Riga. File photoMOSCOW, Aug 26A possible EU visa ban for Russians should not affect Russians living in Latvia, as most of them hold Latvian citizenship, Czech Ambassador to Latvia Yana Khinkova said. The ban » should not lead to any significant problems for Russians living in Latvia, since the vast majority of them have Latvian citizenship,» she said in an interview with Euractiv. According to the ambassador, the positions of the Czech Republic and Latvia on the issue of visas for Russians basically coincide. However, a number of EU countries are skeptical about the ban on their extradition. «Some countries do not want this. We need to talk to them and convince them that our conclusions are correct, which is what Latvia and the Czech Republic are doing,» Khinkova added. Recently, there have been calls in a number of European countries to ban all Russians from entering the Schengen countries. Such a ban is supported by Estonia, and the government of Finland earlier announced that the country would cut the number of visa applications in Russia by half from the beginning of September to 500 per day. In addition, the Latvian Parliament adopted a statement calling on the EU countries to stop issuing visas to citizens of Russia and Belarus. The German government had previously submitted for discussion a draft EU decision to ban the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens as part of the next sanctions package. At the same time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he «hardly» imagines such a ban. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also said that he did not support the idea of a complete ban on visas for Russians. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that European countries unfriendly to Russia are imposing sanctions «to the point of unconsciousness», the Kremlin hopes that over time «common sense will somehow manifest itself.»
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