Borrell: EU Foreign Ministers Oppose Revocation of Schengen Visas Issued to Russians

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The EU foreign ministers are opposed to annulling Schengen visas already issued Russian citizens, as such move could have political implications, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

"Also there were requests to nullify those visas that have already been issued and are valid. That is something that the ministers did not agree on, because that would be a decision with huge political ramifications," Borrell said at the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy in Prague.

At the same time, the ministers agreed that the states will use their national capacities to keep cross border flows under control, top EU official specified, adding that having a visa does not guarantee entry.

According to European Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper, there are currently fewer than 1 million valid EU visas issued to Russian citizens, and not 12 million, as Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said last week.

"As of September 1, the number of valid visas held by Russian citizens is 963,189," Hipper was quoted as saying by the Politico newspaper.

The EU member states, after an informal meeting in Prague on August 31, reached a political agreement to suspend the EU-Russia visa facilitation deal and agreed to prepare recommendations on what to do with the existing visas already issued to Russians.

On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. In response, the West and its allies have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow. A number of EU countries have reduced issuance of tourist visas to Russians, while also calling for a total ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to the country's citizens. Moscow has said that it considers the proposal a manifestation of chauvinism and that such a decision will invite retaliatory measures.