Russia and Belarus sign visa recognition agreement

[Milad]

Hi all,

although we are more or less unable to make use of this right now, this may ease overland travel Europe -> Russia in the future a lot: Belarus and Russia have finally signed the mutual visa recognition agreement (which had been drafted years ago and was postponed several times). This means that you will be able to travel to Belarus with a Russian visa and to Russia with a Belarusian visa. I'm not sure whether this gives you full flexibility in Belarus with a Russian visa (and the other way around) or if you can enter the "other" country only in conjunction with a visit to the country which issued your visa.
Foreign citizens will be permitted to cross the Belarusian-Russian border by plane, train and at six specified road border crossings. This is great, as it was impossible to cross the Belarusian-Russian land border in the last years because foreign citizens need to get their passport stamped when entering Russia, but as the Belarusian-Russian border is open (similar to Schengen), there is nobody to stamp your passport (there were some exceptions though, e.g. for international trains EU -> Russia via Belarus or some sports events).

If you are traveling visa-free to Belarus (e.g. on the 30 days visa-free scheme at Minsk National Airport), you can not enter Russia.

I'm not sure whether Russian eVisas, which are scheduled to be availible for the entire country starting 1.1.2021, will allow to enter Belarus as well, or if you still need a sticker visa for that.

Keep in mind that the agreement is not yet ratified (= not yet in force), and this will take a few months.

Source: https://eng.belta.by/politics/view/bela ... 1169-2020/

[steven]

I wonder if this will still go ahead now...