Belarus, Russia mull over Plan B to help World Cup fans travel in cars
Photo: ria.ru
Russia and Belarus are preparing a backup option in case they do not manage to sign an agreement on mutual recognition of visas by this summer, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held in Russia. However, citizens of third states cannot enter Russia from Belarus by car. A temporary regime on mutual recognition of visas is supposed to be introduced for the time of the championship.
The delay is caused by official Minsk’s desire to connect it with the bilateral readmission agreement (deportation of illegal migrants to the territory they arrived from), Russian mass media report.
Belarus is also wary of foreigners getting Russian visas to visit Belarus because Russia has much more visas centres abroad. Thus, Belarus may start losing budget money.
Russia allows citizens of the third state to enter its territory only at international border checkpoints. However, there are no such checkpoints at Belarus-Russia border. Russia has enhanced border control at the Belarusian border trying to stop foreigners arriving from Belarus recently.
