Russian President to make Russia visa-free for BRICS for short-term visits & transit

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As per a news update on Russia and India Report, Vladimir Putin, President, Russia has instructed his government to develop visa-free travel for short-term visits and transit by foreign tourists from BRICS countries. The deadline to submit proposals is set for October 30, 2015. The BRICS comprises five developing economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Putin has also asked to make legislative changes that will increase the number of Russian ports that allow foreign sea travellers’ entry into Russia.

Emulating the Russia-China visa-free tourist exchange program, Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) is planning to put in place similar Russia-India visa-less tourist exchange. Rostourism is working on a visa-free exchange plan for tourist groups between Russia and India operational by next calendar year, said Valery Korovkin, Head of the Department of International Cooperation of the Federal Agency for Tourism.

The existing visa-free exchange program between Russia and China provides the basis for the new project, but procedures will not be identical. The minimum number of members in the group from India will be reduced to three (for China, a visa-free group must comprise at least five people).

“Therefore, parents with a child will be regarded as a group and will be able to visit India without a visa,” said Korovkin. I hope this will be the first step towards introduction of a full visa-free regime between Russia and India, he added. Korovkin could not provide specific dates by when the visa-free group exchanges could begin, stating that coordination processes were time consuming. He did say, however, that Rostourism was doing everything possible to make it happen in the next calendar year.

To promote tourist traffic from Russia, the Indian Government will consider reducing the cost of visas for Russians from 75 to 60 dollars. (Source: Russia and India Report)