The Ministry of Culture is proposing a draft bill that will allow passengers with Russian airliners to stay in the country for up to 72 hours without a visa. Russia, which saw only 2.1 million foreign tourists in 2012 (on level with Laos and Costa Rica), is hoping to increase the number of tourists from other countries by 60 percent by this new arrangement.
According to By introducing 72- hours visa-free transit Russia is hoping for increased revenues from the country’s flagship airline Aeroflot by 30 billion rubles (app €688 million) and for the Russian hotel industry to see its income rise 3.6-5.4 billion rubles (€82.5-123.8 million) per year, RIA Novosti reports.
The visitors must have onward bookings with a Russian airline from an airport with international flights. These are the airports: Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo in Moscow, Pulkovo (St. Petersburg), Kazan (Kazan), Knevichi (Vladivostok), Koltsovo (Yekaterinburg), Khrabrovo (Kaliningrad), Tolmachevo (Novosibirsk), Adler-Sochi (Sochi) and Khabarovsk-Novy (Khabarovsk), Siberian Times reports.
The loosened visa regulations will apply to visitors from 20 countries, including Finland, Sweden, Germany, China, United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Poland, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Singapore, Australia and Greece.
Norway is not included in the list. Whether this is a slip or the Ministry of Culture thinks that Norwegians have too little money to spend in Russia and therefore doesn’t bother opening up for visa-free travel for them, remains unclear.
