Estonia to ban Russians with tourist visas from entering

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Estonia decided Thursday to bar people from neigboring Russia with tourist visas from entering the northernmost Baltic country as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.

“Russian citizens’ opportunity to visit Estonia in large numbers or to visit Europe through Estonia is incompatible with the meaning of the sanctions we’ve established,” Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu was quoted as saying by the Baltic News Service said.

The European Union, of which Estonia is a member, already has banned air travel from Russia after it invaded Ukraine. But Russians can still travel by land to Estonia and apparently are then take flights to other European destinations.

By imposing the sanction, Estonia wants Russia “to be unable to continue its ordinary international life also at the level of its citizens,” Reinsalu said according to BNS, the region's main news agency. He added that they had observed “a massive growth in the number of Russian citizens transiting through or arriving in Estonia.”

BNS said exceptions to Thursday's sanction included Russian citizens with a long-term residence permit; those coming to visit close relatives; workers involved in the international transport of goods and passengers, as well as people entering the country for humanitarian reasons.

The Estonian sanction applies beginning Aug. 18. Estonia and Russia share a nearly 300 kilometer (186-mile) long border.

“I call on other governments to follow such steps,” Reinsalu wrote on Twitter.

Earlier this week, Estonian and Finnish leaders urged fellow European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not be able to take vacations in Europe while the Russian government carries out a war in Ukraine.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas wrote Tuesday...