Russian News and Stories

The agreement on Visa approvement can be signed in April - March; it has been announced by the ambassador to Russian Federation in Belarus Alexandr Surikov.

On 29th of November 2017, according to Igor Fomin, the Chairman of the Expert Council for Tourism under the FF Social Policy Committee of the Council of Federation, the Federation Council unanimously approved the Federal Law "On Amending Economic Development of the Kaliningrad Region".

A new visa type will be implemented for visiting Russia - a Regular Visa for the entrance of the country in order to obtain authorization for temporary residency in Russia. The new Visa type was approved by the government's decree.

The prime-minister Dmitriy Medvedev has expressed his will to ease the Visa processing for the Chinese tourists traveling in small groups. According to him, the Russian government will soon put this initiative for consideration.

Almost 3 thousand citizens of 15 countries already have entered Russia with the e-Visa through the Port of Vladivostok. The simplified Visa regime came into force 2 months ago. With its help, the foreign visitors are able to obtain single entry business, tourist or humanitarian Visas, as was reported in the press service of the Ministry for Development of Russian Far East.

Despite the cold summer, the open-air museum Peterhof has reached a new record of tourists attendance. On one day in July, the Lower Park has received 54 thousand people.

The first International tourists received their Electronic Visas for entry to the Russian Federation through the Far East region, reports Minister of Russian Federation on Far East development Alexander Galushka.

Over 50 ships, motor boats, and military vessels have arrived at the Northern Capital in order to participate in the International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS).

Alla Manilova, the deputy of the Minister of Culture of Russian Federation, has announced that tourism exchange year 2017-2018 is planned to begin this September. During this year, the numerous events, which are exceptional by its value for future cooperation, will take place.

In order to stimulate the tourism flow to St. Petersburg, the local government suggests to incorporate the e-Visas for foreign citizens. The proposal, prepared by the tourism development committee of St. Petersburg, has been already forwarded to the president of Russia and the Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko.

On 30th of March, the protocol, signed between Russia and South Africa, will come into force, enabling the possibility to travel between the countries without a Visa for 90 days.This possibility is granted to people who hold foreign travel passports and are visiting country for tourism purposes or passing through it

Russia has simplified the Visa procedures for the Austrian citizens. Starting from this year, Austrians will be automatically granted with the double-entry Visa valid for 6 months. According to the comments of Russian Ambassador to Austria, the main aim of the simplification process is to attract visitors not only to Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also to the regions.

Below is a list of Public Holidays in Russia in 2017. Russian Consulates worldwide will be closed on these dates. Please note that if the date of observance falls on a weekend, another week day is selected to compensate it.

The government of Russian capital came forward with a proposal to allow visa-free entrance for the foreign tourists, who are traveling for 2-3 days. It is assumed that it would allow to increase the number of tourists, who are coming for a weekend.

St. Petersburg's Hotels have left behind Moscow by the price rate. At the same time, the mean occupancy rates in the hotels of the Northern Capital appeared to be higher than in Moscow. This information was delivered by the head of the city's development committee of tourism Andrey Mushkarev during his speech in the St. Petersburg's Hospitality Forum.

The Gala Ceremony of the Europe World Travel Awards 2016 has been held on Sardinia in Italy. Here, St. Petersburg has taken the title of the Europe's Leading Destintation 2016. Already second time in a raw the cultural capital of Russia has received this prestigious award.

The Moscow Museum has launched a new exhibition "The Alphabet of the Museum". It is dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the museum and has over two thousands exhibits from different periods on display. Here you can find the 15th century sword from the times of Tokhtamysh invasion and the restaurant bill of the 19th century.

The Tretyakov Gallery is preparing an exhibition dedicated to the one of the most popular and loved russian artist - Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817 - 1900). The main themes of his works - the depiction of an endless, infinite spaces, the changing nature - are themes which have concerned many generations of painters. Out of numerous paintings created by the artist (according to Aivazovsky himself, he has painted around 6000 pieces), on the exhibition will be displayed 100 oil paintings and 50 graphical works.

News agency "Moscow" has announced that the train decorated with paintings from Tretyakov Gallery will start operating in the Moscow metro. The paintings will be displayed inside and outside the train, which would consist of 8 carriages . According to the head of the Tretyakov Gallery press service Anna Kotlyar, the Tretyakov Gallery will present the reproductions of paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova, Aristarchus Lentulova and Erik Bulatov. The paintings will be accompanied with the educational materials.

On 12th of April the meeting was held between the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and his colleague the Chancellor of Bolivia David Choquehuanca. As the result of the meeting, the bilateral agreement on visa-free travel between two countries was signed. With this agreement, almost whole South America became an area of visa-free travel for Russian citizens.