Authorities in Russia are talking with Gulf countries as well as other Asian countries in an attempt to reach agreements so citizens of these territories could travel to each other visa-free.
Such an announcement has been confirmed through a statement published by Tass, by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Yevgeny Ivanov, VisaGuide.World reports.
Ivanov has confirmed that Russia’s efforts to reach an agreement with more countries have been continuous, the report provided by TASS reads.
“There is no point to [talk about it] ahead of time. But this work is going on with a number of… Gulf states. You know that visa-free regime has already been signed and is in effect with the UAE and with Qatar,” he pointed out.
The Minister also stressed that agreements with other Gulf countries and several other states in Asia are in the works.
Russia’s efforts to reach visa-free agreements with other countries have also been confirmed by other authorities in Russia.
In this regard, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Mikhail Bogdanov, told Ria Novosti that Russia is attempting to make a visa-free agreement with the Gulf States.
“Visa-free travel is being worked out with almost all Persian Gulf countries – Bahrain, Saudi Arabia”, the Russian diplomat pointed out in this regard.
In addition, previously, Yevgeny Ivanov, Secretary of State, and Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation told TASS that the country is planning to establish a visa-free regime, taking also into account other Asian countries.
While authorities in Russia are attempting to reach more visa-free travel agreements with other countries, previously, European Union announced that it decided to suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia due to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.
Back then it was reported that Russian nationals would no longer be eligible for Schengen Zone short-stay visas under the EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement.
It was emphasized that despite the fact that the suspension of the agreement would not completely ban short-term travel to the Schengen Zone by Russian citizens, the latter would be subject to an increase in short-term visa fees from 35€ to 80€.
In addition, it was confirmed that authorities would have 15 days in order to process short-stay visas for Russians, instead of 10 days, while they may be also required to present additional documentation when planning to apply for short-stay visas.
According to the Visa Guide Passport Index, Russia’s passport is ranked in the 93rd position, with a passport score of 112.6, which shows that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia also led the country to drop by some positions.
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