Under the coordinated travel ban, Russians wishing to travel to the Baltic countries or Poland as tourists or for business, sports or cultural purposes will not be allowed to enter even if they hold a valid check-free EU Schengen visa . The prime ministers of the three Baltic states and Poland agreed earlier this month to stop accepting Russian citizens, saying the move would protect the security of European Union nations neighboring Russia. “Russia is an unpredictable and aggressive state. Three quarters of its citizens support the war. It is unacceptable that people who support the war can travel freely around the world, in Lithuania, in the EU,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said on Monday. “Such support for hostilities can pose a threat to the security of our country and the EU as a whole,” he added. The ban includes exceptions on humanitarian grounds, family members of EU citizens, Russian dissidents, serving diplomats, transport officials and Russians with residence permits or long-stay national visas from the 26 Schengen countries. There was no sign of new travel restrictions on Monday for Russians seeking to enter Poland, even though the country agreed with the Baltic states to enforce the ban until September 19. Poland, which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave, still has strict restrictions on Russian travelers remaining from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the eastern Polish city of Bialystok, a member of the Russian Association of Culture and Education in Poland said a new ban would hit much harder if pandemic restrictions had not already severely curtailed travel with Russia. “After more than two years of restrictions, we see no prospects for improvement, and that’s the worst part,” Andrzej Romanczuk, a Polish citizen, told The Associated Press. He said areas on both sides of Poland’s border with Kaliningrad would be hit economically because border traffic there drives local trade. Russians also shop in Polish cities such as Warsaw or Krakow. More than 65,000 Russians crossed into Poland this year, similar to the same period last year, but 10 times less than before the pandemic. Lithuania’s Interior Ministry said 11 Russian citizens had been prevented from entering the country since midnight. Most were trying to enter by land from Kaliningrad or Belarus. No incidents were reported. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that Russian travel raises security concerns because “we know that Russian spies have used fake identities and carried out various activities in Europe using tourist visas.” Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million people, has recorded hundreds of thousands of border crossings by Russian citizens since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine. However, the Baltic countries cannot prevent Russian citizens from entering through another Schengen state. They want all 27 EU member states to get similar travel restrictions. The EU has already banned air travel from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. But before the ban, Russians could still travel overland to Estonia and apparently then take flights to other European destinations. At an EU summit last month, the 27-member bloc was divided over whether to impose a broad visa ban on Russian citizens, torn between a desire to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and concerns about punishing ordinary Russians. who may not support him. war in Ukraine. The EU already tightened visa restrictions on Russian officials and businessmen in May, but Poland and the Baltic states have called for a broader ban on tourists. Germany and France are leading a push for tighter visa restrictions on Russians rather than an outright ban. The Czech Republic, which does not share a border with Russia, was one of the first EU countries to suspend visas for Russian citizens, passing the measure the day after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The three Baltic states were once republics in the Soviet Union, while Poland and the Czech Republic—then part of Czechoslovakia—were Moscow’s satellites. This and their past history make them particularly susceptible to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

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AP writers Jan Olsen in Copenhagen, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed.