Translated material
Unauthorized entry allowed
Russia cancels visa requirements for non-citizens of Latvia and Estonia
Russia has met its Baltic compatriots halfway. Yesterday, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree abolishing visas for thousands of residents of Latvia and Estonia who have the status of non-citizens of these republics. It is noteworthy that this happened precisely on the day when the Latvian government once again demonstrated obvious inhospitality towards citizens of a neighboring state - Sergei Reunov, who has a Russian passport, was expelled from the republic for an incorrectly issued residence permit. Thus, Mr. Reunov, whose existence was hardly known in the Kremlin until yesterday, found himself at the center of Russia’s diplomatic struggle for the rights of compatriots in the Baltics, which intensified after Mr. Medvedev’s decree.Sergei Reunov was born and raised in Latvia, but instead of a non-citizen passport he chose to obtain Russian citizenship. In Latvia, a population of 2.3 million, there are about 400 thousand so-called non-citizens - people who, after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, never acquired a “full-fledged” passport as a citizen of this republic. The number of non-citizens in Estonia, which has a population of almost one and a half million people, is more than 115 thousand. Now these people will be able to enter the territory of Russia, bypassing the troublesome procedure for obtaining visas.
It is worth noting that such a regime already existed: until 2000, former Soviet Baltic states could freely come to Russia. However, then President Vladimir Putin signed a decree introducing a visa regime for citizens of the former Soviet Union. USSR - non-citizens of Latvia and Estonia. However, now Latvians and Estonians not recognized by their own government will be able to enter Russian territory with only a non-citizen’s passport (for residents of Latvia) or a foreigner’s passport (for residents of Estonia).