Holders of Russian diplomatic and service passports will be banned from entering the Czech Republic, as approved by the government today following a proposal by Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky.
The ban does not apply to diplomats accredited in the Czech Republic or those who are passing through the Czech Republic to their country of assignment or to attend meetings of international organisations.
According to Lipavsky, the measure will be applied at the external Schengen border, i.e. at six international airports in the Czech Republic.
The European Union’s diplomatic service last week proposed that Russian diplomats working in the EU should be required to report all their travels within the EU as part of a new sanction package against Russia, the Reuters news agency reported, citing EU sources.
Lipavsky has been pushing for the proposal to restrict the movement of Russian diplomats in the Schengen Area for almost two years, but has not yet gained enough support.
The national measure would apply even if the aforementioned proposal is adopted at the European level, Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Drake noted.
Commenting on the promotion of the proposal to restrict the movement of Russian diplomats in the Schengen Area, Lipavsky told CTK on Monday that he was trying to explain at the EU level the need to set up reciprocity in diplomatic relations.
“While I have to honestly apply for every visa for a Czech diplomat or a technical worker who travels to Moscow, if I do not grant a visa to a diplomatic worker of the Russian Federation who comes here to do something at the embassy, they can very easily circumvent it by having the person come fully legally from Vienna, from Warsaw or from Berlin. They may spend 14 days here helping with something and then leave again,” the minister said.
At the same time, he said, the Russian spy networks regularly use cover-ups in diplomatic networks.
“That is why I think we have no reason at all to make it easier for them to travel around Europe. Schengen is supposed to serve Europeans, not to be used against Europeans,” Lipavsky added.
The government also approved two weeks ago that holders of Georgian diplomatic and service passports would need visas for short-term travel to the Czech Republic because of the Georgian authorities’ oppression of civil society. The visa requirement will apply to stays on Czech territory that do not exceed a total of 90 days in six months.
