No visa for New Year

Israel offers Russia reciprocity

Israel expects to sign an agreement with Russia on mutual abolition of the visa regime by the beginning of 2008 . “We are determined to implement the visa-free regime from January 1 and formalize it within the framework of a bilateral agreement between Russia and Israel,” said Avigdor Lieberman, Minister of Strategic Planning of the Jewish State, yesterday. The implementation of this plan will allow Russian tourists to celebrate the Nativity of Christ in the Holy Land without visas.

On Sunday, the Israeli government approved a proposal by a special inter-ministerial commission to begin negotiations with Russia on the mutual abolition of entry visas for tourists. At a government meeting, only ministers from the ultra-religious Shas party spoke out against the abolition of visas for Russian citizens. All other cabinet members, including Homeland Security Secretary Avi Dichter, who had previously said that visa abolition would lead to an influx of Russian prostitutes and criminals into the country, voted in favor. The Foreign Ministry has been entrusted with conducting negotiations, which should also “explore the possibility of concluding similar agreements with other countries of the former USSR.”

The initiator of this step is the Minister of Tourism of Israel, Yitzhak Aaronovich. In the Israeli parliament (Knesset) he represents the “Our Home is Israel” party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, a native of the USSR. The party enjoys traditional support among many Russian-speaking Israelis. This has given rise to some local analysts to argue that Aaronovich's initiative is intended primarily to strengthen the party's prestige among voters, many of whom have relatives and friends living in Russia.

To this, Yitzhak Aaronovich stated that the influx of criminals and girls of easy virtue from Russia into the country also occurs under the visa regime. The abolition of visas does not mean that Russians and Israelis will be able to visit each other without any obstacles. After all, border guards have the authority not to allow a person who appears suspicious to enter the territory of their country.

The Minister of Tourism is convinced that the abolition of visas will increase the number of Russian tourists in Israel several times. And this will have a beneficial effect on the economy of the Jewish state. Israeli authorities expect that the abolition of the visa regime will allow the number of guests from Russia to almost triple within three years, to a quarter of a million people per year. “About 4 million tourists (from Russia) come to the Middle East every year, while only 100 thousand of them come to Israel. This is due to the need to obtain a visa to enter the country. In competing countries in our region there is no such need.” , says a statement issued on behalf of Minister Aaronovich.

“The Cabinet of Ministers accepted the recommendations of the inter-ministerial commission, and now the consular services of the foreign ministries of the two countries should sit down at the negotiating table and begin work on an agreement on the abolition of visas,” Eddie Shapira, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with Vremya Novostei. Our interlocutor noted that if serious disagreements on technical issues do not arise between the parties, work on the text of the agreement will take several months. According to the diplomat, “one of the main conditions of the Israeli side will be the principle of reciprocity” - if Russia does not also agree to cancel entry visas for Israeli citizens, an agreement on a visa-free regime will not be reached.

Among the CIS countries, Israel has a visa-free regime only with Georgia, while Georgians need to obtain a visa to travel to Israel. The Israelis emphasize that in the case of Georgia the principle of reciprocity is not respected, since the abolition of Georgian visas for Israelis was an initiative of Tbilisi.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Kamynin, reminded VN that the prospect of a visa-free regime with Israel had been discussed for a long time. He also emphasized that “this kind of decision is made on the basis of reciprocity.” An official representative of the Russian diplomatic department notes: “We always welcome if a decision is made to cancel visas. As you know, this is our ultimate goal in related work, including with the EU. But this kind of decision requires serious negotiations, since the abolition of visas implies the elaboration of issues related to readmission and so on.”

In March of this year, Russian citizens were given the opportunity to travel visa-free to Thailand for up to 30 days, and the same rule applies to Thai nationals traveling to Russia. In 2006, almost 200 thousand Russians visited Thai resorts. This summer, an agreement between Russia and the European Union on simplifying the visa regime for certain categories of citizens - officials, entrepreneurs, journalists, scientists, cultural and educational figures, students and schoolchildren - came into force. However, Russia and the EU have not yet decided to name even an approximate date for the introduction of a visa-free regime.

Dmitry DUBOV, Jerusalem, Katerina LABETSKAYA