Russian News and Stories

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.

Oleg Safonov, the head of the Federal Tourism Agency (FTA), has commented during his speech at the "Russian News Agency" that visa costs should be reconsidered. According to him, the current price of the visa, which equals to 100 USD, is very high. Such a high fee, is one of the constraining factors that prevents tourists from coming to Russia. His has suggested to lower the visa fee to the average level of 20-30 USD per visa. He anticipates that the reduction of the visa costs would increase the inbound tourism to Russia up to 40%.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has suggested to create a Visa-free entrance for tourists to the Kaliningrad Oblast. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexander Tsibulsky during the sitting of a Committee of Socio-Economic Development of the Region.

A new museum dedicated to 20-21st century art has just opened its doors in St. Petersburg. This is the result of 25-year-long work of Manege Exhibition Hall employees. The collection includes paintings and sculpturescreated by St. Petersburg artists since 1910 till the present day

Current year was not an easy year for the Russian foreign relations, and there are more changes to come. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently announced the termination of the visa-free regime with Turkey. New regulations will come into force starting from the 1st of January. Nonetheless, while relations with Turkey are getting cooler, some positive changes are expected in relation to Georgia.

We have published the list of official Russian holidays in 2016. The nearest holidays are January 1st - 10th. Please remember that Russian Consulates worldwide will be closed on these dates.