Annalena Baerbock on Russian visas: shouldn’t punish the wrong people (video)

STORY: NOTE: This post will be broadcast without narration. Original sound: Annalena Baerbock (GREEN): “It’s a completely different situation for Baltic states when they have relatively large Russian minorities in their countries, with a direct border to Russia, when numerous visas continue to be issued. As a country, like for example ours, which has no direct border. It is a different situation for countries that are the main destination of summer trips, especially for Russian citizens who are very, very close to the Russian regime. And bringing these different perspectives together, that is It is of central importance to me. That we find a common European solution. And I think that as Germany we are not only in the middle geographically, but also in terms of our approach we are pretty much in the middle between those who say that visas are not allowed at all give more and to those who say we’ll just carry on as before as if nothing had happened in the last six months It is important to the Federal Chancellor, this Federal Government is very important, that what also enabled us to enable people who were persecuted very quickly in Russia to leave the country, that we don’t take that away because we, precisely, the civil society that had the courage six months ago , to stand up and who now has the courage, perhaps from abroad, to make information available to Russia again, so that we don’t punish them now or take away the opportunity. And it’s not just about well-known journalists or well-known members of the opposition, we also have to give students who have the courage at their university the opportunity to get information elsewhere. And I believe that we can find a good solution in Prague that both meets the legitimate concerns of our Baltic neighbors, who are right on the Russian border and rightly have great, great concerns, and at the same time does justice to our point of view or that of others. That we now don’t punish those who still have the courage to stand up against this regime, that we punish them for it.”