Cyprus’ decision to continue issuing visas to Russian tourists through designated centres, despite wider tensions of the “collective West” with Moscow “proves once again the awareness in Europe of the magnitude of the economic losses from the interruption of the tourist flow [from Russia],” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

Cyprus recently opened visa centres in eight Russian cities and is not the only EU country to do so, she said.

Visa rejections are steadily increasing, tourist visa stays are shortening and some European countries have stopped issuing them altogether, she said, adding that this worsened after the European Commission’s November 2025 suspension of multiple-entry Schengen visas to Russian citizens.

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

Citizens of EU countries continue to enjoy the benefits of the 2006 agreement between the Russian Federation and the European community on visa facilitation, despite its termination by EU authorities in 2022, she said, adding that “citizens of all EU states can, as before, enter Russia through a simplified procedure, using a single electronic visa.”

“Decorative attempts to correct the situation will not be effective until the European Union stops its anti-Russian policy, including the discriminatory approach aimed at constantly tightening the regime for Russians to enter the territory of the EU,” she added.