Italy has become the leader among Schengen zone countries in the number of visas issued to Russian citizens. According to data from VFS Global — the world’s largest visa operator, serving embassies of more than 20 countries — the Italian visa operator VMS, which operates in many Russian cities, issued at least 152,000 visas in 2025. Despite the abolition of the simplified border-crossing regime for Russians, the increase in consular fees to €80, and a shortage of available slots due to reductions in consular staff, the Italian direction has become the most lenient for Russians among all Eurozone countries. For VMS, this has also become a lucrative “visa business,” owing to the high approval rate for visa applications (over 90%) and the active operation of intermediary networks that have monopolized appointment bookings at visa centers in Russia, reselling slots for between €500 and €1,000.
This state of affairs — against the backdrop of anti-Russian sanctions and Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine — could not go unnoticed. On April 22 of this year, the Robert Lansing Institute stated that Italy had become one of the largest staging grounds for the activities of Russian elites, intelligence services, and criminal structures across the entire European Union. The institute noted that Italy’s visa policy ignores the risks of hybrid threats, thereby undermining other collective EU security measures.
In November 2025, the European Commission officially banned the issuance of multiple-entry and long-term visas for most categories of Russian citizens. Now every trip by Russians to the Schengen zone requires a single-entry visa with enhanced vetting, giving security services greater opportunity to screen applicants. Italy has taken a different path: despite the ban on long-term visas, Italian consulates continue to issue large volumes of short-term permits, and the launch of an e-visa system announced for June 2026 promises to reduce the processing time to five days. This liberalization of procedures contradicts the EU’s security strategy, as accelerated digital processing of applications will become an ideal cover for the entry of individuals traveling to Europe with purposes far removed from tourism.
Italy attracts not only tourists but also Russian elites, owing to longstanding political and business ties. For Russian oligarchs, the country is not only a “safe haven” for luxury real estate and yachts, but has also become a platform for money laundering through investment in Italian small and medium-sized businesses, as well as various cultural projects.
Economically advanced northern Italy has always been of particular interest to Russian intelligence services due to the concentration there of high-tech enterprises in the defense and aerospace sectors, making the region a target for industrial espionage. In addition, Milan’s developed financial infrastructure and the industrial capacity of Lombardy offer extensive opportunities to conceal sanctions-evasion networks and channels behind the facade of legitimate trade operations with local businesses.
The Kremlin’s traditionally strong interest in supporting far-right movements and parties in Italy aims to cultivate a political lobby that, through media rhetoric, has increasingly been calling for the immediate lifting of sanctions on Russia in the energy sector — framing this as the protection of national sovereignty and the “salvation of the economy.” This is often how ties to criminal capital and the Italian mafia are concealed; the mafia uses Russian financial resources to launder proceeds across various sectors of the economy.
Some Italian politicians and major businesspeople are advancing anti-sanctions resolutions and calling for economic rapprochement with Russia — a direct consequence of this lobbying and covert Russian financing. For the Kremlin, this model of influence is particularly convenient, as it operates through business forums, cultural associations, informal intermediaries, and local political allies who present closer ties with Russia as pragmatism and the protection of the region’s economic interests. It cannot be ruled out that the effective absence of restrictions on tourist visa issuance to Russians may itself be part of these arrangements.
Italy’s visa liberalism toward Russian citizens in 2026 represents a security error rooted in the dangerous illusion that tourist flows are harmless. By prioritizing immediate revenues from the tourism sector and ignoring collective EU restrictions, Rome is effectively leaving open a channel for hybrid threats. The mass issuance of short-term permits — which authorities plan to simplify even further through the introduction of the e-visa system — not only undermines the sanctions regime but also creates ideal conditions for intelligence operations of the “arrive–execute–depart” format. A brief stay is more than sufficient to conduct meetings, transfer funds, coordinate acts of sabotage, or carry out industrial espionage, while accelerated application processing makes the work of counterintelligence nearly impossible. Italy’s visa leniency is thus transforming the country into the primary gateway for the penetration of Russian influence and criminality deep into Europe — threatening not only national sovereignty but the security of the entire West.