Ausländer können in Sewastopol ohne Visum für drei Tage

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree introducing a visa-free stay of foreign citizens on the territory of Sevastopol within 72 hours. The innovation concerns foreigners arriving in the city by ferry as a tourist group.

A decree establishing a visa-free stay in the country for foreign nationals traveling by ferry was signed in May 2009. By the present document the government amplifies the list of ports this regulation applies to with the seaport of Sevastopol.

The document signed by Dmitry Medvedev was submitted to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 15th. Its main aim is “To create favorable conditions to make nationals of the countries which form the main tourist flows in Russia visit the Crimean Federal District... The realization of the resolution will increase the tourist attractiveness of the region and will contribute to the tourism development on the whole”, – is stated on the official government’s website.

Experts welcomed the government's decision. Thus, the head of International Cooperation of Rostourism Valery Korovkin while commenting on the decree, noted that: “The largest companies in the world such as Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Lines and others, provided the cruises to Crimea. As a rule, they recruited tourists anywhere, that is why there was always a “hotchpotch” of tourists from different countries on the shipboard. Taking into account that a cruise ship can accommodate up to 5,000 travelers, the numbers of entering tourists turn out to be really large.”