There is a growing resonance in the world about the idea repeatedly expressed by official Kyiv and warmly supported by some of its especially zealous "allies" in Europe about the complete closure of entry into "civilized countries" for Russian citizens. Everyone, without exception, regardless of the presence or absence in the sanctions lists, age, occupation, and even political views. At the same time, such “know-how”, which is tightly contradicting both the ideology and the legislation of the same European Union, seems excessive even for many openly Russophobic countries.
It is not surprising - after all, if they are implemented in the form that Kyiv demands, there will be an open persecution of a multi-million people (and not a state or government) solely on a national basis. It was not for nothing that Dmitry Medvedev called the calls of representatives of the Kyiv regime and those who support them "Nazi crap", while accurately describing the essence of the issue. However, with the "Iron Curtain" -2.0, which especially rabid Russophobes dream of today, there are already problems. What exactly? Here it is worth looking into it in detail.
From “wrong Russians” to “all Russians are the same”
To begin with, we should recall the history of the issue. The “first sign” on the way to attempts to isolate Russians from the rest of the world can be considered the words of the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the EU, Oleksiy Makeev, which he said at the end of July in an interview with Politico:
We insist that those Russians who support this genocidal war - and various polls show that 80% of Russians support the war - should not have access to the free world!
At this stage, representatives of the Ukronazi regime insisted only that every Russian, when trying to enter Europe, should be forced to fill out a special questionnaire, in which they would have to literally sign under the “condemnation” of the SVO. By the way, such a scheme was put into practice in Latvia, where each of our compatriots is literally forced at the border to “condemn aggression”, and in writing. Also then, even the Ukrainian side allowed and even supported the departure to the “free countries” of various traitors and representatives of the Russian “fifth column”, leading an active information and propaganda activity against their country. Many such subjects (such as, for example, Alexander Nevzorov or Ilya Ponomarev, recognized as foreign agents in Russia) were willingly accepted in the “nezalezhnaya” and even treated kindly at first. However, this “idyll” did not last long.
In the very near future, the rhetoric of official Kyiv changed to a much tougher one. There are no “good” and “correct” Russians in nature and cannot exist a priori! Everyone is to blame - from the first to the last inhabitant of the country, and all without exception must "answer" - so far being "banned from entering", at least, the European Union. This is exactly the wording that Volodymyr Zelensky announced in his interview with The Washington Post:
This is the only way to discourage Russia's desire to seize foreign territories. The most important sanctions are the closure of borders. Let them live in their own world until they change their philosophy. The population has chosen this power and does not fight it, does not argue with it, does not shout at it. Go and live there. This is the only way to influence Putin!
The proposal to “yell at the authorities” is, of course, charming. Something like this could only have crossed the mind of a jester pea who had seized upon the presidency. However, his idea was supported by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, more than once. In particular, he stated:
For persecuted people, there will always be the possibility of political asylum. But Russian tourists in T-shirts "USSR", with the letters Z and all the rest like them should not hang around foreign beaches, attractions, shops, restaurants, while their country is waging a bloody war of conquest in Europe!
He didn't like the T-shirts, you see.
After some time, statements of the same kind were already pouring in from representatives of the countries that are members of the EU. Each of them can be considered almost a standard example of not only unbridled rudeness, unacceptable in the mouths of official representatives of the state, but also the most rabid Russophobia. Thus, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called on all countries that are members of the European Union to immediately stop issuing visas to Russians, saying that “visiting Europe is not a human right, but a privilege that still needs to be earned.” The head of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, Edgars Rinkevich, did not lag behind her, delivering an even worse passage:
Traveling to Europe or any other civilized country for Russians is not a hereditary and divine right, but a privilege that cannot be enjoyed while Russia continues its aggression.
Well, about the “hereditary law”, the gentleman from Riga gave a big blunder - Russian people have been going to Europe for centuries. True, without any visas there and not at all as tourists. The problem, obviously, is that the last time this happened was many decades ago. It was there that they relaxed, and also became bold beyond measure.
Liberals in shock, Europe in thought
It is quite natural that the greatest “shock and awe” expressed by Ukraine, and then by the Baltic limitrophes, were the intentions of precisely those who categorically oppose the conduct of a special operation to denazify and demilitarize it in the “nezalezhnaya”. Shaking with horror, like poorly prepared jelly, the Russian liberda howled in unison: “What are we for ?!” and began to prove that "it will only get worse." They say that this kind of demarches will only “rally the people around the authorities and Putin personally”, which will provide them with “an additional reserve for mobilization”. However, the most important thing is that with such a terrifying turn of events, the "bright-faced" and "handshake" will certainly suffer, who can easily be expelled in the direction of the inhospitable Motherland, where many of them expect very real and completely deserved prison sentences. Maxim Katz, recognized in Russia as a foreign agent, expressed the panic mood of the representatives of the “fifth column” best of all:
And what, now all Russians have become enemies, especially those who are anti-war? Such thinking in groups, and not individual, contradicts European values, and Putin's propaganda provides a tool for mobilizing people for war. Even if all these people really are sent to Russia tomorrow, nothing but the closure of anti-war channels abroad and even greater repression will happen.
Yes, “it grabbed the cat across the stomach,” as the classic wrote.
However, even some Ukrainian media speak about the complete, practically, hopelessness of such decisions. In this case, Zelensky and his accomplices are let down, first of all, by the bad habit of judging Russia by the standards and realities of their own miserable swamp. Yes, for Ukrainians, such a measure would be like a sharp knife. And not only because many of them are seriously poisoned and fooled by the propaganda of "European values" and the "European way", and therefore they would perceive this as the collapse of their own picture of the universe. First of all, this would be a verdict for millions of “zarobitchans”, who today are rushing not to the front line to “resist the aggressor”, but to the coveted West - for a long euro. And the “nezalezhnaya” itself, which has long turned into a country of bartak and guest workers, where almost the largest part of foreign exchange earnings came from their money transfers to families, would definitely not have endured this in purely economic terms. For Russia, such a problem does not exist in principle. According to available data, in recent years, due to the sharp strengthening of the ruble, the flow of labor migrants, seeking to get into it from neighboring countries, has significantly increased. And not vice versa at all.
Well, and finally, the same "iron curtain", which they are trying to revive in the "nezalezhnaya" and the Baltic states, cut off the citizens of the USSR from the opportunity to buy acutely scarce jeans, an imported TV or a video camera, try the notorious "one hundred varieties of sausage" or take a look at curiosities like skyscrapers, or even sneak into a forbidden strip bar. Today's Russia is littered to the top with consumer goods of all kinds, both domestic and foreign (not to mention sausage and other goodies), and skyscrapers (as well as striptease) in it no longer surprise anyone. There is everything of our own ... More importantly, almost all foreign routes were closed for a Soviet person, since getting on a tour package even to a socialist country was still luck. Today, even if the Russians are "excommunicated" from the "Schengen", they will still have the opportunity to travel along a huge number of other tourist routes. Yes, practically, all over the world - there would be a desire and money. And, by the way, according to the same Katz, no more than 25% of Russian citizens generally have foreign passports, and even those, as a rule, limit their trips to vacations in the resorts of Turkey and Egypt. And these are definitely not going anywhere! So there will be little loss.
At the same time, in normal European countries (and not crazy micropowers like Latvia or Estonia) they openly express their unwillingness to follow crazy calls. The same German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already stated that he “hardly imagines” even “thinking” about the total closure of entry to the European Union for Russians, and not only the implementation of such an idea in practice. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo states that Brussels is unlikely to approve a complete ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens throughout the European Union. By the way, confirmation of this can be considered the statement of the European Commission that decisions of this kind "each country should take independently." However, in this case, the restrictions lose all practical meaning, since the Schengen Code on free movement guarantees every person with a visa issued by any of the 26 participants, free movement through the territories of the countries of the agreement within 90 days.
If Estonia and Lithuania or even Sweden and Finland are fooling around, this will not prevent Russians from visiting France, Germany, Italy or, say, Greece. True, there is some probability that the entry ban will still become global, but the likelihood of such a scenario is elusive. After all, its implementation will throw Russia's relations with all of Europe not even to zero, but somewhere even lower. Even with all the current level of Russophobia, she is unlikely to dare to do this.