By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, visa, agreement
Israelis and Russians will soon stop needing visas to visit each other's countries, under a new agreement reached by representatives of both foreign ministries in Moscow last week.
Government sources said the Russian government is expected to approve the new consular agreement soon after Christmas. Once the agreement is approved, the visa requirement should be eliminated within 90 days, they added.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, initialed a memorandum of understanding on eliminating the visa requirement in September, when they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. However, further talks were needed to translate this memorandum into a detailed agreement.
In Israel, the main push for eliminating the visa requirement came from the Tourism Ministry, which estimates that abolishing visas would increase Russian tourism to Israel by about 100,000 people a year. The Public Security Ministry, in contrast, opposed the move, fearing that eliminating visas would make it too easy for Russian criminals to enter Israel.
In the end, the cabinet sided with the Tourism Ministry, but decided that the visa requirement should be waived only if Russia would in turn waive its visa requirement for Israelis. Russia accepted this proposal in September, setting the stage for last week's agreement.
