The United States does not support the idea of stopping issuing visas to Russian citizens and considers it necessary to distinguish between the actions of the Russian authorities and ordinary citizens of the country. This was said in a statement by a State Department spokesman, the text of which was quoted by CNN on Monday.
“The U.S. would not want to close off the opportunity for Russian dissidents and others who are vulnerable to human rights abuses to find sanctuary and safety. We have also made clear that it is important to draw a line between the actions of the Russian government and its policies in Ukraine and the people of Russia,” he said.
At the same time, the US foreign policy official recalled that Washington has imposed visa sanctions on nearly 5,000 people since Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine began.
“We will continue to identify those involved in the Russian invasion and hold them accountable for their behaviour,” the diplomat said.
For his part, Ned Price, head of the press office of the US Foreign Service, returned to the subject of visas, responding to an attempt by a foreign journalist attending a briefing at the State Department on Monday to call for actually collective accountability for the Russians. The Azerbaijani reporter asked Price how Washington expects to make Russian residents “stand up to the regime” if Russians are not forced to “share the burden” of responsibility for the authorities’ actions and are allowed to “enjoy the privileges of entry into Europe and the US”.
“As to your question, we have clearly said that we have to draw a line between those who are guilty of this aggression, involved in one way or another, and the people of Russia,” Price objected.
On 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the leaders of the Donbas republics. Following this, the USA, the EU, the UK, as well as a number of other states imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and entities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with The Washington Post that Western countries should ban all Russians from entering their territory, while Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba later called on “all EU and G7 countries to stop issuing visas to Russians” on Twitter. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Zelensky’s words, noted that trying to isolate Russians or Russia is a futile process.
The EU foreign ministers will consider proposals from the Baltic States and Finland to ban the issuing of Schengen visas to Russians at an informal meeting in Prague on 30-31 August. As the Schengen visa code does not stipulate possibility of complete ban of issuing visas on the national ground, initiators of this project have two options: either to start revising Schengen norms, which may become a long and problematic procedure, or to reach an agreement among a number of EU countries to limit issuing visas to certain categories of Russian citizens. Most of the southern and western EU countries oppose such an initiative. Commenting on Kiev’s position, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Julie Stafft, said that at the moment there were no restrictions on the issuance of visas to Russians by the United States. For his part, an unnamed US official responded to Zelenskyy’s call by telling The Washington Post that for the USA to stop issuing visas to all Russians would be too radical a step not in line with the principles of the US administration. According to him, the US “would not want to impose a total ban on all Russians”.