advised to be vigilant when using the facilitation services of ‘visa agencies’ and other ‘visa intermediaries’ as they can be overcharged or issued forged supporting documents that will damage the visa history of the applicant.

For more details on:

• the Schengen visa procedures , please check the FAQ (in English and in Russian ). 
• the categories allowed to travel to the EU during the COVID-19 restrictions check here .
• the COVID-19 testing and quarantine procedures in each EU Member State check here .

Visa Facilitation suspension

The EU-Russia Visa Facilitation agreement entered into force in June 2007. It eased the issuance of visas to citizens of the Union and the Russian Federation for intended stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period. As of 1 September 2022, around 963.000 Russians held valid visas to the Schengen area.

Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU foreign affairs Ministers decided to suspend the EU's Visa Facilitation Agreement with Russia with effect from 12 September 2022. They also agreed on a common EU approach for the non-recognition of Russian passports issued in occupied regions of Ukraine and Georgia. Nevertheless, visa applications will continue being processed on an individual basis, based on a case-by-case assessment.

The Visa Facilitation Agreement suspension ended the privileged Schengen visa treatment for Russian citizens - the general rules of the EU Visa Code will apply instead. As a result, the average Russian nationals will now be treated in the same way as the visa applicants from most countries around the world - a somewhat higher visa fee, a bit longer processing times, and not so frequent issuance of multiple-entry visas.

Nonetheless, the EU will continue issuing favourably Schengen visas to Russian travellers belonging to essential categories (family members of EU citizens, seafarers, truck drivers, pupils, students, and researchers) and to vulnerable categories (journalists, dissidents, human rights defenders and civil society representatives). Under the visa rules, Member States can for instance decide to reduce or waive the visa fee in certain cases.

More information

• Commission Communication  providing guidelines on general visa issuance in relation to Russian applicants
• Council Decision  on the suspension of the application of the EU-Russia Visa Facilitation Agreement
• Press release : Commission proposes full suspension of Visa Facilitation Agreement with Russia, 6 September 2022

Study and training opportunities for Russian citizens in the EU

Erasmus+  is the EU’s programme for education, training, youth and sport for the period 2021-2027, offering EU-funded opportunities for higher education students, staff and institutions. 

The key aim of Erasmus+ is the learning mobility of individuals, which includes the following opportunities:

• Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters scholarships : represent a prestigious, integrated, international study programme, jointly delivered by an international consortium of higher education institutions. EMJMs award EU-funded scholarships to the best student candidates applying under annual selection rounds. Studies must take place in at least two of the Programme Countries. Part of the studies can also take place in Partner countries if there is a partner-country institution involved.

How to apply: consult the online  catalogue of Erasmus Mundus Masters programmes to choose the field of study, countries and universities, where you would like to study, v isit programmes' websites to verify the entry requirements and deadlines, gather the documents (CV, Motivation Letter, Recommendation Letter, etc.) and submit your application.

• Higher education mobility :  Russian universities can send students, doctoral candidates, or staff for short-term mobility assignments (2-12 months) with institutions from Erasmus+ countries. Russian universities can also host similar short-term study periods. To take part in the programme, you must be registered in a higher education institution and enrolled in studies leading to a recognised degree or tertiary-level qualification. Your period of study abroad must be relevant for your degree-related learning and personal development needs, and be part of the study programme that you are following. Your home institution and the receiving institution must have an inter-institutional agreement between them for you to study there with Erasmus+.

How to apply: contact International relations office at your university, choose universities to which you would like to apply, find study programmes that correspond with your home university's curriculum, gather the documents (CV, Motivation Letter, Recommendation Letter, etc.) and submit your application.

• As regards non-formal education, Erasmus+ offers opportunities to  young people , not just those involved in education or training. With Erasmus+, you can volunteer in Europe or outside of Europe or participate in a youth exchange abroad. Erasmus+ supports the professional development of  youth workers  through training or networking periods abroad. Periods abroad can consist of training courses, study visits, job shadowing or observation periods at relevant organisations, and more.

In addition,  Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions  (MSCA) fund worldwide and cross-sector mobility for all stages of a researcher’s career, support research training and career development focused on innovation skills and form part of the EU's Horizon Europe programme.  MSCA fellows include PhD candidates and those carrying out more advanced research in any field of studies.

• MSCA Doctoral Networks help groups of researchers gain experience of different working environments while developing transferable skills. Candidates wishing to apply for PhD positions under Doctoral Networks should apply to funded Doctoral Network projects by consulting their open vacancies advertised internationally, including on the  EURAXESS  portal.
• MSCA European Postdoctoral Fellowships is for researchers from across the world. It is a great option if you are completing your PhD or you are already an experienced researcher. Interested researchers develop and submit a proposal to an open Postdoctoral Fellowships call jointly with your host organisation , which can be a university, research institution, business, SME or other organisation based in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country. Open calls are published on the   Funding and Tenders Opportunities Portal .

26 October 2022   “Study in the European Union” webinar  - Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ Study in the EU webinar

EU toughens travel rules for Russians but issues no full visa ban

The bloc shied away from agreeing to the EU-wide visa ban demanded by Ukraine and several other member states.

European Union foreign ministers on Wednesday suspended the visa facilitation deal with Moscow, making it difficult for Russians to obtain visas to travel to the bloc.

The bloc, however, shied away from agreeing to the EU-wide visa ban demanded by Ukraine and several other member states.

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The EU was too divided to agree at this stage on a blanket ban, and also left unclear what unilateral measures Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which have land borders with Russia, could take to restrict access to Russian visitors.

These five countries welcomed the suspension of Russia’s visa facilitation deal as a step in the right direction, but four of them stressed that more needed to be done to “drastically” limit the numbers of visas issued and Russians travelling to the bloc since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

“Until such measures are in place on the EU level, we … will consider introducing on the national level temporary measures of visa ban, or restricting border crossing for Russian citizens holding EU visas, in order to address imminent public security issues,” Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland said in a joint statement.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Moscow would not let the move stand “without consequences”, according to the RIA news agency.

“If Brussels decides to shoot themselves in the foot once again, this is their choice,” he said.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said the EU’s executive Commission would indeed look at ways to go further, including what can be done with what Lipavsky said were about 12 million Schengen visas already issued for Russians – referring to the 26-country zone of open borders.

‘A security risk’

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, argued that the suspension of the visa facilitation deal will by itself already have a real impact.

“This will significantly reduce the number of new visas issued by the EU member states. It’s going to be more difficult; it’s going to take longer,” he told a news conference at the end of a two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague.

Borrell said a substantial increase in border crossings from Russia into neighbouring states since mid-July had made it necessary to suspend the visa facilitation agreement.

“This has become a security risk for these neighbouring states,” he added.

“In addition to that, we have seen many Russians travelling for leisure and shopping as if no war was raging in Ukraine.”

More than one million Russian citizens have entered the bloc through land border crossing points since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion, most of them via Finland and Estonia, the bloc’s border agency Frontex said.

Ukraine has repeatedly said that ordinary Russians must also pay for the invasion , which has killed thousands of civilians, according to the United Nations, and levelled cities.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba earlier on Wednesday repeated calls for an EU visa ban, saying it would be “an appropriate response to Russia’s genocidal war of aggression in the heart of Europe supported by an overwhelming majority of Russian citizens”.

But France and Germany disagreed.

“We caution against far-reaching restrictions on our visa policy, in order to prevent feeding the Russian narrative and triggering unintended rallying-around the flag effects and/or estranging future generations,” they said in a joint memo.

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Should Russians be allowed to vacation in Europe while the Kremlin wages war on Ukraine?

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European Union foreign ministers recently agreed to make it more difficult for Russian citizens to travel to the bloc for a vacation as retribution for the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.

But five EU member states say the Russians shouldn’t be allowed to visit Europe at all, and those states are still pressing for a total ban. It’s an issue that continues to divide European leaders.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made clear his opposition to a total travel ban at a news conference in Oslo, Norway, last month. Yes, we must hit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s henchmen hard, he said, but not ordinary Russian citizens.

“This is not the war of the Russian people,” he said. “It’s Putin’s war. We have to be very clear on that topic.”

Meanwhile, speaking at the same news conference, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin stressed her country’s support for a total ban.

“I think it’s not right that Russian citizens can travel, enter Europe, be tourists, see the sights, while Russia is killing people in Ukraine. It’s wrong,” she said.

The four other EU member states that share that view — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — also have a land border with Russia and a long troubled history of being bullied, occupied and otherwise oppressed by their dominant neighbor. While they all accept that some Russians are disgusted by the war, they regard the majority of Russians as complicit.

“Their passivity legitimizes the war and the atrocities,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Marketplace in a phone call from Tallinn, his country’s capital. “Their tax money is used to finance the bombing of schools, hospitals, kindergartens on Ukrainian soil. Citizens of the aggressor state — with some clear-cut exceptions, like people genuinely fleeing Putin’s regime — are not welcome on European soil.”  

But they are still officially welcome in many EU countries. And since most member states — including the five calling for a total travel ban — belong to the Schengen area without border checks between them, Russians can arrive in Estonia, for example, whether the Estonians like it or not.

Nick Redman, director of analysis at Oxford Analytica, an independent advisory firm, explains:

“If you’re Russian, you’re living in St. Petersburg, you want to visit France on holiday, you can get a visa from the French consulate there, take the drive to Tallinn and then get on a plane and land in France,” he said. “I can understand why Estonians feel frustrated. They’ve banned Russians but then see them appearing at their border with a visa issued by another European country that allows them passage.”

In reality, the number of Russian tourists visiting major holiday destinations in Europe slumped at the start of the pandemic and has continued to dwindle as the war has raged in Ukraine. The number of Russian applications for an EU travel visa has fallen almost 90% over the past two and a half years.

Tom Jenkins, head of the European Tourism Association and a leading expert on the European vacation industry, describes Russia as an “ex-market” right now. But it’s not one that European tour operators would happily write off.

“Before the pandemic Russian visitors were enormously important for us,” he said. “A large population with a land border with Europe. They’ve been important and affluent visitors to the Continent’s cultural capitals and also to some skiing areas, like Courchevel.”

In 2019, more Schengen-area visas were granted in Russia than any other country , and in 2018 Russians were the world’s seventh-biggest tourist spenders overall, splashing out around $35 billion on international travel .  

Greece has benefited from that spending spree. Before the pandemic, more than half a million Russians a year flocked there. At the beginning of this year, as the threat of COVID-19 receded and before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Greeks were expecting 600,000 Russians to arrive throughout this summer and to spend more than $700 million — just over 2% of Greece’s total tourism revenue.

“Unfortunately, we lost all this business due to the war,” said Lysandros Tsilides, head of the Hellenic Association of Tourist and Travel Agencies in Athens.

After the EU’s ban on flights from Russia, there was a flood of cancellations, and the expected level of bookings did not materialize. But although a total visa ban would not make much difference commercially in the short term, Tsilides is vehemently opposed to such a measure.

“Tourism promotes peace. Visitors are people. They have the right to move and speak and think freely and easily in a friendly manner,” Tsilides said. “We want to have a relationship with people from all over the world. We have to be very open.”

As an independent analyst, Redman of Oxford Analytica remains neutral on whether a total visa ban should be imposed, but he concedes that keeping Europe’s door open to ordinary Russians could help counteract Kremlin propaganda.

“At least it allows them to hear a Western perspective on what’s happening in Ukraine and to question their government’s narrative about the war,” Redman said.

Jenkins of the European Tourism Association goes further and argues that a visa ban might even bolster the Kremlin’s narrative.

“In turning around and saying, ‘Russians are the enemy,’ we’re behaving in exactly the way that Putin wants us to behave. We’re saying, ‘This is a war between the West and Russia.’ This is exactly the agenda he is putting forward.”      

None of this washes with supporters of a visa ban.

Sebastian Stodolak, vice president of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute, a Polish think tank, said that a majority of Russians have at the very least acquiesced in the invasion and that it is morally repugnant to allow them to swan around “our beautiful Europe.” He doesn’t believe that exposure to free, Western societies and media would open Russian eyes or erode support for Putin.

“Russians have been traveling around the world for the last eight years since the Crimea annexation and did they come to their sense? No, obviously not,” he said.

The issue of a total visa ban will be discussed again at a major EU summit next month. Poland, Finland and the Baltic states say they’ll keep pushing for a ban, but Germany and the tourist economies and the Putin-sympathizing Hungary say they’ll keep opposing it — another crack, albeit small, in the EU’s fragile united front over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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EU to tighten travel rules for Russians, but no visa ban

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde, center, speaks with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, second left, during a group photo of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. Others from left, Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Estonia’s Foreign Minister Umas Reinsalu speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrives for a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

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PRAGUE (AP) — European Union countries agreed Wednesday to make it harder for Russian citizens to enter the 27-nation bloc, but they failed to find a consensus on imposing an outright tourist ban in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine .

At talks in the Czech Republic, EU foreign ministers were desperate to put on a show of unity and further punish President Vladimir Putin for launching the war over six months ago. Still, they couldn’t bridge differences over whether Russian citizens, some of them possibly opposed to the invasion, should also pay a price.

The plan now is to make it more time-consuming and costly for Russian citizens to obtain short-term visas to enter Europe’s passport-free travel zone — a 26-country area made up of most of the EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland known as the Schengen area.

The move will be done by freezing a 2007 agreement to ease travel between Russia and Europe. The EU already tightened visa restrictions on Russian officials and businesspeople under the accord in May.

Speaking after chairing the meeting in the Czech capital Prague, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that an increasing number of Russians have been arriving in Europe since mid-July, some “for leisure and shopping as if no war is raging in Ukraine.”

This, he said, “has become a security risk” for European countries bordering Russia.

Borrell said said he believed the additional delays will result in fewer visas being issued.

Students, journalists and those who fear for their safety in Russia would still be able to acquire visas. The move would have no immediate impact on the estimated 12 million visas already issued to Russian citizens, but EU officials will look into what could be done to freeze them.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the move as “a half measure.” He said that visas should only be issued to Russians on humanitarian grounds or to help those who clearly oppose Putin’s war.

“The age of peace in Europe is over, and so is the age of half measures. Half measures is exactly what led to the large-scale invasion,” he said after the meeting. “If I have to choose between half measure and no measure, I will prefer a no measure and continue a discussion until a strong solution is found.”

Calls have mounted from Poland and the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — but also Denmark for a broader ban on Russian tourists. The foreign ministers of Estonia and Latvia said that they may push ahead with further visa restrictions, citing national security concerns.

“We need to immediately ramp up the price to Putin’s regime,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told reporters. “The loss of time is paid by the blood of Ukrainians.”

Uniform rules are supposed to apply across the 26 countries that make up Europe’s passport free travel area, but Reinsalu said that “it’s our national competence, under the principle of national security, to decide the issues of entry to our soil.”

Over the years, several countries have reintroduced border controls for security reasons in the Schengen area, in which Europeans and visitors can travel freely without identification checks.

The foreign minister of Finland, which shares the EU’s longest border with Russia, underlined that his country would, as of Thursday, slash the number of visas being delivered to Russian citizens to 10% of normal. They’ll only be able to apply for the travel pass in four Russian cities.

“It’s important that we show that at the same time when Ukrainians are suffering, normal tourism shouldn’t continue business as usual,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said. “Finland has already made our decision to limit the amount of tourist visas. We hope that the whole European Union will do similar decisions.”

Before Wednesday’s talks, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod had expressed hope that a common EU position could be found, pointing to the fact that most Ukrainian men don’t have the luxury to choose whether they can leave their war-torn country.

“It has to have consequences on all fronts,” Kofod said. “We want to limit visas for Russian tourists, send a clear signal to Putin, to Russia, (that) what he is doing in Ukraine is totally unacceptable.”

But European countries further from Russia and Ukraine’s borders are reluctant to go too far.

Belgium Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said it is important to avoid creating a patchwork system “where Russians could do a kind of visa shopping among the countries of the European Union.”

“It’s very important to target the right people. That is, those who support this unjust war against Ukraine and also those who try to evade the sanctions that we have imposed,” she said.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Kremlin sharply critical of Ukraine’s call for travel ban on Russians

RIGA, Latvia — The Kremlin on Tuesday condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call to ban all Russian travelers from visiting Western countries to stop Russia from annexing any more Ukrainian territory.

“The only possible attitude we can have is extremely negative,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Tuesday, after Zelensky told The Washington Post that all Russians, including tourists, business executives, students and others, should be denied visas to travel to the West.

Zelensky said that “the most important sanctions are to close the borders — because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land.” Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy,” he added.

Finland, Estonia and Latvia have either expressed concerns about Russian tourists traveling to Europe during Russia’s brutal war, or have stopped issuing visas. The leaders of countries in the European Union are expected to discuss the issue later this month, raising the prospect of a sanction that would hurt those in Russia’s middle class, who love to vacation in France, Italy and Spain and to send their children to top universities overseas.

Peskov said such ideas “smell bad” and that any attempt to isolate Russia or Russians has no prospect of success.

“In fact, this is a statement that speaks for itself. Of course, most likely, their irrational thinking has gone over the top in this case,” Peskov said. He reiterated the Kremlin’s line on sanctions — that they hurt Western countries, especially Europe, more than Russia, as Russia seeks to widen any cracks between the United States and Europe on sanctions.

“Zelensky needs to understand that European countries, which … have been trying to punish Russia … have started paying the price,” Peskov said. “Both the countries and their citizens are paying the price. Sooner or later, these countries will wonder if Zelensky is doing everything right, considering that their citizens have to pay for his whims.”

Some countries have already stopped issuing visas to Russians or have demanded that arriving Russians sign statements opposing President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Latvia last week announced that it was indefinitely halting the issuance of visas to Russians and requiring Russian travelers entering the country with existing visas to sign statements opposing the war against Ukraine.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called Tuesday for European countries to bar Russian tourists.

“Stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. Visiting #Europe is a privilege, not a human right,” she said in a tweet, adding: “Time to end tourism from Russia now.” Kallas said countries bordering Russia are bearing the brunt of Russian visa applications, with Russians traveling by land to those countries before flying on to other destinations because the European Union closed its airspace to Russian aircraft after the invasion of Ukraine.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Monday that Russian tourists should not be able to travel to Europe for vacations. She said she expects the issue to be discussed by leaders of E.U. nations later this month.

“It’s not right that at the same time as Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians can live a normal life, travel in Europe, be tourists. It’s not right,” she told Finnish national public broadcaster Yle.

According to Finland’s Foreign Ministry, many Russians use the country as a transit point to travel to other destinations, with Russian border crossings increasing by as much as 30 percent since last month, when coronavirus travel restrictions between the two countries were lifted.

In southern Ukraine, meanwhile, Russian proxies appointed to run occupied regions continue to push ahead with plans for referendums as early as next month on becoming part of Russia.

Russia’s appointees have said they could hold annexation votes next month in the occupied parts of Ukraine’s east and south — in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — in an effort to legitimize Russian occupation of the areas. The plans are a reprise of Russia’s playbook in 2014, when referendums were held in Crimea and two self-proclaimed separatist “republics” in eastern Ukraine. The votes did not win international acceptance, but Russia used them to cement its grip on the regions, subsequently annexing Crimea and, just before the Feb. 24 invasion, recognizing the two pro-Moscow republics as independent.

The Kremlin’s main dilemma in pushing ahead with referendums, according to analysts , is that they would lack legitimacy in the case of clear election fraud and intimidation. And Putin is viewed as unlikely to be happy with less than about 90 percent of voters approving annexation by Russia.

But the Russian state-owned Tass news agency reported Monday that voting in Zaporizhzhia could be held online, fueling further alarm that the vote could be manipulated. Russia used online voting in 2021 elections, a system that opposition candidates condemned, saying it was used to falsify the results and defeat opposition members.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and senior White House officials have warned that any attempted land grab through “sham” referendums would bring “additional costs imposed upon Russia.”

In addition to its referendum plans, Moscow is taking other measures to incorporate occupied Ukrainian regions into Russia, with top officials visiting frequently. Among them is Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration, who is driving the integration effort.

Moscow also is sending hundreds of Russian schoolteachers to Ukraine to implement Russia’s education curriculum, including its take on Ukrainian history. It is broadcasting Russian state propaganda about its “denazification” of the country and is issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens.

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Awe-inspiriting architecture, free-flowing vodka, hearty cuisine and fairy-tale castles. Sprawling expanses of forest and icy planes. Hip bars, opulent cathedrals and high-end shopping precincts. There’s a reason travellers are becoming increasingly intrigued by a trip to Russia. Welcome to our Russia travel guide.

One of the world’s most mysterious destinations (thanks to that impenetrable Iron Curtain), Russia is starting to pop up on many a travel hot list.

The nation’s capital, Moscow is one of Europe’s great cultural destinations. Among the many drawcards are the magnificent historical and contemporary art galleries, the picturesque Red Square, The Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theatre. On top of that are the incredible parks and churches.

The variety of food on offer in Moscow is also worthy of note. Feast on traditional Russian soups, stews, pelmeni (dumplings), filled pancakes and caviar.

For more than 100 years Hotel National Moscow has witnessed the country’s political transformation, from imperial reign through to communist rule and the fall of the Soviet Union.

It’s a hotel that perfectly matches the city’s fascinating history.

St Petersburg is a culture capital as riddled with tales of Russia’s turbulent history as it is with artworks and canals.

Thanks to its extreme northerly position, from 11 June to 2 July St Petersburg becomes an insomniac’s dream as the sun never sets. Known as the season of the midnight sun, it’s celebrated with the White Nights Festival. This showcases classical ballet and opera and culminates in the traditional Scarlet Sails celebration.

St Petersburg’s legendary State Hermitage Museum or the Winter Palace, was historically the main residence of the Russian Tsars. Today it presents something of a quandary – do you view the three million (no, that’s not a typo) artworks spanning the Paleolithic to the present day, or the grand architecture housing the art – the splendid confection of the Winter Palace with swathes of gold on walls, columns and ceilings?

According to those in the know, if you spent a minute looking at each exhibit, you would need 11 years to see them all.

Part of the Golden Ring of quaint towns some 200km north-east of Moscow, Suzdal was the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality in the 12th century. It’s a quaint little town with a very rich history. Having avoided the industrialisation that blighted much of Russia during the Soviet era (it was bypassed by the Trans-Siberian railways in the 19th century despite lobbying by locals), the town is dotted with stunning historic Russian architecture, including blue-domed churches (the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral), monasteries, and its very own 10th-century Kremlin.

You may like to venture further afield and explore the icy beauty and rambling forests of Siberia .

Perhaps a trip on the iconic Trans-Siberian railway appeals. It’s the longest railway line in the world (9289 kilometres of track) travelling through the wilds of Siberia taking six nights to travel from Moscow to Vladivostok, and also branching off along the way into the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian railways from where you can travel to Beijing, China, and then by connecting train to Vietnam and even Singapore if you are patient.

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European Russia stretches from the borders of Belarus and Ukraine to the Ural mountains, over 1000km east of Moscow; even without the rest of the vast Russian Federation, it constitutes by far the largest country in Europe. Formerly a powerful tsarist empire and a Communist superpower, Russia continues to be a source of fascination for travellers. While access is still made relatively difficult by lingering Soviet-style bureaucracy – visas are obligatory and accommodation usually has to be booked in advance – independent travel is increasing every year, and visitors are doubly rewarded by the cultural riches of the country and the warmth of the Russian people.

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Moscow, Russia’s bustling capital, combines the frenetic energy of an Eastern city with the cosmopolitan feel of a Western one. With its show-stopping architecture – from the tsarist palaces of the Kremlin and the onion domes of St Basil’s Cathedral, through the monumental relics of the Communist years, to the massive building projects of today – and the impersonal human tide that packs its streets and subways, the metropolis can feel rather overwhelming. By contrast, St Petersburg, Russia’s second city, is Europe at its most gracious, an attempt by the eighteenth-century tsar Peter the Great to emulate the best of Western European elegance in what was then a far-flung outpost. Its people are more relaxed and friendly, and its position in the delta of the River Neva is unparalleled, giving it endless watery vistas. Visible – often ostentatious – but uneven wealth creation in both cities has made them twin figureheads for Russia’s recent high-speed renaissance.

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Russia Travel Advisory

Travel advisory september 5, 2023, russia - level 4: do not travel.

Updated to remove COVID-specific information and the kidnapping risk indicator as well as updates to security risks.

Do not travel to Russia due to the unpredictable consequences of the  unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces , the potential for  harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials , the  arbitrary enforcement of local law ,  limited flights into and out of Russia , the  Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia , and the possibility of  terrorism .  U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately.  Exercise increased caution due to  the risk of wrongful detentions.

The U.S. government’s ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens in Russia is severely limited, particularly in areas far from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, due to Russian government limitations on travel for embassy personnel and staffing, and the ongoing suspension of operations, including consular services, at U.S. consulates.

There have been numerous reports of drone attacks, explosions, and fires in areas in Western and Southern Russia, particularly near the Russian border with Ukraine, as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the event of an emergency, U.S. citizens should follow instructions from local authorities and seek shelter immediately.

In September 2022, the Russian government mobilized citizens to the armed forces in support of its invasion of Ukraine. Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals’ U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, subject them to mobilization, prevent their departure from Russia, and/or conscript them. 

U.S. citizens should note that U.S. credit and debit cards no longer work in Russia, and options to electronically transfer funds from the United States are extremely limited due to sanctions imposed on Russian banks. There are reports of cash shortages within Russia.

Commercial flight options are extremely limited and are often unavailable on short notice. If you wish to depart Russia, you should make independent arrangements as soon as possible. The U.S. Embassy has severe limitations on its ability to assist U.S. citizens to depart the country and transportation options may suddenly become even more limited. Click  here  for Information for U.S. Citizens Seeking to Depart Russia.

U.S. Embassy personnel are generally not permitted to travel on Russian air carriers due to safety concerns.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded the air safety rating for Russia from Category 1 to Category 2 on April 21, 2022, due to Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport noncompliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) prohibiting U.S. aviation operations into, out of, within, or over those areas of the Moscow Flight Information Region (FIR), the Samara FIR (UWWW) and the Rostov-na-Donu (URRV) FIR within 160NM of the boundaries of the Dnipro (UKDV) Flight Information Regions. For more information, U.S. citizens should consult the  Federal Aviation Administration’s Prohibitions, Restrictions, and Notices .

The right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are not consistently protected in Russia. U.S. citizens should avoid all political or social protests and not photograph security personnel at these events. Russian authorities have arrested U.S. citizens who have participated in demonstrations and there are numerous reports Russian nationals have been detained for social media activity. 

Country Summary:

U.S. citizens, including former and current U.S. government and military personnel and private citizens engaged in business who are visiting or residing in Russia, have been interrogated without cause and threatened by Russian officials, and may become victims of harassment, mistreatment, and extortion. 

Russian security services may fail to notify the U.S. Embassy of the detention of a U.S. citizen and unreasonably delay U.S. consular assistance. Russian security services are increasing the arbitrary enforcement of local laws to target foreign and international organizations they consider “undesirable.”

Russian security services have arrested U.S. citizens on spurious charges, singled out U.S. citizens in Russia for detention and harassment, denied them fair and transparent treatment, and convicted them in secret trials or without presenting credible evidence. Furthermore, Russian authorities arbitrarily enforce local laws against U.S. citizen religious workers and have opened questionable criminal investigations against U.S. citizens engaged in religious activity. U.S. citizens should avoid travel to Russia to perform work for or volunteer with non-governmental organizations or religious organizations.

There have been multiple security incidents in southwestern Russia related to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. The Russian government declared martial law in Russia’s regions bordering Ukraine (Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Rostov, Krasnodar) on October 20, 2022. The martial law regime allows the rapid introduction of restrictive measures such as curfew, seizure of private property, restriction of entry/exit and freedom of movement, internment of foreigners, forced relocation of local residents, and restrictions on public gatherings. U.S. citizens should avoid all travel to these areas.

Recent legislation has expanded the ability of Russian authorities to detain, question, and arrest individuals suspected of acting against Russia’s interests, including posts on personal social media accounts, engaging with foreign and international entities, discrediting the Russian state or military, as well as advocating for the rights of LGBTQI+ persons.

Terrorist groups, both transnational and local terrorist organizations, and individuals inspired by extremist ideology continue plotting possible attacks in Russia. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs and systems, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas. Travel to the North Caucasus (including Chechnya and Mt. Elbrus) is prohibited for U.S. government employees and strongly discouraged for U.S. citizens.

The international community, including the United States and Ukraine, does not recognize Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea as well as four other Ukrainian oblasts – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya – that Russia has purported to annex more recently. There is extensive Russian Federation military presence in these areas. Russia staged its further invasion of Ukraine, in part, from occupied Crimea, and Russia is likely to take further military actions in Crimea, and the four other Ukrainian oblasts are the subject of intensive fighting. There are continuing abuses against foreigners and the local population by the occupation authorities in these regions, particularly against those who are seen as challenging Russia’s authority.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv continues to provide consular services to U.S. citizens in Crimea as well as four other Ukrainian oblasts partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya, although the ongoing conflict severely restricts the Embassy’s ability to provide services in these areas.

Read the  country information page  for additional information on travel to Russia.

If you decide to travel to Russia:

• Familiarize yourself with the information on  what the U.S. government can and cannot do to assist you in a crisis overseas .
• Have a contingency plan in place that does not rely on U.S. government assistance. Review the  Traveler’s Checklist .
• Monitor local and international media for breaking events and adjust your contingency plans based on the new information.
• Ensure travel documents are valid and easily accessible.
• Visit our website for  Travel to High-Risk Areas .
• Enroll in the  Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)  to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
• Follow the Department of State on  Facebook  and  Twitter .
• Review the  Country Security Report  for Russia.
• Visit the CDC page for the latest  Travel Health Information  related to your travel.

Travel Advisory Levels

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What countries can Russian citizens visit without a visa?

Generally, there are plenty of visa-free destinations for holders of Russian passports. Those include such exotic places as, for example, the South African Republic or Jamaica; but the most unproblematic destinations include its neighboring countries. 

Where can the Russians go without a passport?

Two young women in traditional dress wait with flowers and food for the arrival at the airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Some countries not only admit Russian citizens without a visa, but also do not require visitors from Russia to provide an international passport. Mostly, these are fellow post-Soviet states with close ties to Russia and a deep level of integration with the country. These countries include Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as two states with limited recognition, South Ossetia and Abkhazia [unlike the U.S. and some other countries in Europe and beyond, Russia recognizes them as independent states]. Traveling to one of those destinations is akin to moving within the Russian borders, as an internal ID [also called passport in Russia] suffices to cross the international border.

Beware though! Some restrictions may apply due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Where can the Russians go without a visa?

A view of the new Remezov Airpor in Tyumen region, Russia.

The list of countries that allow Russian citizens in without requiring a visa is long and extensive, covering almost all continents, North America being the only exception. 

In addition to other post-Soviet states like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldavia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, the list of visa-free countries for Russian citizens includes such exotic destinations as Botswana, the South African Republic, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Eswatini and Tunisia in Africa.

Russians can also visit Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Salvador, Chile, Ecuador and Jamaica in South and Central America and the Caribbean, as well as some island nations in Oceania without a visa.

In Asia, visa-free destinations include Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines. 

Some other states allowing temporary free entry to Russian citizens include the Bahamas, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Qatar, Macao, North Macedonia, Maldives, Seychelles, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and Montenegro. The list is not exhaustive.

Note that all of these countries require Russian citizens to have a visa if they intend to stay over a certain period of time. In some cases, a visa-free period may be as long as 90 days but in others it’s only 30, 21 or 14 days.

What countries issue a visa at the border for Russian citizens?

A tourist group from Russia.

Some countries require a visa from Russian citizens, but greatly simplify the process of receiving one. A Russian citizen may simply show up at the border, pay a certain fee and receive a visa on the spot.

The list of such countries includes — but is not limited to — Bangladesh, Bahrain, Haiti, the Gambia, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, India, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and others.

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Europe Traveler Guide

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new ROMANOV Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 contributed to the Revolution of 1905, which resulted in the formation of a parliament and other reforms. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened communist rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. After defeating Germany in World War II as part of an alliance with the US (1939-1945), the USSR expanded its territory and influence in Eastern Europe and emerged as a global power. The USSR was the principal adversary of the US during the Cold War (1947-1991). The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the decades following Stalin’s rule, until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics.

Following economic and political turmoil during President Boris YELTSIN’s term (1991-99), Russia shifted toward a centralized authoritarian state under the leadership of President Vladimir PUTIN (2000-2008, 2012-present) in which the regime seeks to legitimize its rule through managed elections, populist appeals, a foreign policy focused on enhancing the country’s geopolitical influence, and commodity-based economic growth. Russia faces a largely subdued rebel movement in Chechnya and some other surrounding regions, although violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus.

Russia Tourism Information

Official tourism site.

Other Sites

The Best of Russia

Here is a break down of some of the most interesting and visited places. Cities or areas listed will always have more than just one thing see and do. With the popular cities or areas we list some of the best known, which should go on everyone’s, must see list when they visit.    

The Regions of Russia…

Central russia.

Moscow – For more detailed information go to our ➾ Moscow web page.

• Oblasts: Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kostroma, Moscow, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, Vladimir, Yaroslavl
• Cities:  Moscow
• Others Sights & Attractions:

Chernozemye

• Oblasts: Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Tambov, Voronezh
• Cities: 

Kaliningrad

Northwestern russia.

Saint Petersburg – For more detailed information go to our ➾ Saint Petersburg web page

• Oblasts: Arkhangelsk, Karelia, Komi Republic, Leningrad, Murmansk, Nenetsia, Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda
• Cities:  Saint Petersburg

Southern Russia

• Oblasts: Adygea, Chechnya, Crimea, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Krasnodar Krai, North Ossetia, Rostov, Stavropol Krai

Urals Region

• Oblasts: Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk, Khantia-Mansia, Kurgan, Orenburg, Perm Krai, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Yamalia

Volga Region

• Oblasts: Astrakhan, Chuvashia, Kirov, Mari El, Mordovia, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Ulyanovsk, Volgograd

[osm_map_v3 map_center=”55.1191,44.1101″ zoom=”5.1″ width=”95%” height=”650″ post_markers=”1″ control=”fullscreen”]

🇷🇺 Russia Country Information…

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Russia warns against travel to Middle East amid fears of Iranian attack on Israel – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

• 23h ago Closing summary
• 23h ago UK prime minister says Iranian threats against Israel are 'unacceptable'
• 1d ago German foreign minister calls Iranian counterpart and urges 'maximum restraint' to avoid further escalation
• 1d ago Russia advises against travel to Middle East
• 1d ago Israel’s foreign ministry denounce Irish PM for not mentioning Gaza hostages in speech
• 1d ago Netanyahu not consulted on killing of Hamas leader's sons, Israeli media say
• 1d ago International community has 'lost' its 'moral compass on Gaza', says UN deputy secretary general
• 1d ago US says it downed 11 Yemen rebel drones
• 1d ago Turkish president offers condolences to Hamas chief for sons’ killings in Gaza
• 1d ago Hamas leader repeats Gaza ceasefire call after sons and grandchildren killed
• 1d ago US reportedly asks Iran's neighbours to help lower tensions
• 1d ago Opening summary

Russia advises against travel to Middle East

Russia on Thursday advised against travel to the Middle East and German airline Lufthansa extended a suspension of its flights to Tehran , as the region was kept on edge by Iran ’s threat to retaliate against Israel for an attack in Syria , reports Reuters.

Iran has vowed revenge for the 1 April airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus which killed a top Iranian general and six other Iranian military officers. Israel has not declared its responsibility for the attack.

According to Reuters, Russia’s foreign ministry told citizens they should refrain from travelling to the Middle East, especially to Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories .

“We strongly recommend that Russian citizens refrain from traveling to the region, especially to Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, except in cases of extreme necessity,” it said.

“The tense situation in the Middle East region persists,” said the foreign ministry, which first issued such travel advice in October when it urged Russians not to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories after Hamas attacked Israel.

Lufthansa said on Wednesday it had suspended flights to Tehran due to the situation in the Middle East. On Thursday, the airline said this had been extended until probably 13 April.

A spokesperson said Lufthansa had decided not to operate a flight from Frankfurt to Tehran last weekend to avoid the crew having to disembark to spend the night in the Iranian capital, say Reuters.

Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines are the only two western carriers flying into Tehran, which is mostly served by Turkish and Middle Eastern airlines.

Austrian Airlines, which flies from Vienna to Tehran six times a week, said it was still planning to fly on Thursday but was adjusting timings to avoid an overnight layover.

According to Reuters, there was no immediate word from other international airlines that fly to Tehran.

Closing summary

It has just gone 4pm in Gaza and 5pm in Tel Aviv and Beirut . We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here .

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

Russia’s foreign ministry on Thursday advised against travel to the Middle East and German airline Lufthansa extended a suspension of its flights to Tehran , as the region was kept on edge by Iran’s threat to retaliate against Israel for an attack in Syria. Lufthansa said on Wednesday it had suspended flights to Tehran due to the situation in the Middle East. On Thursday, the airline said this had been extended until probably 13 April.

A video has surfaced of a senior official at Israel’s cyber intelligence agency, Unit 8200, talking last year about the use of machine learning “magic powder” to help identify Hamas targets in Gaza. The footage raises questions about the accuracy of a recent statement about use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which said it “does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist”.

Israeli forces killed three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an airstrike in Gaza without consulting senior commanders or political leaders including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu , Israeli media reports said on Thursday. Quoting senior Israeli officials, Walla news agency said neither Netanyahu nor defence minister Yoav Gallant had been told in advance of the strike, which was coordinated by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet intelligence service.

Haniyeh said the Israeli attack that killed three of his sons and at least two grandchildren would not change Hamas’s demands for a permanent ceasefire and return of displaced Palestinians from their homes in ongoing negotiations mediated by Doha and Washington. “All our people and all the families of Gaza have paid a heavy price in blood, and I am one of them,” Haniyeh said. The Israeli military statement confirmed it had targeted Haniyeh’s sons, who it described as “three Hamas operatives” who were “on their way to carry out terrorist activities” but did not comment on reports that Haniyeh’s grandchildren had also been killed.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday offered condolences in a phone call to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after the death of his three sons in Gaza, his office said . “President Erdoğan stressed that Israel will definitely be held to account before law for the crimes of humanity it has been committing,” his office said in a statement on social media.

Israel’s foreign ministry on Thursday denounced Ireland’s new prime minister Simon Harris for not mentioning the hostages held by militants in Gaza during a speech to the Irish parliament. Harris – who was sworn in on Tuesday – “forgot” to “mention the 133 Israeli hostages who have been rotting in Hamas tunnels for the past six months,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The US president, Joe Biden, has vowed that US commitment to defend Israel against Iran was “ironclad”. The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has also made clear that the US will stand with Israel against any threats from Iran, in a call with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, according to the state department.

Iranian threats to carry out a missile strike against Israel are “unacceptable”, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said as he reaffirmed the UK’s support for Tel Aviv’s right to defend itself. Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday, Sunak condemned the Ayatollah’s comments, saying they were “unacceptable”. He said: “We, like the Americans, fully support Israel’s right to defend itself against that.”

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to urge “maximum restraint” to avoid further escalation , Reuters reported on Thursday .

The US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk has reportedly called the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iraq, asking them to deliver a message to Tehran to lower tensions with Israel. The Reuters news agency, citing a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says that McGurk asked the officials to contact the Iranian foreign minister and convey the message – which they are reported to have done. McGurk’s calls were first reported by Axios but the White House has declined to comment.

At least 33,545 Palestinians have been killed and 76,094 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is continuing its war in Gaza but is also preparing for scenarios in other arenas , the Times of Israel reports. “We are in challenging times. We are in the midst of a war in Gaza that is continuing with full force … but we are also preparing for challenges from other fronts,” the website reports Netanyahu telling pilots at an air force base in southern Israel.

It has been reported by US media that Hamas does not have 40 living hostages who fit the criteria needed for an exchange under a proposed ceasefire deal. In an article published on Wednesday, The New York Times cites a senior Israeli official and a senior Hamas official as the sources. CNN also reported the claims, saying sources had told the news outlet that Hamas had informed international mediators it does not have the required number of living hostages who fit the criteria, including women, sick and elderly men. It also says that Israel is now pushing for Hamas to instead include younger male hostages, as well as soldiers in an initial release. The Guardian has been unable to verify the reports.

The Kremlin on Thursday called for all countries in the Middle East to show restraint and prevent the region slipping into chaos . Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there had been no requests for Russia to mediate between Israel and Iran, though Peskov said the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus was a violation of all the principles of international law.

US senator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden, now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”. In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, reported the Times of Israel on Thursday. The IDF also said tanks had shelled an area near Tayr Harfa to “remove a threat”.

Several countries including France and Jordan airdropped about 110 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza , the French president and military said. The French military on Wednesday said the UK and Germany were involved in the operation, the largest France had taken part in so far.

The UN deputy secretary general Amina J Mohammed said that “humanity” and the “international community” has “lost” its “moral compass on Gaza”. In a social media post shared on Thursday by the UN, Mohammed urged action, saying: “We’re late.”

The US military said on Thursday that it had shot down 11 drones belonging to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels , after the group claimed it had targeted Israeli and US ships off the Gulf of Aden. The latest Houthi attacks targeted two Israeli ships as well as a US commercial vessel and a US warship, the Houthis said in a statement.

The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) has been awarded a Spanish civil order of chivalry and honour by the king of Spain. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of Unrwa, posted on social media on Thursday that it was “an honour” to receive the award. “This is in recognition of the extraordinary service of our teams wherever they are including in Gaza ,” wrote Lazzarini.

UK prime minister says Iranian threats against Israel are 'unacceptable'

Iranian threats to carry out a missile strike against Israel are “unacceptable”, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak , said as he reaffirmed the UK’s support for Tel Aviv’ s right to defend itself, reports the Press Association (PA).

Tehran has vowed to retaliate after two of its top generals were killed in an airstrike on its consulate in Syria earlier this month that the US military believes was carried out by Israel. Although Israel has not commented on the attack, Iran’s leader the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country “must be punished and it shall be”.

Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday, Sunak condemned the Ayatollah’s comments, saying they were “unacceptable”. He said: “We, like the Americans, fully support Israel’s right to defend itself against that.”

According to the Press Association, Sunak added that Britain had already “highlighted Iran as a significant risk to regional security” and taken steps to protect the UK from threats from Tehran.

Thursday also brought the repatriation of three British aid workers killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza .

James Kirby , Jim Henderson and John Chapman were working for the aid group World Central Kitchen when their convoy was struck in an attack that killed four other aid workers.

Their families paid tribute to the three men, with Kirby’s saying he would be “missed by many” while Henderson’s described him as “our shining light”. Chapman’s family said he would be “missed deeply” and was “an inspiration to many”.

Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:

German foreign minister calls Iranian counterpart and urges 'maximum restraint' to avoid further escalation

Reuters reports that German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to urge “maximum restraint” to avoid further escalation.

Iran has vowed revenge for the 1 April airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus which killed a top Iranian general and six other Iranian military officers. Iran blames Israel for this, however, Israel has not declared its responsibility for the attack.

On Wednesday, Israel’s foreign minister threatened that its country’s forces would strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel.

The Kremlin on Thursday called for all countries in the Middle East to show restraint and prevent the region slipping into chaos.

US senator Tim Kaine , a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party , has said Joe Biden , now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”.

In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.

The Democratic senator for Virginia is best known nationally as Hillary Clinton ’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, a race they lost to Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence . The Biden ally is a member of the Senate foreign relations and armed services committees.

Kaine has repeatedly reiterated his backing for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas following the terrorist attack six months ago that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. But he has joined other Democrats in expressing growing consternation over a hardline military response that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and spurred a looming famine.

You can read the full interview written by David Smith in Washington, here:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon , reports the Times of Israel on Thursday.

The Israeli news website wrote:

[IDF] fighter jets carried out a strike earlier today on a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Dhayra, where an operative was spotted. Tanks also shelled an area near Tayr Harfa to ‘remove a threat,’ the IDF adds.”

A video has surfaced of a senior official at Israel ’s cyber intelligence agency, Unit 8200 , talking last year about the use of machine learning “magic powder” to help identify Hamas targets in Gaza .

The footage raises questions about the accuracy of a recent statement about use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) , which said it “does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist”.

You can read the full story by Harry Davies and Bethan McKernan here:

At least 33,545 Palestinians have been killed and 76,094 injured in Israel ’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is continuing its war in Gaza but is also preparing for scenarios in other arenas, the Times of Israel reports.

“We are in challenging times. We are in the midst of a war in Gaza that is continuing with full force. In addition, we are continuing with ceaseless efforts to return our hostages, but we are also preparing for challenges from other fronts,” the website reports Netanyahu telling pilots at an air force base in southern Israel.

“We set a simple principle: Anyone who hits us, we hit them,” Netanyahu said, in apparent reference to Iranian threats to carry out strikes against Israel. “We are ready to fulfil our responsibilities to Israel’s security, in defence and attack.”

He was speaking amid concern that Iran was preparing to strike Israel in response for the killing of senior Iranian commanders.

The Kremlin on Thursday called for all countries in the Middle East to show restraint and prevent the region slipping into chaos, reports Reuters.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there had been no requests for Russia to mediate between Israel and Iran , though Peskov said the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus was a violation of all the principles of international law.

It has been reported by US media that Hamas does not have 40 living hostages who fit the criteria needed for an exchange under a proposed ceasefire deal.

In an article published on Wednesday, The New York Times cites a senior Israeli official and a senior Hamas official as the sources. According to the NYT, “Israel had been relayed Hamas’s claim, and the senior Hamas official said that the group had informed mediators facilitating the negotiations”. The publication said the Israeli official and the Hamas official requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

CNN also reported the claims on Wednesday, saying sources had told the news outlet that Hamas had informed international mediators it does not have the required number of living hostages who fit the criteria, including women, sick and elderly men.

It also says that Israel is now pushing for Hamas to instead include younger male hostages, as well as soldiers in an initial release.

The Guardian has been unable to verify the reports.

Israel’s foreign ministry denounce Irish PM for not mentioning Gaza hostages in speech

Israel ’s foreign ministry on Thursday denounced Ireland ’s new prime minister Simon Harris for not mentioning the hostages held by militants in Gaza during a speech to the Irish parliament , report Agence France-Presse (AFP).

AFP also say that Israel is furious with Ireland over its intention to recognise a Palestinian state and to intervene in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) .

Harris – who was sworn in on Tuesday – “forgot” to “mention the 133 Israeli hostages who have been rotting in Hamas tunnels for the past six months,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Ireland was also “planning to award additional prizes to terrorism” by backing South Africa, which it called “the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation, and the possible recognition of a Palestinian state in the future.”

“After the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust … there are those in Ireland who persist on being on the wrong side of history,” the statement added.

According to AFP, Harris, 37, Ireland’s youngest ever taoiseach, told the Irish parliament on Tuesday that “innocent children, women and men are being starved and slaughtered” in Gaza.

“We have not been silent on the unforgiveable terrorist actions of Hamas on 7 October, nor can we be silent on the disproportionate reaction of the Israeli government,” said the leader of the centre-right Fine Gael party.

In a 27 March statement declaring that it would intervene at the ICJ, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs cited “taking of hostages” as among violations of international humanitarian law that have occurred in Israel and Gaza since 7 October.

The leaders of Ireland, Malta and Slovenia , in a joint statement with Spain on 22 March, expressed “readiness to recognise Palestine” when “the circumstances are right”.

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Russia, Germany, UK Urge Restraint as Iranian Threat Puts Middle East on Edge

FILE PHOTO: A picture of late senior Iranian military commander General Qassem Soleimani hangs amid rubble after what Syrian and Iranian media described as an Israeli air strike on Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus April 1, 2024. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo

(Reuters) - Russia, Germany and Britain on Thursday urged countries in the Middle East to show restraint and Israel said it was preparing to "meet all its security needs" in a region on edge over an Iranian threat to strike Israel.

The German airline Lufthansa, one of only two Western carriers flying to Tehran, extended a suspension of its flights to the Iranian capital and Russia warned against travel to the Middle East.

Iran has vowed revenge for the April 1 airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus that killed a top Iranian general and six other Iranian military officers, ratcheting up tension in a region already strained by the Gaza war.

War in Israel and Gaza

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Israel "must be punished and it shall be", saying it was tantamount to an attack on Iranian soil.

The "imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime" might have been avoided had the U.N. Security Council condemned the strike and brought the perpetrators to justice, Tehran's mission to the United Nations said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was keeping up its war in Gaza but making security preparations elsewhere.

Photos You Should See - April 2024

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"Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively," he said in comments released following a visit to an air force base.

Iran has signalled to Washington that it will respond to Israel's attack in a way that aims to avoid major escalation and it will not act hastily, Iranian sources said.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that Israel would respond directly to any attack by Iran, Gallant's office said.

Conflict has spread across the Middle East since the eruption of the Gaza war, with Iran-backed groups declaring support for the Palestinians waging attacks from Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. Tehran has avoided direct confrontation with Israel or the United States, while declaring support for its allies.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to urge "maximum restraint" to avoid further escalation.

Russia's foreign ministry told citizens they should not travel to the Middle East, especially to Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

"Right now it's very important for everyone to maintain restraint so as not to lead to a complete destabilisation of the situation in the region, which doesn't exactly shine with stability and predictability," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing.

'POTENTIAL FOR MISCALCULATION'

British foreign minister David Cameron said on Thursday he had made clear to Amirabdollahian that Iran should not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict.

"I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence," Cameron said on X.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken called counterparts including the Turkish, Chinese and Saudi foreign ministers "to make clear that escalation is not in anyone's interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate."

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday Iran was threatening to launch a "significant attack in Israel", and that he had told Netanyahu that "our commitment to Israel security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is iron-clad".

The U.S. expects an attack by Iran against Israel but one that would not be big enough to draw Washington into war, a U.S. official said late on Thursday.

The U.S. military said on Thursday it had destroyed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from an area of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthi militia. No injuries or damage were reported to U.S., coalition or merchant vessels.

Iran is the third-largest oil producer in the OPEC group and oil prices stayed near six-month highs on Thursday.

Late on Wednesday, an Iranian news agency published an Arabic report on the X platform saying the air space over Tehran had been closed for military drills, but then removed the report and denied it had issued such news.

Lufthansa said it would probably not fly to Tehran before April 13. Austrian Airlines said it was still planning to fly on Thursday but was adjusting timings to avoid crew having to disembark for an overnight layover.

Iranian air space is also a key overflight route for Emirates' and Qatar Airways' flights to Europe and North America.

Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot and Air Arabia, among the airlines that fly to Tehran, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt, Shariq Khan in New York, Emily Chow in Singapore, and Simon Lewis and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Tom Perry, Ros Russell, Andrew Heavens and Stephen Coates; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Daniel Wallis)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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The prospect of Gazans crossing into Egypt from the border town of Rafah to escape a military assault would make the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible and cause an "atrocious dilemma" for the people fleeing, the U.N. refugee chief said on Friday.

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Already planning to see the next solar eclipse in 2026? What travelers need to know.

Umbraphiles feeling the post-eclipse blues should start checking the expiration date on their passports.

The next total solar eclipse is set to happen on Aug. 12, 2026, over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small part of Portugal, according to NASA . 

In North America, only a partial eclipse will be visible, so if April’s event made you an eclipse chaser and you want to see totality, you’ll need to head overseas.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

Here’s what you’ll need to know before packing your bags:

Do you need a passport or visa for the best destination?

The path of totality for the 2026 eclipse mostly goes through places Americans can travel visa-free with their passport, so long as they’re planning to stay for less than 90 days.

Spain, Portugal, Iceland and Greenland all allow visa-free tourist travel for U.S. passport holders.

Spain, Portugal and Iceland are also members of the Schengen Area, which allows for visa-free travel in much of Europe, meaning if you decide to make a multi-country trip out of your eclipse adventure, you won’t need to clear customs if you’re coming from much of the rest of Europe, either.

One major change for travelers to Europe from the U.S., however, is that electronic preauthorization will become a requirement beginning in mid-2025. The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) requirement will apply to all four open countries in the path of totality. 

Depending on the state of the Ukraine war, travel to Russia may or may not be an option for most Americans by 2026, so it’s unclear what the paperwork requirements will be by then.

Is it better to see it from the beach?

Beaches can be a great place to see the eclipse because there are few natural obstacles blocking observers’ views of the sky. The 2026 path of totality passes over beaches on Spain’s northern and southeastern coasts, as well as over islands in the Mediterranean Sea including Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. The eclipse will also pass over coastal areas in Greenland and Iceland, according to the National Solar Observatory . 

Cruising Altitude: What it was like to see the eclipse from a plane

Will there be eclipse cruises or flights?

Almost certainly, although most operators have not announced specific plans yet. 

Cruise lines will also offer more viewing opportunities. Princess Cruises “has created a bespoke itinerary aboard Sky Princess to position the ship near Spain on that date,” according to a spokesperson for the line. The cruise will open for bookings on Princess’s website on May 23.

Cunard Line has sailings on its Queen Mary 2 , Queen Victoria and Queen Anne vessels that will put passengers in prime spots to watch .

'The ship can move': Why you should watch next solar eclipses from a cruise ship

Holland America Line is also planning multiple sailings around the event, though details are still to be announced. “Guests have reacted positively to our 2024 eclipse cruises and with the next full eclipse in 2026 we plan to have three sailings in Europe that will align with the path of the eclipse,” Paul Grigsby, the line's vice president of Deployment & Itinerary Planning, previously told USA TODAY in an email.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Already planning to see the next solar eclipse in 2026? What travelers need to know.