{"id":19788,"date":"2026-01-17T13:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=19788"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:46:40","slug":"most-russified-eu-member-state-after-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/19788\/most-russified-eu-member-state-after-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Russified EU Member State After Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Buma and Elyze Nadler<\/em><\/p>\n

As the Russia-Ukraine war threatens to turn four years old, the sanctions placed on Russia continue with potential to grow.<\/p>\n

On 7 January 2026, the Ukrainian president Zelensky held a speech at the Cyprus EU Presidency ceremony pleading for stronger sanctions against Russia and financial support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

With a strong Russian tourist base, large Russian communities living on the island and a close historical relationship in investments, Cyprus has been described as the \u2018most Russified EU-member state\u2019 by political analysts.<\/p>\n

Cypriot government officials have raised concerns that the country would be greatly affected by imposing sanctions.<\/p>\n

Since the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus, Cyprus has been divided into two administrations; the Republic of Cyprus, the only internationally recognised authority on Cyprus, and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) which controls a third of the island but is only legally recognised by Turkey.<\/p>\n

With only the Republic of Cyprus being counted as an EU member state, this means that just two-thirds of the island is implementing the sanctions.<\/p>\n\n

Tourism industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cyprus’ economy is dependent on tourism with the Deputy Ministry of Tourism reporting that the industry makes up 14% of the Republic of Cyprus\u2019 yearly income and 64.6% of jobs in Cyprus being in the travel and tourism sector.<\/p>\n

Professor of Tourism, Zanete Garanti described tourism as \u201cthe bread of the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, Cyprus was the second-most popular tourist destination for Russians with around 172,000 Russian going to Cyprus, according to official Russian border service data.<\/p>\n

This was about 10% of the tourist arrivals that year.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2026\/01\/Tourists-in-Larnaca-Airport-republic-of-Cyprus.png” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”40%” offset=”-10px” align=”right” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Tourists in Larnaca Airport, Republic of Cyprus by Elyze Nadler” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

In 2022, EU sanctions led to the suspension of direct flights between Cyprus and Russia with official data from Hermes airport revealing over 330,000 Russian passengers were prevented from coming due to these bans in 2022 alone.<\/p>\n

Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said that Cyprus\u2019 decision to open visa centres in Russia were \u201canother indication of Europe\u2019s growing awareness of the sheer scale of economic losses stemming from the cessation of tourist inflows from our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the sanctions did affect the Republic, its effects were not as mighty as one might expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually\u201d Professor Garanti describes, \u201cif in the paper they say we lost a lot of Russian tourists, they were still managing to come, but through the North side.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time the Cypriot government was pushing RyanAir to open more flights to other European countries. \u201cSo, in the end, the missing Russian tourism but increasing Polish, Latvian, Estonian actually balanced out the tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\n\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2026\/01\/TRNC-tourists.png” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”45%” offset=”-10px” align=”left” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Tourists in TRNC by Elyze Nadler” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n\n\n\n

Similarly, tourism is an important pillar of the economy in the north being one of the most rapidly growing sectors.<\/p>\n

Dr Ruth Nange said not being a part of the EU could be seen as \u201can advantage\u201d for TRNC since more Russians visited the northern side after the sanctions, as well as the fact that some Brits opted to visit TRNC after Brexit.<\/p>\n

For more information on the differences between the tourism industries in both sides and the inequalities not being part of the EU and internationally recognised creates, listen to this audio piece:<\/p>\n