From April 1, 2026, Poland will stop recognizing Russian passports without an electronic chip containing the holder's biometric data. This decision was published on the official website of the European Commission.
According to the announcement, from April 1, 2026, Poland will allow Russian citizens to enter the country only with biometric passports of a new model, and their stay in the country with documents of an old model will be considered illegal.
Also, from January 1, 2026, Poland will close its border to holders of Russian diplomatic and service passports that do not meet modern biometric standards.
In the summer of 2025, the governments of Lithuania and Latvia stopped recognizing five-year passports of Russian citizens, following Denmark, France, the Czech Republic and Estonia.
This measure does not affect transit trips of Russian citizens crossing the Lithuanian border to the Kaliningrad region and back by rail.
Also in November 2025, Russians were banned from entering Germany with passports without biometric data.