Russia not ready for visa exemption

The EU and Russia came together in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don for their rotating summit on Monday. Moscow's desire for visa exemption was one of the items on the agenda. The news portal Delfi sees the move as premature: "Russia is a very different case to Estonia, for example, when the latter signed an agreement on mutual visa exemptions with neighbouring Finland in 1997. Estonia was a Western country at that point in economic and administrative terms, as well as regarding its battle against crime. But today's Russia, by comparison, is in many respects still the Wild East, not to talk of the human rights situation. ... By opening the border we would run the highest risks, and there are plenty of them. The current regulations, on the other hand, enable Estonia to control which persons from our eastern neighbouring country enter our territory. Naturally a rise in the number of tourists would be welcome, but lifting the visa restrictions would also open the border to criminals or people who are hostile towards Estonia."

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