Visa. File photoMOSCOW, Aug 30Instead of banning visas to Russian citizens, EU ministers can only achieve a «political solution» by slowing down the issuance process and making it more expensive, writes the European publication Politico. Earlier, the Financial Times reported that the EU this week intends to support the suspension of the simplification agreement visa regime with Russia. At the same time, more radical decisions on the visa issue, according to the publication, may be made by the end of the year. Politico notes that ardent opponents of Russia in the European Union are meeting an increasingly cool response from other EU countries to calls to introduce new restrictions against Moscow, including in the issue of visas. Officials admit that even such a measure is now met with little enthusiasm in Europe, not to mention tougher initiatives for the EU itself. more expensive,” the publication’s material says. In addition, it is emphasized that supporters of the ban on issuing visas to Russians were angered by the call from France and Germany not to take such measures against persons not connected with the government of the country. It is expected that the “visa issue” will be discussed at meeting during the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague on August 30-31. At the same time, RIA Novosti was reminded in the European Commission that EU member states can restrict the issuance of visas on their own, but there will always be categories of people who should be issued visas — for example, in humanitarian cases, for family members located in the EU, as well as for journalists or dissidents. Recently, representatives of a number of Western states called for a ban on the issuance of visas to Russian citizens, but there is no single position on this issue. The Kremlin expressed hope for sober thinking in Brussels on this issue. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that European countries unfriendly to Russia are imposing sanctions «to the point of unconsciousness.» Russians
