Iranian Tourists Can Visit Russia’s Far East without Visa

Moscow announced on Monday that the citizens of 14 Asian states, including Iran, as well as a South American country and 3 North African states are allowed entry into Russia’s Far East without a visa.

According to media reports, for an eight-day visit to the Far East of Russia, Iranian tourists will not need to obtain a visa.

The Russian new travel law applies to the nationals of Iran, Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, India, Qatar, China, North Korea, Kuwait, Morocco, the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tunisia, Turkey, Japan and Mexico.

The announcement was made by Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as reported by Sputnik news agency.

“I have recently approved the list of countries, whose nationals can take advantage of the preferential regime. Businessmen and tourists will not need to undergo the traditional procedure of Russian visas receipt,” the Prime Minister said. It will be enough for foreigners “to enter their data on a special website in the Internet,” Medvedev said.

“We are proactively forming the modern infrastructure and creating special regimes in the Far East; the law on visits to the Vladivostok free port was approved in March,” Medvedev said.

Cancellation of visa procedures for tourists and businessmen “will promote growth of investment and tourist attractiveness of the Far East,” the prime minister said.

The region will earn more money from tourist traffic growth, he added. Eighteen countries from various regions selected by the reciprocity principle were included into the list, Medvedev said.

“This is not because these states are situated at a closer or longer distance – we are appropriately introducing bilateral agreements on visa-free travel for those ready to use such an approach for us,” he added.