At the end of last month, several Chinese individuals were denied entry into Russia when their tourist visas were annulled, a process that involved a repeated 4-hour inspection by Russian border personnel. On Friday (4th), the Chinese Embassy in Russia criticized Russia’s ‘barbaric law enforcement’, damaging the rights and interests of Chinese citizens, and lodged a protest with the Russian side.
According to the WeChat public account of the Chinese Embassy in Russia, on July 29th, five Chinese citizens were prevented from entering Russia by car from Kazakhstan through the Karauzek border crossing in Astrakhan Oblast, their tourist visas were annulled and they were refused entry. After receiving the help call, consular officials from the embassy inquired into the incident, calmed the individuals involved, and demanded that Russia allow re-application for visas and facilitate entry. On August 2nd, it was understood from the videos uploaded by the involved parties that Russian border personnel had repeatedly scrutinized the Chinese citizens for up to 4 hours.
In response, relevant departments of the Chinese Embassy separately met with the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Federal Border Service, the Federal Security Service, and other departments to protest, criticizing Russia’s ‘barbaric and excessive law enforcement’, seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens. The Chinese side said that this is inconsistent with the current overall friendly relations between China and Russia, and the trend of increasingly close friendly exchanges between the two countries, demanded the Russian side to immediately find out the reasons for the incident, take active measures, do everything possible to eliminate the adverse effects, and ensure that similar incidents do not happen in the future, and further investigate the excessive law enforcement behavior of the border inspection personnel, and give a satisfactory answer to the Chinese side.
The Russian side stated that the incident was a single case, that the country welcomes Chinese citizens to Russia, and that there are no discriminatory policies or actions against Chinese citizens. Preliminary verification showed that the reason for the refusal of entry was that the intended destination of the relevant Chinese citizen’s visa application did not match the actual destination, violating Russian laws and regulations.
On July 31st, Jin Wenxin, an influencer with more than 900,000 followers, posted a video on Douyin stating that he and four friends were treated ‘like criminals’ by Russian officials when they drove through a border checkpoint near the southern Russian city of Astrakhan. Their luggage was checked three times, and they were asked to display all their belongings.
Jin Wenxin said that the group planned to visit Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, and before departure had obtained all necessary documents such as visas and driving permits. However, after being held at the border for more than 4 hours, Russian officials still refused them entry on the grounds of incomplete procedures and violations of immigration regulations, and also requested to collect their fingerprints, irises, and photos.
Because they refused to comply, they were asked to return to Kazakhstan within 10 minutes, a process that took more than 7 hours. Regarding the incident, Jin Wenxin said that it made him deeply experience the so-called ‘Sino-Russian friendship’ which is indeed ‘profound’.