Russia dropped one place in the ranking of countries with the most powerful passports

The Russian passport has dropped to 48th position in the Henley & Partners Passport Ranking (ranks the documents of different countries by the level of freedom of movement they provide to their citizens). In the previous version of the rating, the Russian passport occupied the 47th position. However, the number of countries in which Russians have the opportunity to enter without a visa has not changed.

Read more . As follows from the latest rating received by The Bell, in January 2019, with a Russian passport, you can travel without a visa to 119 countries. The same number of countries was in the previous version of the list, published in early October. However, due to the fact that the number of countries available to citizens of Micronesia has decreased (from 122 to 121 countries), another position has appeared in front of Russia in the ranking (before that, the country shared 46th place with Moldova).

• Compared to the beginning of last year , the number of countries available to Russians for visiting without visas has increased by nine.
• The first line of the rating is occupied by a Japanese passport. It allows you to visit 190 countries without a visa. By the beginning of 2018, the first place was occupied by Germany, whose passport gave visa-free access to 177 countries. A year later, the German passport dropped to third place, which it shared with France. Now citizens of these countries can enter 188 countries without a visa. Singapore and South Korea came in second with 189 countries.
• Passports from Denmark, Finland, Italy and Sweden give access to 187 countries (fourth place). One country less - Spain and Luxembourg (fifth position).
• Great Britain and the USA are in sixth place in the ranking (186 countries). The same line is occupied by the passports of Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland.
• Ukraine is in 41st place (128 countries).
• The last, 104th position in the ranking was shared by Afghanistan and Iraq. With their passport without a visa, you can only enter 30 countries.
• The compilers of the rating call the main trends the rapid liberalization in the issue of visas in Asia and a sharp slowdown in activity in this matter in Europe and the United States due to a revision of attitudes towards migrants.

Find out more . Read about how much the best travel passports cost here.

Vladimir Motorin, Anton Baev