Ambassador Dolgov pointed out the economic risks for the EU with a complete ban on visas for Russians.

If the European Commission (EC) nevertheless decides to ban the provision of visas to citizens of the Russian Federation, the European economy will suffer, as it will lose a significant part of the consumers of its tourist services. This was announced on June 30 by Ambassador-at-large, diplomat Konstantin Dolgov.

"First of all, it will further hit their own economy, because it is clear that a significant part of their tourism sector is sagging. They will continue to aggravate their problems. This is especially true in countries where there have traditionally been a lot of Russian tourists," he said in an interview with Gazeta.Ru».

The ambassador clarified that the measures being considered in Europe have no effectiveness, and also exacerbate the already observed split in this area due to anti-Russian sanctions. The initiative may not be supported by those states that most often host Russians.

Dolgov appealed to his fellow citizens not to visit Europe, as, according to him, "there is nothing to do there." Instead, he recommended paying attention to the offers on the domestic tourism market or going on a trip to countries friendly to Russia.

Wayward tags: The EU is discussing a ban on issuing tourist visas to all Russians

Last year, more than 600,000 Russian citizens received a document for travel to the Schengen countries.

One of Izvestia's European sources said on June 30 that discussions had already begun in Europe on a complete ban on issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens. He clarified that such an initiative came from the faction of the German CDU/CSU bloc in the EP.

Prior to that, the Association of Russian Tour Operators listed countries where Russians do not need visas to travel. These included dozens of destinations.