During the previous 24-hour period, 266 citizens of Russia crossed the Latvian and EU external border.
According to the border guard, this figure is which is significantly lower than in neighboring countries - in Estonia there were 1,292 citizens of the Russian Federation, and in Lithuania - 939.
In total, since September 19, 3,377 Russian nationals have crossed the Russian-Latvian and Belarus-Latvian border, and are only those who meet the exceptional categories defined by the government's decision to ban entry to people on tourist visas.
Only 15% of them entered Latvia on the basis of category C or D visas, another 40% are holders of Latvian residence permits, among them family members of Latvian nationals, students, employees, persons whose entry is related to work needs or humanitarian considerations .
"Almost half of the Russian citizens who crossed the external border use visas or residence permits issued by other countries, which means that Latvia is not the country of destination for these persons, but is used for transit to go to other countries of the European Union," said the border guard, which added that it "carries out enhanced immigration control of foreigners during the entire stay of persons in the Republic of Latvia and strictly monitors that foreigners who have entered Latvia comply with the conditions of stay and carefully controls that the terms of stay specified in visas are not violated and that foreigners leave Latvia within the specified terms."
In the past 24 hours, entry to Latvia was denied to 24 citizens of Russia, while in total, since September 19, 117 citizens of the Russian Federation have been turned back.
There have been no cases of persons trying to cross the border illegally to enter Latvia away from official checkpoints.
Since September 19, when the restrictions on non-essential travel set by the government's decision came into force, the flow of Russian nationals has decreased by 20%.