Negotiators are near the completion of a deal which includes a significant liberalization of current cross-border traveling regulations, newspaper Kommersant reports.
The deal will not include visa-free travelling as previously reported by BarentsObserver.
Diplomatic sources from both sides confirm that the deal will include more liberal visa regulations for a number of new groups. Among them will be journalists, business people and truck drivers, as well as representatives of official delegations, participants in research, culture and sports events, and exchange programmes. The groups will in the new regime be able to obtain 5-year long multi-entry visas.
Also representatives of NGOs will be included in the new regime, the newspaper informs.
In addition, the deal will facilitate travelling also for ordinary people. After once having obtained a regular short-term visa, people will be entitled to apply for longer-term multi-entry visas. Consular fees will be abolished for all people under 18 years of age.
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A Russian diplomat involved in the talks believes the deal will be signed already in May this year, while a representative of the EU Commission more modestly says that the deal will be approved “at least in the course of the year”.
Reportedly, the only remaining issue to be agreed upon is whether or not to open up for visa-free travelling also for civil servants with special service passport. While the Russian side insists that also this group is included in the deal, the EU Commission is reluctant.
The deal is part of the roadmap towards visa-free travelling hammered out by the sides in the EU-Russia summit in December 2011. The current visa regime between the parts is based on an agreement from 2007.
It is not clear however whether or not the new deal will include also the abolishment of the special Russian requirement on travellers’ registration of place of stay. As outlined by BarentsObserver Editor Thomas Nilsen in the Barents Review, a publication by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, Russian authorities should remove the requirement as part of the process towards a visa-free regime.
