Shut down Germany for traveling Russians? The Federal Chancellor can only “difficultly imagine”. Other countries are already further along, the Baltic States, Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland. A crack is once again running through Europe, and looking at the German chancellor, the question arises: is Olaf Scholz getting a slim foot?
It’s less than 400 kilometers from St. Petersburg in Russia to Helsinki in Finland. Google estimates the journey to take four hours and 47 minutes. Russians can even do it in three and a half hours by train. The Russians come in tens of thousands, and most Finns are fed up with them. Among them is the head of government, a social democrat.
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Sanna Marin says: “It is wrong that Russian citizens lead a so-called normal life and can move freely in Europe while their country is at the same time waging a brutal war of aggression in Europe.” The Finns want to decide in August whether the Russians are allowed to travel . If the Finns close down, the Russians will no longer be able to fly to Germany from Helsinki Airport or to the French Cote dÀzur, one of their longed-for destinations for decades.
So many Russians live in Estonia because the Soviet autocrat deported Estonians and settled Russians in what was then the Soviet Republic of Estonia – a dangerous business today. Finally, in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin demonstrated how a Russian minority was instrumentalised for his imperialist policy of conquest.
In Estonia, on the other hand, there is no Russian kitsch, in the words of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas: “We have experienced the danger first-hand. Every Estonian family has its own story of deportation, mass killing, torture. My own family was deported to Siberia.” Nazi crimes were universally condemned after World War II, “never happened with the crimes of the Soviet Union.” In other words, Estonians have an unobstructed view of the Russians — “the” Russians, and not just Vladimir Putin.
How different Scholz – Germany’s chancellor cannot imagine a kind of collective guilt and the associated collective liability for Russians. After all, there are also innocent people in Russia, as well as members of the opposition, activists and dissidents, for whom the borders must be kept open. And, unlike the arms deliveries, Scholz has broad support for this position within the traffic light government.
Whether the traffic light government will be able to keep its line will be decided this month – then the European Union wants to decide on visa policy towards Russia. Brussels and Berlin are still arguing along the same lines. However, it is becoming increasingly uncertain whether the German-European consensus will hold.
In any case: Russians can no longer come to Europe directly by air. The three Baltic states and Finland are now closing the land route. But Germany is thwarting this policy with its visa policy. In the last month, more than five and a half thousand Russians have received German visas. What Estonia’s Kallas, for example, finds lacking in solidarity: “Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right,” tweeted the economically liberal Estonian head of government, who has just formed a new government with social democrats and conservatives. Russians can no longer come by air – “that means: when Schengen countries issue visas, Russia’s direct neighbors bear the burden. It’s time to end Russian tourism – now.”
Thus, unsurprisingly at first glance, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argues: “The most important sanction is closing the border – because the Russians are about to take someone else’s country.” They should “live in their own world until they understand their philosophy.” change”. This also applies to members of the opposition: “Whatever kind of Russian … makes sure that they are in Russia.” Isolated in this way, those affected would finally “understand” who were currently saying that this war had nothing to do with them.
Selenskyj massively countered Scholz’s statement that this was “Putin’s war”: “The entire population cannot be held responsible? Yes, she can! She elected this government and does not fight it, does not argue with it, does not manage an outcry.”
Whatever Scholz and the Europeans decide at the end of August – one thing will not work: taking the sandy beach away from the Russians. Most Russians, when traveling abroad, have always flown to Turkey, which remains possible. Or to Thailand. Or the Maldives.
Only the attractive combination of a sandy beach plus European culture and the many beautiful monuments and castles, which is appreciated by many Russians, would have been done for now.
