Germany Appoints New Ambassador to Russia!
has presented his letter of credence in Moscow, becoming the new German ambassador to Moscow, while Martin Jäger presented his credentials to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv – Being appointed as the newest German ambassador to Ukraine.
“We are supporting Ukraine as it fights for freedom and independence,” Jäger said on social media on the case.
According to the official website, Lambsdorff spent ten years working in the Federal Foreign Office and was elected to the European Parliament in 2004, serving as its Vice President between 2014 and 2017.
The Russian war in Ukraine has greatly affected German-Russian relations, with the latter being significantly helped by the Germans. On the other hand, Jäger took over the role of ambassador in Kyiv from Anka Feldhusen in July.
Furthermore, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff will follow Geza Andreas von Geyr, who has occupied the post since 2019. It won’t be an easy dutty for Lambsdorff, as earlier this year, Russia expected a number of German diplomats, claiming the move was reciprocal to a similar one from Berlin.
However, regardless of the situation due to the war in Ukraine and all the sanctions that are imposed on Russia, the citizens continue filing the most Schengen visas, with the majority of those being granted by Germany.
A total of 687,239 visa applications were submitted by Russian citizens in 2022, with 437,609 being issued and another 68,753 being denied. As the data by Schengen Statistics show, Russians are the second nationality to file the most applications for visas in 2022, falling behind Turks, who filed 778,409 applications.
Furthermore, 7.1 per cent of all applications filed by Russians in 2022 were to Germany, while the recognition rate was 6.42 per cent indicating that 38,809 out of 48,895 applications were approved.
In general, Spain has received the most applications from Russian nationals – a total of 166,893 followed by Finland and Italy, who received 117,167 and 112,737 applications, respectively.
On the other hand, the countries to have issued the most visas to Russians in 2022 were Italy (14,036), Greece (13,015) and Germany (9,295). Despite the applications, the recognition rate for visa applications filed by Russians has been lower than in previous years.
In 2021, 536,241 applications for visas were filed by Russians in 2021, with 513,811 being issued – 95.8 per cent of all applications received a positive result, while in 2022, around 63.6 per cent of all applications were approved by Schengen countries.
