Every week the number of Russians entering the EU countries is halved. At this rate, this stream can turn from a full-flowing river into a thin stream. There is no need to talk about tourists at all, since now Russians go to Europe mainly on humanitarian visas and at the invitation of relatives. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex provided the latest data on the falling curtain.
According to the agency, only about 25,600 Russian citizens entered the EU in the first week of October – half of the volume that was a week ago. By comparison, almost 66,000 Russians crossed European borders between 19 and 25 September, up over 30 percent from the previous week. And as of September 28, a total of over 1,303,000 Russian citizens have entered the EU.
The agency also revealed that Russian citizens who arrived in the European bloc were mostly men of military age, aged between 18 and 65. However, flow to Europe is likely to decline further as the EU supports stricter visa policies. The main “exit routes” from the Russian Federation are the border points of Finland and Estonia.
According to Frontex, most Russians who have entered the EU have residence permits or visas from EU member states, and some others even have dual citizenship. “As in the previous week, the majority of Russian travelers hold residence permits or visas for EU member states or Schengen-associated countries, while others hold dual citizenship,” the statement said.
Recall that the EU countries neighboring Russia (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and Poland imposed restrictions on persons with a Russian passport, and on September 19, these countries introduced an entry ban for our compatriots, stating that they would no longer issue them Schengen visas. The systematic bans of the EU countries for crossing the borders of Russians for tourism purposes leads to the fact that the measures taken by the authorities of some European countries still bear fruit – the Russians were fenced off from the European bloc.
Returning home
Let's cite other agency data: a total of 1.379 million Russians have entered the EU through its land borders since the beginning of the February events. At the same time, about 1.341 million Russian citizens returned to their country through land borders with the EU.
As Frontex explained, against the background of the closure of their borders by some EU countries, the partial mobilization of Russian citizens led to an increase in the number of border crossings by Russian citizens, in mainly to visa-free countries and other easily accessible countries, including Georgia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
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