The E.U. is weighing a visa ban for Russian citizens to ensure they experience 'moral' consequences for Putin's war in Ukraine.
has said it supports the E.U. denying Russians the Schengen visas, which allow passport-free travel within 26 European countries.Alessandro Rampazzo / AFP via Getty Images file
“Of course, they do not bear a legal responsibility,” he said. “But Russian society bears a particular moral responsibility that their ongoing passivity legitimizes the genocide which happens in the middle of Europe.” The Kremlin has called any suggestion of Russian visa bans “irrational thinking” from hostile countries, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: “The smell of such initiatives is not very good, to say the least.”
It’s also notoriously difficult to accurately gauge public opinion in Russia, which lacks free speech protections and has made it illegal to discredit the Russian military’s version of events.