Russian Fingerprints

From the MT:
"Russians Applying for Schengen Visas Required to Give Fingerprints"

 

Russians applying for Schengen visas are required to give their fingerprints as of Monday, the RBC news agency reported. Once recorded, fingerprints will be stored for five years. Children under the age of 12 and disabled people with no fingers are exempt from the requirement, along with government leaders and members of official government delegations, the report said. The costs of Schengen visas, which allow holders to visit any country in Europe's 26-state Schengen Area, will remain the same. The measure has already been implemented for several Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries. Fingerprints are also required from applicants in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported in July. Russian tourist organizations worry that the new rules will create obstacles for residents of remote regions of the country who will have to travel to visa centers to provide their fingerprints, and will cause a further decrease in the number of tourists traveling to Europe. “We fear that demand for trips to Europe will decrease by 30 percent, while the overall number of tourists going abroad has dropped by 50 percent [since the start of the economic crisis],” Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman for the Russian Tourism Industry Union, was cited by the Vesti FM radio station as saying Monday. Russians were granted more than 5.76 million Schengen visas in 2014, about a third of all Schengen visas issued worldwide, RBC reported, citing European Union data.

^ Russia imposed fingerprinting requirements on two EU countries (Denmark and the UK) so it seems only fair that the EU requires the same for Russians. The other day EasyJet announced they were stopping their London to Moscow flights because of the low demand (due to both international sanctions as well as added visa requirements.) I don't see Russians not going to the EU's Schengen Area with or without these new fingerprinting requirements, but do see EU citizens deciding not to go to Russia if their visa regime stays the way it is. Russians tend to focus on Europe while EU citizens can go around the world - - -most without a visa or at least a visa on arrival. For all those people that say the world is getting smaller everyday it seems the opposite is becoming true. Borders around the world are being strengthened, visa requirements are being tightened and the costs  are going up on everything. It would be nice if the current trend could be reversed, but that can't happen unless things around the world change for the better. ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russians-applying-for-schengen-visas-required-to-give-fingerprints/530321.html