Ajar country

President Lukashenko allowed citizens of 80 states a short -term visa -free entry into Belarus. The preparation of this decree has been known since spring

The most closed European country - Belarusian - opened for the world around the world: by decree of President Alexander Lukashenko to citizens of 80 states, including the USA, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia and all the countries of the European Union, it is allowed to visit the country without a Belarusian visa - but only for a period of five days.

Five days

The Lukashenko’s not yet published decree applies to countries that are officially considered strategic partners or at least “favorable in migration plan”. It is significant that many of these countries previously unilaterally established a visa -free regime regarding Belarusian citizens, but so far Minsk has not reciprocated them. The new rules also cover such a category as the “non -citizens” of Latvia and the “stateless person” of Estonia.

There are no restrictions on the number of five -day trips. At the entrance to Belarus in the “5 days without visa” mode, a foreigner’s passport and the migration card will be placed on the entrance - from this date 5 days will be counted. When leaving, the visitor will be put down on the exit, and, accordingly, it will become clear whether the stay is expired or not.

For entry, a tourist must have a passport. This reservation is important for EU citizens who are used to traveling around Europe, bypassing an ID card. Also, a foreigner will require medical insurance (it can be issued directly at the airport). In addition, the tourist will be asked to present money - at least € 23 per day of stay.

However, the most stringent restriction is the demand for guests of Belarus to fly to the Minsk airport - and leave the country through it, and exclusively returning to where they arrived. Five days later, you can’t leave Belarus in another way, for example, having traveled by train in Vilnius. But having arrived for five days, a tourist may not register in the internal affairs bodies.

Finally, only the owners of general passports will be able to take advantage of the innovation. The action of the Decree does not apply to foreigners who carry out official trips: diplomatic, official, special and other passports equated to them will not be taken into account.

Interesting point: in the list of countries whose citizens the decree is distributed, paragraph 46 is indicated by the “Maltese Order”. Separately from the "Republic of Malta", which is in the list for No. 45.

To the city and the world

According to the official version, "the document is aimed at activating travel of businessmen, tourists, private individuals." “Our ministry predicts an increase in Belarusian visits by 20%. First of all, we focus on the countries of Europe, North America, the Persian Gulf, starting from trade and economic cooperation, which currently exists with these states, ”said Vitaly Gritsevich, deputy director of the Department of Tourism of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism.

Interesting point: in the list of countries whose citizens the decree is distributed, paragraph 46 is indicated by the “Maltese Order”. Separately from the "Republic of Malta", which is in the list for No. 45

And Mikhail Portnoy, the deputy minister of sports and tourism, who oversees the tourism industry, so commented on the innovation: “What has been done now is a breakthrough for Belarus and the CIS countries. Goodwill gesture. We opened. Please, we have a beautiful, safe country, come ... The cancellation of visas for foreigners who arrive by train, car or bus will inevitably follow in the future, when everything is established and debugged ... "

According to the tailor, Belarus can count on a middle -class tourist who wants to visit the country with cognitive purposes: “These are people for whom the visa was not so much in monetary sense as in the bureaucratic one,” the deputy minister is sure. “First of all, these are guests from the neighboring countries.” By the way, there are a certain logic in the words of the official: in five days, tourists have time to visit the key attractions of Belarus-such objects of the UNESCO World Heritage, such as Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the worldly castle, the geodetic arc of Struve, the palace and park complex of the Radziwilov in Nedvizh. However, many critics of innovations believe that in reality it will stimulate only sex tourism.

According to independent observers, Lukashenko really gives a signal to both the rest of the world and his own citizens: Belarus gradually unfolds from the closed reserve of socialism towards openness. It was especially important to give such a signal in the context of obvious warming of relations between the official Minsk and the European Union throughout 2016. Well, at the same time it is a sign of Moscow (with which the relationship has worsened all year) - they say that Belarus is not obliged to coordinate all its steps with the eastern neighbor.

Surprise? By no means

It is known, however, that the decree has been prepared at least since the spring of 2016. In March, the Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei announced him in business circles. In May, Makei hinted that the document would be delayed due to the "concern" of the departments responsible for migration-security officials. At the end of summer, comment and disclose the details of the preparatory decree began in the Ministry of Sports and Tourism. By the New Year, the decree had been lying on the table with Lukashenko for several months.

At the same time, the decision itself did not become revolutionary at all - in the post -Soviet space, similar steps previously took Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan. The list of countries for visa -free entry is different, but there are EU and the USA everywhere. But the restrictions on five days are nowhere to be found.

From the point of view of visa availability, Belarus, until recently, was the most closed country in Europe for tourists. This was also reflected in prices for Belarusian visas - they vary from € 60 for a single short -term visa up to € 360 for a long -term multiple. For comparison: the Schengen multiple visa for a year for a year for citizens of Belarus costs € 60, but in many cases it can be obtained at all for free.

The decision itself did not at all become revolutionary - in the post -Soviet space, similar steps previously took Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan. The list of countries for visa -free entry is different, but there are EU and the USA everywhere. But the restrictions on five days are nowhere to

At the same time, the Belarusian authorities pay little attention to simplifying the visa regime for the citizens of the republic themselves. In the Visa Restrication Index, he ranks countries by how free their citizens can move around the world) in 2016, Belarus occupied the 71st line: citizens of the country could visit 67 countries without visas.

In any case, for the rest of the world, Belarus opens by no means sprinting. First, the practice appeared to spend dozens of events a year with foreigners (mainly sports competitions), for a trip to which a consular fee was not charged. This really increased the flow of tourists. Then visas for tourists visiting the Belarusian part of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha were canceled.

Next, visas for citizens of Turkey and Israel were canceled. As a result, the number of guests from Israel doubled, 1.5 times from Turkey. The visa -free regime in Belarus also exists for Catar and the UAE citizens - these are significant investors in the Belarusian economy.

Finally, three months ago, foreigners were allowed to visit the August Canal and Grodno - the most western region of Belarus without visas. Despite the fact that this was not at all the tourist season, 2345 people took this opportunity - almost exclusively from Poland and Lithuania.

Russian route

Officially, Russia responded to the innovation of the Belarusian authorities very restrained. The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov called this decision "absolutely internal affairs of Belarus." At the same time, according to him, before the publication of the decree itself, Minsk held all the necessary consultations with the Russian side. “There is an aspect of the Union State, but we are convinced that all the necessary regimes were taken into account when making such a decision,” TASS Peskova quotes.

However, the head of the Main Consular Administration of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Igor Fisenko, answering the question of whether they coordinated the “visa -free” decree with Russia through the Union State, said that there was no coordination in such cases. The Russians only informed about the impending decision at the last consular consultations. “The visa -free order does not apply to flights arriving from or going to Russia. Thus, we take into account the interests of the Russian Federation, ”said Fisenko.

In the decree of Alexander Lukashenko, it is especially stipulated that visa -free tourists will not be able to go to Russia from Belarus. They cannot fly there: flights to a neighboring country are considered domestic, and visa -free regime applies only to international ones. That is, officially the Belarusian-Russian border for visa-free tourists will be considered closed.

However, reality differs from the attitudes of official Minsk. If the foreigner really wants to, then, having entered Belarus without a visa for five days, he can be in Russia after three hours, having arrived there by car or train - after all, there is no protected border between members of the Union State.

Apparently, it is with the potential threat that will now come from the “Belarusian transit” that the decision of Moscow is connected in the near future to organize mobile posts on the tracks connecting Russia with Belarus, inside the borders of the Russian Federation to verify possible violators. Such groups, according to press reports, will be formed from among the FSB officers.

If a foreigner really wants to, then, having entered Belarus without a visa for five days, he can be in Russia after three hours, having arrived there by car or train - after all, the guarded border between members of the Union State does not exist

Photo: kremlin.ru