The head of the consular department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexey Klimov, in an interview with TASS, spoke about the implementation of the program for the voluntary resettlement of their countrymen, named the countries whose citizens are most actively receiving electronic visas for Russia, and answered the question with which countries negotiate visa-free travel.
The main points of the interview.
Russia conducts a dialogue on the simplification of travel with several countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. "The work to expand the contractual basis with friendly countries on issues related to the simplification of mutual travel of citizens is carried out on an ongoing basis." Citizens of foreign countries have already issued more than 360,000 electronic visas to Russia in 2026.
"The top five countries in demand in the EEA continue to be Germany (57,233 visas), Turkey (55,818 visas), India (37,814 visas), China (30,922 visas) and Estonia (20,391 visas). Their countrymen issued 3,719 visas in the first 8 months of 2026 as part of the state program to promote voluntary resettlement to Russia. "Most of them were issued to citizens of Turkmenistan (2,122 visas), Germany (664 visas), Latvia (217 visas), Estonia (202 visas) and Canada (179 visas). Moscow and New Delhi have decided not to continue developing an agreement on visa-free travel for tourist groups. Russians can now apply for free e-visas to travel to India for tourism purposes.
Visa centers for Russia are open in most countries from the approved list of 29 countries.
Russian citizens planning foreign trips should carefully study the materials on the website of the Russian Diplomatic Department and the Department of Situation and Crisis Center (DSCC) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.