DUSHANBE, March 15, 2013, Asia-Plus — Russia has never had plans to introduce a visa regime for citizens of Central Asia’s countries, the Russian Foreign Ministry”s Ambassador-at-Large, Anvar Azimov told Asia-Plus in an interview, denying reports by some Russian media sources regarding Russia”s possible plans to introduce a visa regime for Central Asians as baseless.
According to Russian special envoy, his TV interview was strongly misrepresented and his answer to the question about the visa regime “was taken out of context.”
Some Russian media outlets have reported that Anvar Azimov told the independent TV channel
Dozhd
on March 13 that that Russia”s current visa-free regime with Central Asia will likely end around 2015.
Azimov allegedly said that Russia, which is conducting negotiations with the European Union on visa facilitation, is ready to guarantee its partners safety of borders with Central Asia’s nations. It is a matter of introduction of the visa regime for citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan until 2015, the Russian media sources reported.
Meanwhile, Azimov says he meant that citizens of Central Asian countries would be allowed to enter the Russian Federation only with passports for traveling abroad instead of internal passports after 2014.
“The Russian side has never had plans to introduce the visa regime for citizens of the CIS Central Asian nations,” said Azimov, “We value relations with these countries and we respect Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We consider them our strategic partners and we will continue seeking mutually acceptable solutions to all existing problems for the benefit of our relations and for the benefit of the peoples of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.”
We will recall that a number of State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament) lawmakers have been lobbying for the introduction of visas for citizens of Central Asia’s nations, saying this will help curb drug trafficking.
