Exciting news for Indians! Pack your bags as you may get to travel to Russia 'visa-free' by 2025
India is set to ease travel to Russia by 2025, following a successful e-visa program. In 2023, over 60,000 Indian tourists visited Moscow, marking a 26% increase from 2022, with a total of 9,500 e-visas issued.
Indians can now travel to Russia without a Visa by 2025. India and Russia have planned to ease travel norms by spring 2025. This move aims to increase the number of tourists travelling from India to Russia.
“It is predicted that thanks to the agreement, which is now under development, the number of travellers from India coming to the Russian capital will significantly increase,” said Evgeny Kozlov, chairman of the Moscow City Tourism Committee.
Russia and India held consultations on a bilateral agreement regarding visa restrictions in June and planned to introduce visa-free group tourist exchanges collectively, PTI reported in May.
From 1 August 2023 onwards, Indians travelling to Russia can apply for an e-visa, which takes nearly four days to issue.
In 2023, India was among the top five countries with the highest number of e-visas issued. Kozlov, said 9,500 e-visas were issued to travellers from India, which is 6 per cent of the total e-visas issued by Russia.
Indians mostly travel to Russia for work-related and business purposes.
“In 2023, India entered the list of leaders in terms of number of travellers coming to Moscow among non-CIS countries. Over the entire year, more than 60,000 travellers from India visited the Russian capital, which also exceeded the figures for 2022 by 26%,” the report quoted Kozlov as saying.
Moreover, in the first quarter of 2024, India ranked third among non-CIS Countries for business tourists. In January 2024, Indian travellers were issued nearly 1700 e-visas.
Presently, travellers from China and Iran can enter Russia without a visa through the visa-free tourist exchange programme. Russia launched the tourist exchange programme for China and Russia on August 1, 2023, and it aims to repeat the success of the visa-free tourist programme with India, too.