Russia moves closer to visa-free regime with EU

All technical issues regarding the abolition of the visa regime between Russia and the European Union have been solved, the Russian News Service reports with reference to special envoy of the Russian Foreign Minister, Anvar Azimov.

"Our plans to abolish the visa regime by 2014 are quite real. All specifications required for that are ready," Azimov said, adding that the decision to abolish visas between Russia and the European Union now requires a political decision on the part of the European Union.

Azimov said that during the upcoming EU-Russia summit in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to discuss the issue in detail with Russia's partners in the EU. He will advocate the intensification of the process of making joint steps to try to introduce the visa-free regime in the next two years, said Rosbalt.

Meanwhile, he said, "Russia will be forced to come to certain conclusions, if by the end of 2013 the dialogue between Russia and the EU on the visa-free regime is not going to start," the Arguments and Facts newspaper wrote.

As previously reported, the discussion of the step-by-step transition plan between Moscow and Brussels for visa cancellation was completed in early November 2011. The list of common steps to proceed to the agreement on visa-free regime was agreed at the Russia-EU summit in Brussels, held on December 14-15, 2011.