Europe can't determine whether to punish Russians for Putin's war

Europe can't determine whether to punish Russians for Putin's war

Updated on August 18, 2022 17:54 PM by Dhinesh

Border with Russia

Finland, which has a border with Russia that is 830 miles long, said this week that it will cut in half the number of Russians who can apply for visas. At the moment, 1,000 Russians can apply for a visa to Finland every day, but that number will drop to 500 on September 1. Jussi Tanner, who is in charge of consular services at Finland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the media that no more than 100 tourist visas will be given out each day. This means that no more than 20% of the slots will be used for tourist visas.

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European Union country that shares a border with Russia

The move comes after Estonia, another European Union country that shares a border with Russia, made it impossible for Russians to enter the country, even if they had visas. Reuters says that this amounts to 50,000 people. The Czech Republic and Latvia have also backed visa bans and taken steps to make it harder for Russians to travel to EU countries. The idea came from Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. He wants to stop Russians from entering the bloc, where they can then travel freely for 90 days in the Schengen area, which is the EU's common travel zone.

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Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor

Everyone doesn't agree. Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, says that it is important to punish those in Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, but that Europeans also need to "understand that a lot of people are leaving Russia because they don't agree with the Russian regime." A senior German diplomat told media that Scholz's argument is not true because anyone can apply for a humanitarian visa. The diplomat thinks that Scholz's main goal is to "balance his own party, which is split between people who want to talk to Russia and people who want to look tough." People who want to limit the number of visas for people from Russia think the case is pretty clear.

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Alexander Stubb

Alexander Stubb, a former Finnish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister who had pushed for visa-free travel with Russia, told the media, "It's a sad situation, but Russian citizens have to pay the price of war." He told me that "The only way to change the minds and hearts of the Russian people is for them to realize that what Putin is doing is against international law. That means that Russians can't get a visa at all." Rasa Jukneviien, who used to be the defense minister of Lithuania and is now a member of the European Parliament, says, "This is a security issue first and foremost."

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Openness of the Schengen countries

"Most Russians who go to the EU do so through Finland and Estonia. There is a lot of pressure on the official services of the countries. Russia is run by structures left over from the KGB, which use the openness of the Schengen countries for different operations "Juknevičienė told the media. It's unlikely that European leaders will agree on this issue completely. Even though the EU has been mostly united since the start of the war and has worked together to put serious economic sanctions on Russia, the fact that it is made up of 27 countries with very different economic and political priorities makes it hard for them to agree on anything. Countries in the west and south of the EU, which are somewhat safe from Kremlin aggression because of their distance, are quick to remind hawks that Russia is a big part of Europe as a whole.

Because of this, it is not only very hard but also probably not very useful to just ignore Russia. As soon as the war is over, the economies of Europe will want to get back in touch with Russia. Not only is this good for those countries, but it could also help in a propaganda war after the war to show average Russians how good European values are. Most serious people also agree, from a strategic point of view, that any plans for European security after the war will have to include Russia, and it is much better for Moscow to be involved and work with its European neighbors.

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Russia and fights

On the other end of the spectrum are countries like Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, which have suffered a lot at the hands of Russia, both during the Soviet Union's oppressive dictatorship and more recently under Putin's Kremlin. These are the different things that make it hard to deal with Putin and Russia. If Putin stays in power after the war, will the EU work with him? If not, how different must the next leader be from Putin for the bloc to be happy? What would need to be in a hypothetical treaty to give European leaders confidence that Russia won't start any more fights? What might the EU be willing to give up to help make a peace deal? Throughout all of this, it's important to remember that Ukraine is now trying to join the EU.

All of these big questions lead to smaller ones, like what should be done about visas during the conflict. More and more of these questions will come up as the war goes on and the West's options for sanctions and retaliation become less and less. The hard truth is that these smaller questions, which are in and of themselves headaches, have to be weighed against whatever the best-case, long-term outcome of this bad time is. And one thing will never change: Europe will never be able to ignore Russia.

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