{
  "id": 1460451,
  "title": "Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg to stop recognizing Russian non-biometric passports",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/sweden-belgium-netherlands-and-luxembourg-to-stop-recognizing-russian",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-17T10:05:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/08/17/sweden-belgium-netherlands-and-luxembourg-to-stop-recognizing-russian-non-biometric-passports"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden announced they will stop recognizing Russian non-biometric passports starting October 1, 2026. Sweden will continue admitting Russians with non-biometric passports through the end of 2026, as long as they possess a valid visa or residence permit from an EU or Schengen country. Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have not set a transition period. As a result, 15 European states now refuse to acknowledge Russian non-biometric passports. France, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic are among them. Russia issues two types of foreign travel passports: biometric ones, valid for ten years, and non-biometric ones, valid for five. Non-biometric passports are cheaper and quicker to obtain. Meduza, the news outlet behind this report, emphasizes transparency about its use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The article was penned by a human journalist and translated from Russian using an AI model adhering to the outlet's strict editorial guidelines. Every draft undergoes review by a Meduza editor before publication. Readers can report any translation errors to reports@meduza.io. For exclusive English-language content, subscribers can sign up for Meduza's newsletter.",
  "summary": "Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden will stop recognizing Russian non-biometric passports starting October 1, 2026, the European Commission announced.",
  "key_points": [
    "Russia issues biometric passports valid 10 years, non-biometric ones valid 5 years",
    "15 European states now refuse Russian non-biometric passports"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}