EU foreign ministers on Wednesday agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopped short of a wider visa ban as requested by some member states. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ministers had agreed that relations with Moscow “cannot be business as usual” and the agreement should be “fully suspended”. Following the informal meeting in Prague, he said this would make it “more difficult” and “longer” for Russian nationals to get visas. “It will significantly reduce the number of new visas issued by the EU member states,” he said. In a concession to eastern EU members who had pushed for a tougher approach, Borrell said that countries bordering Russia “can take measures at a national level to restrict entry into the European Union”. But he said any measures would have to conform with rules for the EU’s Schengen common travel zone and he emphasised it was important that members of Russian civil society should continue to be able to travel to the EU. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was also in Prague for the talks, dismissed the suspension of the visa facilitation agreement as a “half-measure”.