The Russian embassy in Indonesia said on March 17 that Jakarta is currently not taking steps to tighten visa requirements for tourists from the Russian Federation and cancel the procedure for issuing visas on arrival to them.
It is noted that the governor of the province of Bali Vayan Koster proposed to suspend the issuance of visas on arrival to Russian tourists.
“There are no signs that the Indonesian government will take steps in this direction. Of course, if this ban is introduced, this may lead to a decrease in the Russian tourist flow to Indonesia, including the island of Bali, ”the diplomatic mission said in a statement.
Earlier, on March 15, Alexan Mkrtchyan, vice-president of the Alliance of Russian Travel Agencies (ATA), in an interview with Izvestia, said that the Indonesian authorities are unlikely to take such a step as abolishing free visas for Russians that they can receive upon arrival in this country .
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov said on March 5 that Russia is currently preparing visa facilitation agreements with India, Angola, Vietnam, Indonesia, Syria and the Philippines.
On February 20, Russian Cabinet Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree approving a list of 19 countries whose citizens can expect to receive a Russian tourist visa based on a hotel reservation. The list includes Bahrain, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey and the Philippines.
Prior to that, on February 15, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia plans to introduce a visa-free regime with 11 countries and a simplified procedure for issuing visas with six more, including India and Indonesia. According to him, the lifting of restrictions on the issuance of electronic visas for about 70 countries is underway, with the exception of unfriendly countries that have stopped issuing visas in a simplified manner.
