LuxuryRogue

While I also think that Russia should have positioned itself more open and sympathetic for foreign tourism in the past decade, I can understand that some Russian companies prefer their Russian domestic clients, because they are the bigger spenders.

To be fair, for the 500 mio or so people, who speak Russian but no English, there is not much of Russian-language information either. English is not as widely spread as we sometimes think.

arghh

Unless it has changed in the last couple of years, the Hermitage is also completely free for students of any nationality

I agree that Russia is a great tourist destination. St. Petersburg is truly one of the world's most beautiful cities. There is so much to see and do there too. I spent a week and easily could have spent a month there.

I think easing up on visa restrictions would go a long way toward bringing in more tourists. Petersburg could be a very attractive weekend city break type destination for Western Europeans, but nobody wants to go through all the visa hassles for a weekend trip.

echino

Unlike some third-world countries living mostly off tourism, Russian visa procedures are usually reciprocal, so I don't see any progress there happening until USA / Canada / Australia / UK / Europe etc move to eliminate or simplify visa requirements for Russian citizens. It's a huge pain the ... for Russians to get a visa to those countries, so naturally Russia treats those citizens the same way.

arghh

I certainly understand how difficult it is for Russians to get visas to the US. Visas to many European countries are not that difficult from what I understand.

All the same Russia loses far more from this policy. I think a good compromise would be to keep the visa fees reciprocal but allow for Russian visa on arrival. At the very least they could make the visa application form less onerous. It's not so much the money paid but the time and aggravation involved in getting a Russian visa that is the real problem.

LuxuryRogue

Visa reciprocity? USA used to be / still is a tourist based economy. EU is heavily dependent on (Russian) tourists. Russia doesn't need tourists. Even less with the current shitsteering going on, against it.

Temedar

You are right, but the EU visas do require paperwork. You generally have to provide a letter from your employer and a bank account statement.

It's not a question of losing money. It's a question of equal treatment for each others' citizens.

Will not happen, except for passengers transiting via Russian airports (and even that is unlikely with the current developments). Either both Russia and the EU agree to waive visas, or everything stays as it is.

Helsinki Flyer

From my home it´s only 300 km´s to St. Pete, but given the visa difficulties, I´ve never been. If the visa costs me more than flights to EU, let them keep their reciprocal pride thing. The problem isn´t that many EU-nationals would be staying as illegals in Russia, but the other way round still seems like a decent threat. If the Russians canno´t accept that, then we have this problem that no games in Sochi, advertising, Hermitage, skyscrapers of Moscow, Putin or anyting can change.

Given Putin´s rhetorics lately I doubt anything going to happen within EU either. Finland being one of the very few countries in EU advocating for visa freedom for Russian we can only influence it very little.

Temedar

EU does not require visas for Albanian or Moldavian citizens. I assume they do not have any reasons to stay in EU illegally? Makes perfect sense with GDP of Moldova (PPP, per capita) at $4K while GDP of Russia is about $20K.

Helsinki Flyer

Albania and Moldavia might have friends in the EU, unlike Putin. Then there´s internal politics, who cares about Moldavians when you can get votes on being strong on Russia?

p.s. Molvania isn´t that bad a country as you seem to think.

http://www.jetlagtravel.com/molvania/accom.html

MSPeconomist

For a USA citizen, getting a Russian visa is a huge and often very expensive hassle. The application forms ask for some intrusive information and if you cannot be without your passport for long (and don't want to pay to get a second passport for this purpose), you must pay even more for expedited handling. Despite this, Russian consulates can and do close for random unannounced holidays, so that you cannot count on how long they will take to process visa applications. They encourage you to use certain visa services (kickback or just friends with the owners?) and make this difficult to avoid. Different consulates in the USA at times have used different procedures, different rules, and different application forms. When changes are made, website information is not updated for a very long time and can be contradictory. Finally, for tourists not doing group tours, the requirement to pay your hotel for some Russian citizen to issue an official invitation is ridiculous, especially since this document seems to often get lost when it's sent directly to the consulate. <RANT OVER>

Temedar

I never claimed Moldova is a bad country. It's just poor, and it's a fact, not an opinion. You're quite right on friends/non-friends, though I don't think it works that way in all EU countries

Helsinki Flyer

Me linking to Molvania was a joke.

Here in Finland we would very much like to have visa freedom to Russians. Why? We could benefit lot from that and vice versa. Yet Finland has to obey the Schengen rules and since most are very cautious to Russia, we have to live with that.

meFIRST

GDP issues aside....The sticking point I believe, was the ancient tsarist practice of registration. The EU, along with human rights issues, wanted that practice gone.

Most of you have forgotten but when Dima (Dmitry Medvedev) was President, one of the fine things he did ( along with a few modernization / economic diversification projects, sadly did not get fully realized ) was to relax the registration period for foreigners from a ridiculous 4 days to 7 business days. This was to reduce the potential for Moscow cops to solicit / harass for bribes from foreigners ( I can't imagine this happening) , and to allegedly make it easier to foreigners / expats to visit. [ I can't imagine a similar mood today ]

So effectively, one could show up in Moscow for work / Business meeting on Monday and leave on Friday/Saturday and repeat this every week until your visa term expires, and not ever have to register with the OVID. In the boom years of Medvedev's term, this was very useful, and was widely used by many people that would shuttle back and forth from Moscow to the EU/US, myself included.

Temedar

Small quiz for ya:

What country stands for XXXX?

Helsinki Flyer

No idea. Many Eastern European countries still have these kind of practices. In many countries the hotels also have to take copies of your passport and deliver them to local police. I don´t like my every step being followed like that, but what can I do? Stop going? No. If they even wanted hundreds of euros for my family? Then, I´d stop going.