European Union countries have reached a political agreement to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia, making it more difficult and expensive for Russian tourists to get visas, but the move falls far short of the blanket ban some leaders are demanding. The compromise decision, reached at a ministers meeting in Prague on Wednesday, comes after weeks of calls from Ukrainian officials and some E.U. leaders for a ban. Though the 27-member bloc has already banned Russian flights from E.U. airspace and sanctioned more than 1,000 people linked to the war, the question of tourism is deeply contested, underscoring an enduring divide over how to respond to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
