Hungary opposes new sanctions and visa prohibition for Russians

Hungary does not want to agree on new sanctions against Russia and opposes visa restrictions for citizens of the Russian Federation.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó wrote about this on his Facebook after a telephone conversation with his Estonian colleague Urmas Reinsalu.

"They also talked about a proposal that would make the practice of issuing European visas to Russian citizens more rigid. Here, we sympathize with the position of the German chancellor and do not plan to introduce any restrictions," Sijarto stated.

Sijarto and Reinsalu, in particular, discussed a new package of sanctions against Russia. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary noted that his country "does not even want to negotiate on energy sanctions."

"Currently, it is physically impossible to ensure the supply of oil and natural gas to Hungary without Russian energy resources, but we will not help the Hungarian people to pay the price of the war. "Energy sanctions harm Europe more than Russia, so their strengthening completely contradicts common sense," Peter Sijarto emphasized.

At the same time, he noted that Hungary is particularly interested in establishing peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.

• Poland has not been issuing tourist visas to citizens of the Russian Federation for several months. In August , Latvia stopped issuing visas to Russians. The Czech Republic does not issue visas and temporary residence permits to Russians until the end of March 2023. On August 11, Estonia closed the border for Russians.
• A number of European Union countries are discussing the possibility of banning the issuance of visas to citizens of Russia. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland have already taken such an initiative.
• But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz opposes the idea of banning the issuance of tourist Schengen visas to Russians, because it will make it difficult for those who disagree with Putinʼs regime to leave the country.