EU foreign ministers to meet in Prague where they will discuss proposals to ban 10 million Russian tourists

On the banks of the Narva river, two medieval fortresses stand facing each other across the border dividing Russia and Estonia, a former Soviet republic that has already started to ban Russian tourists and is pushing for the European Union to prevent millions of them from vacationing inside the bloc while their country wages war in Ukraine. 

Starting Tuesday, foreign ministers from across Europe will meet in Prague where Estonia, along with the other countries including Latvia and Finland, will lobby for a ban that would see Europe turn away Russians holding tourist visas for the Schengen zone, a bloc made up of 26 European countries. 

If Europe doesn't agree to act in unison, Estonia vows it will move forward with other like minded nations.

"Travel is not a human right," Urmas Reinsalu, Estonia's foreign affairs minister, told CBC News in Tallinn, Estonia's capital on Aug. 25. 

"We have to also give a strong push to Russian society to wake up. You can't just walk on the streets … as a tourist, just eyes wide shut." 

Expanding travel ban 

Reinsalu anticipates that this week's meeting will be "heated" as a European divide has emerged around the fairness and practicality of a ban. 

On Aug. 18, Estonia started banning Russian tourists who hold visas issued by Estonia. The government said the move affects about 50,000 people, but officials say there are about 10 million Russians who hold European tourist visas and that group would be targeted by the proposed European ban. 

Most European countries bordering Russia, along with Poland, are advocating for the sweeping restrictions, but earlier this month while speaking in Norway, Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said a ban would unfairly target ordinary Russians caught up in "Putin's war." 

In Estonia, there is disagreement. Nearly a quarter of its population of 1.3 million are ethnic Russians, and that percentage is much higher right along the border. 

For instance, in Narva, a city on the country's eastern edge, nearly 60,000 residents or 97 per cent of the population, are Russian speaking and just over a third hold Russian citizenship. 

• Baltic states worry they could be Russia's next target

When CBC visited the area on Aug. 22, the Russian community of Ivangorod was celebrating Flag Day across the Narva river which forms the border between the two nations.

A small crowd gathered on top of a towering fortress in Ivangorod to raise the Russian flag. Over a speaker, a loud voice boomed that the three colours of the Russian flag reflected "dignity and openness, honesty and loyalty, courage and generosity."

In between the speeches, patriotic music including Russia's national anthem blared across both sides of the border.