PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • List of Members
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
  • Podcast
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
Contacts
Address 1957 E St NW, Washington, DC 20052 adminponars@gwu.edu 202.994.5915
NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • List of Members
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
  • Podcast
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • Russians supported Putin’s moves in Crimea in 2014. Here’s what’s different in 2021

    View
  • Putin’s Rules of the Game: The Pitfalls of Russia’s New Constitution

    View
  • In the Caucasus, There Is a Peace Agreement but Not Peace

    View
  • Russia’s Niche Soft Power: Sources, Targets and Channels of Influence

    View
  • A Weak Link in NATO? Bulgaria, Russia, and the Lure of Espionage

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • Music and Politics in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2021] April 12, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Gorbachev about the dynamic music scene in contemporary Russia, and how free Russian musicians are to make political statements.
  • How is the Russian Government Coping with Rising Food Prices? [Lipman Series 2021] March 15, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Anton Tabakh about rising food prices in Russia, and what they might mean for Russia's current and future stability.
  • The Communist Party of the Russian Federation: More Than Just Systemic Opposition? [Lipman Series 2021] March 5, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Felix Light and Nikolay Petrov about the contemporary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including the divisions between its leadership and membership, its attitude toward Alexei Navalny, and why it might be more than just "systemic" opposition after all.
  • Internet Resources: Civic Communication and State Surveillance [Lipman Series 2021] February 16, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Andrei Soldatov and Tanya Lokot about the role of the internet in contemporary Russian politics, including both as a tool of the Russian opposition and as an instrument of the increasingly repressive Russian regime.
  • The Rise of Alexei Navalny's Political Stature and Mass Protest in Russia [Lipman Series 2021] February 1, 2021
    In the first PONARS Eurasia Podcast of 2021, Maria Lipman chats with Greg Yudin about the current protests taking place in Russia, and what Alexei Navalny's growing popular support means for the Putin regime.
  • Russian Social Policy in the COVID-19 Era [Lipman Series 2020] December 21, 2020
    In 2020’s final episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sarah Wilson Sokhey and Ella Paneyakh to discuss Russian social policy in the COVID-19 era, and public perception of Russia’s overall pandemic response.
  • Conscious Parenting Practices in Contemporary Russia [Lipman Series 2020] December 10, 2020
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Julia Yuzbasheva and Maria Danilova to learn more about the proliferation of "conscious parenting" practices in contemporary Russian society.
  • The Transformation of Belarussian Society [Lipman Series 2020] November 11, 2020
    In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Masha Lipman chats with Grigory Ioffe about the long-term and short-term factors that led up to the current protests in Belarus, and the ongoing transformation of Belarussian society.
  • Russian Lawmakers Adjust National Legislation to the Revised Constitutional Framework [Lipman Series 2020] October 26, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about ongoing changes to Russia’s national legislation based on the recently revised constitutional framework, and what these changes portend for the 2021 Duma election.
  • Russia's Regional Elections [Lipman Series 2020] September 25, 2020
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Graeme Robertson and Konstantin Gaaze about Russia’s September 13 regional elections and whether or not the Kremlin should be worried about upcoming Duma elections.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Visa-Free Regime for Russian Bureaucrats: End of a Dream?

  • August 2, 2013
  • PONARS Eurasia

(by Olga Gulina) The Russian dream to travel to the EU without visas will most likely not come true soon. Honestly, the first reaction of European politicians to Moscow’s insistence on giving free entrance to Europe for a legion of Russian bureaucrats was even too mild and accommodating.

EU Commissioner Cecilia Maelstrom often spoke about efforts that the EU and Russia need to apply to prevent “a looming stalemate in the negotiations on visa liberalization.” Yet gradually the tone in Brussels has changed—from the pathetic question of “how to facilitate the EU-Russia visa regime” to the realist suspicion that “the EU plays by Putin’s rules,” or even to harsher statements that “the EU shouldn’t reward increasingly repressive Kremlin with visa deal.”

Nevertheless, expectations from the Russian side remained extraordinary high. Russian officials announced that they are still in discussions on the quantity of “service passports” holders who might get the privilege of travelling to Europe without permission. According to the available information, the list could be as long as 150,000 people, which is less than 200,000 considered from the outset. Not all of the EU’s politicians have shared Russia’s enthusiasm, and liked this perspective even less.

Evidently, the EU’s policy toward Russia is dominated by Germany, who was and remains one of the most approachable European partners for Moscow. Earlier, the German government appeared—though reluctantly—to agree to sign a new visa-facilitation agreement with Russia and thus make a step toward visa-free travel. Yet the EU-Russia summit held in Yekaterinburg in June 2013 has shown that the wind is changing. German officials were not willing anymore to unconditionally continue in this direction.

Volker Beck, a parliamentary deputy from the Green Party, insisted on travel restrictions for Russian “nomenklatura and Putin’s loyalists who orchestrate oppression” so that they “should not get the privilege of walking on boulevards in Western cities with pockets full of ‘corrupt’ money.”

Andreas Schockenhoff, Vice-President of the CDU/CSU and parliamentary coordinator for civil society dialogue between Russia and Germany, claimed that “our priority is a facilitated visa regime for students, journalists and scientists,” instead of “visa-free travel support for Putin’s followers.”

The euphoria of the Russian bureaucracy dreaming about open borders to Europe appears to have come to an end. There are a lot of reasons for this, beside the political and normative disconnects between Moscow and Berlin. One of them is the growing amount of refugee and asylum applicants coming from Russia to Europe, and in particular to Germany.

According to the data of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the majority of potential immigrants in Germany are Russians (10,163), distantly followed by Syrians (4,517) and Afghans (3,448). The growing Russian nationalism that is visible in the political rhetoric of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his followers further reinforce the concerns of European politicians about potential migration flows from Russia.

Many Germans have tended to see Russia as an emerging democracy struggling with the nefarious heritage of centuries-long centralized and autocratic rule. Nowadays some of them seem to be reconsidering this.

Russia voluntarily detached itself from the EU’s neighborhood, and is not likely to move closer to the European normative order in the years to come. Frank Walter Steinmeier, a former foreign minister of Germany, once confessed that, “to teach Russia democracy is a hopeless task.” Perhaps this explains why Russian public servants working for the Putin regime won’t be getting free gifts from the EU.

Guest post by Olga Gulina invited by Andrey Makarychev, professor at the Institute of Government and Politics, University of Tartu.

See also: The Dual Citizenship Topic in Germany (by Olga Gulina)

 

PONARS Eurasia
+ posts
  • PONARS Eurasia
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/ponars-eurasia/
    PONARS Eurasia Online Academy: Grassroots Nationalist Movements in Russia
  • PONARS Eurasia
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/ponars-eurasia/
    New Book: Is Russia Fascist? Unraveling Propaganda East and West
  • PONARS Eurasia
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/ponars-eurasia/
    PONARS Eurasia Online Academy: Russia’s Policy in the Arctic
  • PONARS Eurasia
    https://www.ponarseurasia.org/members/ponars-eurasia/
    Podvig: The value of New START is largely that it keeps the lines of communication open and it is the place for dialogue
Related Topics
  • Makarychev
  • Russia
  • Visa
Previous Article
  • Policy Memos | Аналитика

Россия, «давай, до свидания»: Вступая в новую эру азербайджано-российских отношений

  • August 2, 2013
  • Anar Valiyev
View
Next Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Snowden Leaves Moscow Airport

  • August 2, 2013
  • Andrew Kuchins
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gelman
  • August 22, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Авторитарные режимы не вечны: О ситуации в Белоруссии

  • Vladimir Gelman
  • August 14, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

В Беларуси пока что все идет по российскому сценарию

  • Olexiy Haran
  • August 12, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Опасная игра Лукашенко

  • Pavel Baev
  • August 11, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Власть справилась

  • Sergei Medvedev
  • August 10, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Непереломный момент: Смена Конституции

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 6, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Кейс Фургала и три мифа режима

  • Kirill Rogov
  • August 5, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.