MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Russia’s foreign ministry sees it as one of its priorities to reach visa-free travel agreements with as many countries as possible, Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov, who is in charge of consular issues, said on Monday.
"Efforts towards visa-free travel agreements have never been stopped. Just look at the statistics: agreements on visa abandonment for people’s exchanges are signed every year. Three to four such agreements have been signed this year as well and work is underway on more such agreements. We never stop these efforts and consider this work as one of our priorities to make our nationals’ trips more comfortable," he said.
However he admitted that dialogue on this topic has been suspended with a number of states. "As you know, we have problems with those states that have suspended dialogue on that matter. They are the European Union countries, the United States, and Canada," Ivanov noted.
"Nevertheless, we are prepared to speak with all countries that want their citizens to visit Russia visa-free and are ready to grant similar privileges to Russian nationals, and we are doing that," he added.
