Russia starts issuing electronic visas to foreigners

Citizens of 55 countries of the world will be able to obtain an electronic visa to visit Russia. The rule takes effect on August 1. As reported in the Russian Foreign Ministry. The visa is issued 4 days before the trip and is issued on a special website.

«A single electronic visa gives the right to a single entry to The Russian Federation and stay in Of the Russian Federation on a guest or business visit, as a tourist, as well as to participate in scientific, cultural, socio-political, economic, sports events and to carry out relevant contacts and contacts, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. — The validity period of a single electronic visa is 60 days from the date of its registration with the permitted period of stay of a foreign citizen in Of the Russian Federation no more than 16 days from the date of entry into the territory of the country.»

The list of countries that can come to the Russian Federation under the simplified scheme is named in a special order of the government. Citizens of China, North Korea, Turkey, Serbia can logically get electronic visas, but there are also countries on the list that Russia considers unfriendly, including NATO countries: Japan, Greece, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Portugal and Poland. The Russian authorities called the exclusion of these states from the list «inappropriate».

«We consider it inappropriate, as a response to the unfriendly actions of the official authorities of the states, to exclude for their citizens the possibility of obtaining a single electronic visa for short—term trips to our country, » said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

From where to Foreigners are coming to Russia

The Border Service of the FSB of Russia announced data on the flow of foreign citizens to the Russian Federation in the first quarter of 2023. In three months, 3.26 million foreigners came to the country. Relative to the difficult year 2022, this is an increase of 17,6%. But a drop of 49% compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, when tourists en masse traveled to the country, inspired by the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The most massive flow in Russia comes from countries with a visa-free regime: Uzbekistan — 818 thousand people, Kazakhstan — 604.5 thousand, Tajikistan — 516.4 thousand, Kyrgyzstan — 244.2 thousand and Abkhazia — 172.9 thousand.

Despite the aggravation of relations, the flow from the Baltic countries and Poland: the number of arrivals from Estonia doubled to 20.7 thousand, from Lithuania by 42,5% — 9.5 thousand, from Latvia by 31,7% — 14.2 thousand, from Poland by 69,1% — 9.3 thousand.

At the same time, it is difficult to single out tourists from the statistics who come to rest and go to museums. Experts note that most of the guests from Turkey can be attributed to tourists — 10 thousand people arrived here, an increase of two times compared to last year. In second place is China, which allowed its citizens to travel abroad only in the spring of 2023. From where 6.2 thousand tourists arrived in the first quarter. In third place is Germany, which sank by 23% — 5 thousand tourists.