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Visa-freedom by plane

Aeroflot aircraft

Russia proposes to the EU that visa regulations should be abolished for passengers on regular cross-border flights.

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It is a group of State Duma representatives which together with the Russian Public Youth Chamber has proposed the new measure on traveling facilitation with the Schengen members. According to newspaper Kommersant, the proposal was discussed with visiting members of the European Parliament in Moscow last week.

The proposal has now been formally handed over to the European Parliament.

One of the people behind the initiative, Pavel Tarakanov from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), says the proposal suggests that all regular flight passengers should be allowed to travel without visas as long as they have a return ticket.

-The Europeans are first of all afraid of their security – that foreigners might bring with them weapons and illegal drug, Tarakanov says to Kommersant. –However, the Europeans have themselves seen the strict controls in our airports – stricter than in any European airport, he adds.

He does not believe that the liberalization will lead to more migration from Russia to the EU. –The ones who wanted to move there for good already did it in the 1990s, he maintains.

Russia has over the last years pushed hard for the abolishment of the visa regulations with the EU. The issue has been high on the agenda in all recent Russia-EU summits, including the summit in Nizhny Novgorod in June this year.

While the Russian side has maintained that it is ready to open up for visa-free traveling “already tomorrow”, several countries in the EU side have been reluctant. In July this year, the sides still agreed about key milestones in the process ahead.

Read also: Russia-EU visa-free plan by summer

A part of the proposed Russian milestones towards visa-freedom has reportedly been a proposal on the introduction of visa-free traveling for people born after 1989. Russia has also worked for the introduction of visa- free travelling as part of socalled local border traffic agreements. Such an agreement has already been signed between Russia and Norway, and talks are ongoing between Russia and Poland.

Read also: Poland announces visa revolution