The number of sabotage attempts on the European infostructure has increased exponentially in the past two years: - fire in Ikea in Vilnius in Lithuania - fire in east London - sabotage attempt in Bavaria in Germany - fire attack in Prague 1/n

2/ - fire in a metal factory in Berlin - series of railway derailments in Sweden - attempt to destroy the signaling systems on Czech railways - attack on the interior minister’s car in Estonia etc.

3/ Do you know what else has increased exponentially in the past two years? The number of russian tourists to European countries.

4/ Just to give you some examples: - Italy received 1,108,035 Schengen visa applications in 2023. The main applicants and recipients of visas - russians and Chinese. - In the past three years, russia has been among the top three countries applying and receiving Schengen visas.

5/ On May 29 Norway has banned the entry of tourists from russia. The ban affects both those who previously obtained a Norwegian tourist visa and those who obtained a visa issued by another country of the Schengen Agreement.

6/ The only exception is a trip to visit close relatives, for work or study. Minister of Justice and Public Security Emilie Enger Mehl highlighted that the position taken by Norway is a direct response to russia's illegal aggression against Ukraine.

7/ I have been advocating this for two years. The civilized world, including the US and EU counties, has to ban visas for russians. Not only it is a correct response to russia’s illegal war, but it also prevents an obvious security risk from russian saboteurs and spies.

8/ But what about those who may want to flee russia? First, those who wanted to flee already fled russia. Second, the legitimate asylum seekers can be allowed to cross the boarder without a visa.