Democracy Digest: Czechia and Poland Urge Ban on Russian Tourist Visas

The Czech Republic and Poland joined nine other European countries in calling for the EU Commission to impose an immediate ban on issuing tourist visas for the EU’s passport-free Schengen Area to Russian citizens. The letter – signed by Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden, and non-EU countries Norway and Iceland – was sent to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner ahead of Thursday’s Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting. “With another summer approaching, we, the undersigned ministers, consider it urgent to reiterate the need to maintain a restrictive visa policy towards Russian applicants,” the letter, obtained by Radio RMF24, read . “The growing number of Russian tourists spending their holidays on European beaches and in European resorts, while missiles and drones continue to strike civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, is deeply disturbing.” The issuing of visas to Russian citizens, a significant portion of which are multiple-entry visas, is causing a growing split in the EU between the north and the south of the bloc. France, Italy, Spain and Greece – popular summer destinations – currently grant the most tourist visas to Russians, while the Baltic states and Poland issue virtually none. According to the 2026 Schengen Barometer , 623,451 Russian nationals received a European visa in 2025, up 8 per cent from the 565,719 issued the year before.

Czech police charge 4 in OnlyFans abuse case; CEZ takes step toward full state control

Following a  joint investigation by BIRN and Prague-based investigative outlet Page Not Found  into the alleged abuse of young women whose OnlyFans accounts were run by outside agencies and managers, the Czech police  said  on Tuesday they had charged four and an unnamed legal entity for taking advantage of young women’s marginalisation or immaturity and ignorance in order to coerce them into providing erotic content for OnlyFans and other social networks. Envisaged as a platform that empowers creators to connect directly with subscribers, OnlyFans has over the past few years seen a growing number of third-party agencies managing models’ accounts, many of which face allegations of exploitation and human trafficking. Our investigation looked into, among others, the Czech influencer Adam Kajumi and his Reach Out agency that manages OnlyFans profiles. Several young women allege that Reach Out coerced them into doing more erotic content and, when they refused, locked them out of their accounts and continued posting content to earn revenue that was not shared. “The victims usually did not have access to the profiles created with their personal data,” Czech police said. The case involves at least 3.6 million crowns (about 173,000 dollars) in income, police said. One victim told BIRN/PNF that after regaining control of her OnlyFans account she discovered the agency had earned around 178,000 dollars during the year she worked with it but only paid her 10,000 dollars. Throughout our investigation, Kajumi refused to comment on the allegations.

In a sign of how the times have changed since the heady days of market liberalisation in the 90s, CEZ this week won shareholder approval for a restructuring that many experts see as the first step towards full nationalisation of the Czech energy giant. Given the Czech state still controls more than 70 per cent of CEZ, the shareholder vote was never really in doubt. But what they agreed to on Monday was to spin off the heavily regulated distribution and retail businesses from the electricity generating arm into a new subsidiary. The parent company could then sell a minority stake in this new subsidiary in order to raise funds to buy out the private shareholders who currently hold about 30 per cent of CEZ. Analyst estimates put the value of a 49 per cent stake in the new subsidiary at up to 250 billion crowns (about 10 billion euros). The reason behind the government’s move to regain full control of the CEZ parent company is to strengthen the country’s energy security and make it easier to finance long-term strategic investments, especially the building of a new fleet of nuclear power reactors to replace the aging six in operation. A year ago, the Czech authorities finalised a 16-billion-euro contract with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to build two new nuclear reactors at the Dukovany power plant. The Czechs are looking to build a further two reactors at the Temelin plant, in addition to a fleet of small modular reactors. All the states of Central Europe own, to varying degrees, majority stakes in strategically important energy companies; France completed the renationalisation of EDF, the operator of its nuclear fleet, in 2023; and Sweden’s Vattenfall has remained 100 per cent state owned.

Hungarian PM Peter Magyar (L) is welcomed by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) ahead of a meeting at the European Commission headquarters…