France led 10.2% rise in EU Schengen visas to Russians in 2025, confidential Commission data shows
EU governments issued more than 620,000 Schengen visas to Russian citizens in 2025, a 10.2 percent rise from 2024, with France, Italy and Spain accounting for nearly three-quarters of applications, according to confidential European Commission figures circulated to capitals and seen by Euractiv. France posted the steepest year-on-year jump at 23 percent, cutting against the Commission's November 2025 ban on multiple-entry Schengen visas for Russians, which Brussels had justified by citing sabotage, espionage and weaponized migration. After eight member states demanded an explanation, the figures Paris had asked the Commission to remove from the internal Schengen Barometer reappeared in May in a separate technical document.
Russian nationals submitted more than 670,000 Schengen visa applications in 2025, up roughly 8 percent from 2024, and EU consulates approved over 92 percent of them, according to confidential European Commission data circulated among national governments and reviewed by Euractiv. EU countries issued more than 620,000 visas in total, a 10.2 percent rise. About 77 percent — more than 477,000 — were tourist visas; visits to family and friends ranked second, business travel third.
France, Italy and Spain together accounted for nearly three-quarters of all applications. France posted both the highest absolute volume and the steepest year-on-year increase, with a 23 percent jump in visas granted to Russian citizens. France hosts more than 56,000 Russian nationals, according to 2019 official data, with a substantial concentration on the south-east Riviera between Antibes and Monaco — a region where local authorities have frozen more than 50 properties linked to entities and individuals sanctioned over the war in Ukraine.
The numbers cut against the European Commission's public posture. In November 2025 Brussels ended multiple-entry Schengen visas for Russian citizens, citing sabotage, espionage and weaponized migration as drivers of "more frequent and thorough security screenings." Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland had already closed their land borders to Russian tourists holding Schengen visas issued by any other EU state. The Commission has separately renewed sanctions against Russian operatives running sabotage and influence operations across the bloc, and EU prosecutors and intelligence services have linked Russian military intelligence to a 2024 parcel-bomb scheme that placed incendiary devices on European cargo planes.
The dispute spilled into Brussels' record-keeping. In early 2026, Russian visa figures vanished from a new edition of the Schengen Barometer, the Commission's regular internal monitoring tool circulated among EU countries. Several diplomats told Euractiv they were surprised that one of the document's most politically sensitive sections had simply been removed, and raised the issue during discussions. EU officials said several capitals — notably Paris — pushed back over the politically sensitive issue of issuing visas to Russians. Eight EU countries pressed for an explanation. The data resurfaced this month, not inside the Barometer but in a separate technical document circulated alongside it.
The Commission declined to say whether national governments had exerted pressure, but confirmed it had given EU countries an updated overview of Russian visa issuance in April. It maintains that visa numbers, while up year-on-year, "went down significantly, compared to before Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," following a 2022 advisory urging governments to deprioritise Russian applications and the suspension of the EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement. Italian, French and Spanish authorities did not respond to Euractiv's request for comment.
The visa row sits inside a broader argument over how to treat Russian travellers. Baltic and Nordic governments have argued for years that Russian citizens should not travel to Europe for tourism while Moscow continues striking Ukrainian cities, and treat the gap between Brussels' November rationale and southern member states' issuance volumes as evidence that commercial interests are overriding stated security concerns. Officials in capitals that favour continued issuance counter that severing Russians from contact with Europe would deepen the Kremlin's hold on its citizens. The Italian government also faced its own visa controversy in recent months over the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where reports of internal correspondence showed organisers seeking to navigate EU sanctions through indirect participation models to invite Russian artists; Brussels has since revoked funds to the Biennale.
A separate measure now in the pipeline would bar entry to Russians who fought in the war against Ukraine. EU institutions are expected to present the combat-veteran ban before June. Whether the governments that drove the 2025 increase in Schengen issuance will back it has not been tested.