For EU member Cyprus which is not part of the Schengen Zone the political agreement reached on Wednesday by the bloc to suspend a visa facilitation accord with Russia basically leaves it unaffected.
In essence, what the European Union’s foreign ministers have actually agreed to do is to abolish visa facilitation for Russians, thus, making it more difficult and expensive for Russian tourists to get visas.
And this specific measure mainly concerns EU member states that are part of the Schengen Zone.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Nicosia clarified on Thursday that the political agreement does not mean the abolition or prohibition of issuing visas to citizens of Russia.
This right, Demetris Demetriou also said, continues to be maintained by the European Union’s member states.
Despite intense efforts by Baltic and Eastern European countries, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides (pictured) and his counterparts who met in Prague on Wednesday refused to a unilateral ban on travel visas for Russian citizens.
This is because a number of countries, including Cyprus, argue that this specific measure punishes all Russian citizens including President Vladimir Putin’s opponents.
