Moskau bot an, die Visumpflicht für Ausländer einführen

The introduction of short-term visa free regime for foreigners coming to Moscow would bring the city up to 120 billion rubles, – this conclusion was made by experts in the Moscow Government.

In this regard, the Government supported the abolition of visas for foreign visitors of the capital, said Sergey Cheremin, the head of the Department of Foreign Trade and International Relations, – reports the news agency Interfax.

“We believe that this could be one of the most attractive benefits for the city. Moscow is a big transit hub from the east to the west. Our calculations show that the economic effect of the introduction of visa-free regime for at least three days could bring the city up to 120 billion rubles in the next three years,” – noted the official.

The expert emphasized that such a measure could be another step in the development of tourism in Russia, greatly increasing the number of tourists to Moscow.

Also, the official noted the security of the proposed measures as: “The introduction of the trial visa-free regime will not lead to the fact that all the criminals of the world will rush to Moscow?” – the media quotes the words of Sergei Cheremin.

Such an initiative has been proposed in April 2011 by Sergei Shpilko, who among other measures to increase tourist traffic in the capital, offered the urgent introduction of serious facilitation of the visa regime for foreign visitors. Referring to the successful experience of St. Petersburg, which has a 72-hour visa-free travel regime for foreigners, Sergei Shpilko predicted a good result for Moscow, but at the time his words did not have any practical consequences.