President Gitanas Nausėda says Lithuania should extend its existing ban on Russian tourists beyond December 16, when the state of emergency expires.
“In my opinion, it would be appropriate to do so,” Nausėda said in an interview with BNS when asked whether the restrictions should be extended.
He also stressed it was false to think that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a war of President Vladimir Putin and “a few conspiring generals or politicians”.
“Unfortunately, today, we see that support for this war within Russia’s society remains quite strong. It means that we are dealing with a much more complex situation than it would appear at first sight. Therefore, we need to look for all means to tilt the war in Ukraine’s favour and to bring the long-awaited victory as soon as possible,” Nausėda said.
The Baltic states and Poland closed their borders to Russian tourists on September 19, and Finland followed suit later.
Too much help for businesses
In the interview with BNS, the Lithuania president also criticised Germany and other better-off EU member states for providing too much aid to businesses to help them survive the energy crisis.
According to Nausėda, such behaviour runs counter to the EU’s ambition to create a common market and undermines “our European solidarity”.
“If we are looking for solidarity solutions, we are looking for them at the level of the European Union because it is not just solidarity for its own sake. It is also about making it possible for everyone to compete on similar terms without singling out individual countries or putting certain countries at a disadvantage,” he said.
Germany has drawn criticism from some EU member states over its planned 200-billion-euro aid scheme to cushion soaring energy prices for people and businesses.
“These decisions are, no doubt, more favourable to those countries that have more financial resources and can spend more money to bring the costs of their businesses down and place themselves in a more favourable competitive situation,” Nausėda said. “This is exactly the opposite of creating a common EU market.”
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