Helsinki wants the entire EU to stop handing out tourist visas to Russian citizens, and it has put that demand in writing. On 12 October 2026, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen sent a letter to the European Commission laying out five requests, timed to coincide with a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. The letter is a call for further action, not a done deal — but it marks one of the strongest pushes yet for a bloc-wide tourism ban.
The headline ask is simple: no more Schengen tourist visas for Russians for as long as the war in Ukraine continues. Finland's foreign ministry says Schengen countries issued close to 500,000 tourist visas to Russian nationals in 2025. Finland itself issued none, having banned non-essential Russian travel back in 2022 and closed its land border with Russia in December 2023. "It is not right that Russians can travel to Europe to enjoy the way of life and freedoms here while their country bombs the homes of Ukrainians," Valtonen wrote.
The rest of the letter targets more specific groups. Finland wants binding visa restrictions on people in President Putin's inner circle and those supporting sanctioned individuals or organisations, curbs on Russian athletes and sports teams with close government ties, and — crucially — actual enforcement of an EU agreement from this summer to ban current and former Russian combatants, where implementation has lagged.
Security worries are driving the urgency. In August, an alleged drone bomb plot in Germany reportedly involved a Russian passport holder who had entered Europe on an Italian tourist visa. Because a Schengen visa issued by one country typically allows travel across the whole zone, a decision made in Rome or Paris can have consequences in Helsinki or Berlin — which is exactly why Finland wants the rules handled at EU level. It is also asking for changes to the EU Visa Code so binding restrictions can be imposed quickly when relations with a country deteriorate; the Commission is expected to table something on hostile-state visa threats in January 2027.
The bloc is not united. France, Italy and Spain have previously resisted a full tourist ban, with France arguing that people-to-people contact keeps dialogue alive and distinguishes the Russian state from its citizens. One compromise on the table is a German idea for visas with limited territorial validity — valid only in certain countries — which Valtonen says she could accept as an interim step. The EU already tightened access to multiple-entry Schengen visas for applicants in Russia in November 2025, forcing most to apply separately for each trip, though existing visas were not cancelled.
For travellers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: anyone planning European trips involving Russian passports should expect the rules to keep tightening, with a real possibility of a full EU tourism ban and more country-specific restrictions. Travellers holding valid multiple-entry visas should check they remain valid for their route, and anyone applying new should expect per-trip paperwork, higher fees and longer waits. For everyone else, this is a story about how visa policy is becoming a front line of European security politics — and about how one border country is trying to drag the whole bloc along with it.
