The Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky has said his country will not issue humanitarian visas to Russian men fleeing mobilisation orders.
Lipavsky told the Czech news server Novinky.cz that while he understood their motivations, such cases did not meet the conditions for a humanitarian visa.
The Czech Republic joins other countries such as Latvia which has said it will not provide sanctuary to Russians seeking to avoid the draft on humanitarian grounds. Germany, on the other hand, says it will do so.
The Czech Foreign Ministry has also confirmed it has written to two NHL teams to say Prague would not issue visas to Russian ice hockey players wishing to travel to the Czech capital to take part in the NHL’s Global Series games.
Prague will host two matches between the San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators, both of which have Russian players, onOctober 7 and 8.
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