MINSK, 21 March (BelTA) – Plans have been made to sign an abridged version of the Belarusian-Russian agreement on mutual visa recognition by 4 June, representatives of the Belarusian Interior Ministry told BelTA.
The abridged agreement has been drafted to enable football fans to freely transit Belarus on their way to Russia where a world football championship will take place. The draft document has been prepared, agreed by all the interested government agencies, and forwarded for consideration to Russia. Consultations are expected to take place soon. The agreement is expected to come into force by 4 June 2018, BelTA learned from Aleksei Begun, Head of the Citizenship and Migration Department of the Belarusian Interior Ministry.
In his words, the abridged document contains all the basic clauses, which have been agreed as part of the full visa recognition agreement. “First of all, visa-free transit using fan passports. Besides, the document will allow people, who have not obtained fan passports due to certain circumstances, to transit Belarus using Russian visas. They will also be able to cross the country on their way back after the world football championship is over,” said Aleksei Begun. The relevant agencies of the Russian Federation are expected to provide information about those, who will get fan passports.
According to the source, once the full document on mutual visa recognition comes into force, the abridged version will be phased out. The abridged document will stay in force until then.
Belarus and Russia have been working on a full-scale agreement on the mutual recognition of visas for two years already. According to Aleksei Begun, a number of issues have yet to be addressed as far as the full agreement is concerned.
The world football championship will begin on 14 June to end in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on 15 July. The games will take place in eleven Russian cities: Moscow, Sochi, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, and Saransk.
