Cyprus’ decision to continue issuing visas to Russian tourists through special centers, despite the general tension of the “collective West” with Moscow, “once again proves the awareness in Europe of the scale of economic losses from the interruption of the tourist flow from Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

Cyprus has recently opened visa application centers in eight Russian cities, and, according to her, it is not the only EU country that has done so.

She said that the number of visa refusals is steadily increasing, the length of stay on tourist visas is decreasing, and some European countries have stopped issuing them altogether. In her opinion, the situation worsened after the European Commission suspended the issuance of multiple-entry Schengen visas to Russian citizens in November 2025.

“Unlike the EU, which creates artificial obstacles for issuing visas, the Russian Federation does not take prohibitive countermeasures against ordinary Europeans who want to visit our country, mainly for private or tourist purposes,” Zakharova said.

According to her, EU citizens continue to benefit from the 2006 agreement between the Russian Federation and the European Community on visa facilitation, despite its termination by the EU authorities in 2022. She added that “citizens of all EU states can, as before, enter Russia under a simplified procedure using a single electronic visa.”

“Decorative attempts to remedy the situation will not be effective until the European Union stops its anti—Russian policy, including a discriminatory approach aimed at constantly tightening the regime of entry of Russians into the EU,” she added.

https://russiancyprus.news/news/society/zakharova-links-cypriot-visa-centres-to-eu-economic-losses/