Russian officers insist that the Europeans and Americans haven’t misplaced curiosity in visiting Russian Federation
According to the newest information from Russia’s Foreign Ministry, there was an enormous drop in variety of visas issued by the Russian Federation to guests from the US and European international locations.
Russian Foreign Ministry officers say that there have been solely about 1,000 journey visas issued to US residents within the first three months 2023. They additionally verify that the variety of guests from European international locations has declined sharply.
At the identical time, Russian officers insist that the Europeans and Americans haven’t misplaced curiosity in visiting Russia, the ‘vast majority’ of visas granted to Americans had been for tourism or household visits.
However, there was a ‘very low demand for business visas,’ Russia’s Foreign Ministry experiences, placing the variety of such paperwork issued to US nationals within the first quarter of 2023 at a simply a few dozen.
As for the Europeans, Russia registered an almost ten-fold decline within the variety of visas issued in comparison with pre-pandemic ranges. Even although the whole quantity stood at simply 48,500, Moscow argued that there are nonetheless ‘signs’ that EU residents’ ‘interest in business as well as tourist trips to Russia’ remains to be ‘there’.
In mid-February, the United States Department of State issued a journey advisory, warning Americans in opposition to touring to Russia “due to the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment, and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention.”
In May, Russia designated the US an ‘unfriendly country’ together with the Czech Republic. Following the outbreak of Moscow’s brutal and unprovoked conflict of aggression in opposition to Ukraine final February, and the imposition of the European Union‘s punitive sanctions on Russia, the whole bloc ended up on Russia’s ‘unfriendly country’ hitlist.
Overall, Russia’s Foreign Ministry claims, there was a 16% year-on-year rise in complete variety of visas issued to international guests in the course of the first three months of 2023.
A complete of 52,000 out of practically 145,000 Russian journey visas issued to foreigners had been for Chinese nationals. There was a greater than 13-fold soar within the variety of vacationer entries by residents of the People’s Republic of China over the previous 12 months.
A rising variety of Chinese are visiting Russia ‘for business and education purposes,’ Russian officers declare.
