Since 19 September, when the restrictions imposed by the Latvian government on non-essential travel came into force, the influx of Russian citizens to the country has gone down by 38%.
Between 14th and 20th November a total of 1 391 Russian citizens crossed the Latvian border. This is six times fewer people when compared with Latvia’s neighbouring countries, as reported by the State Border Guard.
Estonia received 8 378 Russian citizens. Lithuania received 7 016 Russian citizens during this period of time. Since mid-September a total of 15 108 Russian citizens have crossed the Russian-Latvian and Belarusian-Latvian border. All of these people fit the exceptions provided in the government’s approved regulations.
14% of them travelled to Latvia using C or D category visas, another 41% are holders of residence permits in Latvia or have family members, are students, employees or people whose travel is required for work or humanitarian considerations.
Nearly half of Russian citizens who crossed the border used visas or residence permits issued by other countries.
This means Latvia is not the destination for these people, rather it is used for transit to other EU member states.
Latvian State Border Guard also maintains monitoring over foreigners for the duration of their stay in the country. The institutions makes sure foreigners in Latvia comply with the conditions of their stay, and carefully control that the residence deadlines specified in visas are not violated and foreigners leave Latvia within the specified deadlines.
Entry to Latvia was denied to 39 Russian citizens last week and 391 Russian citizens since mid-September.