The pressure on the chancellor is increasing: the visa sanctions must come

It is high time that the effects of the Ukraine war had an impact on Russians' everyday lives.

Chancellor Scholz must ensure that the visa agreement with Russia is suspended.

A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.

While Putin's bombs are killing innocent people in Ukraine, wealthy Russians continue to vacation unperturbed on the Côte de Azur. This idea is so unbearable that the Chancellor's veto against any restrictions on European visas for Putin's compatriots cannot and will not stand .

The previous practice of generously and largely automatically issuing EU tourist visas to Russian citizens must be ended, the visa agreement with Russia concluded in 2007 must be suspended and tourist travel made significantly more difficult.

What else?

Ukraine war: An invisible rift runs through Europe over the visa issue

As with the arms deliveries to Ukraine, there is an invisible rift running through Europe over the visa issue.

The Baltic States, Finland, the Czech Republic and in general the East, where Putin has been known for many years and has been correctly assessed from the beginning, rely on more toughness, while the countries of Western Europe, especially Germany and France, do not want to irritate the dictator too much.

Moscow is reacting with extreme nervousness to possible travel restrictions, as can be seen from statements by leading Putin supporters, because they make the war felt for Russian citizens and destroy the Kremlin's fiction that the so-called "special operation" has no price for Putin's subjects.

Even if that doesn't immediately lead to a rethink in Moscow's upper class, it's right to increase the pressure on the regime.

In order to finally get the Kremlin ready to negotiate, this war must become part of the reality of Russian life.

Because, contrary to what Olaf Scholz claims, it is not just “Putin's war”, but a crime that millions of Russian sympathizers and followers commit every day.