President Medvedev talked to Chávez over the phone

President Medvedev talked to Chávez over the phone

Russian foreign minister to visit Caracas in August

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez that Sergey Lavrov, his foreign minister, will visit Caracas on August 22. Medvedev congratulated President Chávez and the Venezuelan people for the bicentennial of Venezuelan independence

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez that his foreign minister will visit Caracas on August 22, said state-run news agency Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN), citing a statement from the Venezuelan government.

Chávez and his Russian counterpart talked by phone, as stated in the text cited by AVN. Medvedev expressed his solidarity with Chávez about his health condition. He also congratulated President Chávez and the Venezuelan people for the bicentennial of Venezuelan independence.

Diplomats expect progress on Russia, EU visa-free deal

BRUSSELS, July 12 (RIA Novosti)

Vladimir Voronkov, director of the foreign ministry's European Cooperation Department and Russia's chief negotiator on visa-free travel deal with Europe, will meet with European Commission Director General for Home Affairs Stefano Manservisi.

"Today it might be announced that we finished work to edit this document, which paves the way to a visa-free regime," a source in the Russian embassy in the EU said.

He said the document could be approved either at the Russia-EU summit in Brussels late this year, or at a meeting of the standing Russia-EU partnership council at the level of justice and interior ministers, due in October.

President Dmitry Medvedev said in mid-June the stage-by-stage plan to lift the visa requirement will be finalized by the end of July.

09:10 12/07/2011ALL NEWS

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BRUSSELS, July 12 (Itar-Tass) — Russia and the EU are rounding off agreement of a list of joint steps to turn to a visa-free regime. The final round of talks on this document will be held in Brussels by director of the European cooperation department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Voronkov and director of the European Commission general directorate for home affairs Stefano Manservisi.

This document “will be officially approved by the coming Russia-EU summit late this year, Itar-Tass learnt at the European Commission press service.

According to a spokesman of the Russian mission to the EU, “work on editing the list’s text is to be completed on Tuesday”.

“The document, opening the way to drafting an agreement on a visa-free regime, consists of four sections: protection of documents, including biometric data, migration and border control, countering transborder terrorism and crime, while the last section includes remaining topics, inter alia, interaction with the Council of Europe, human rights, etc.” he explained.

The discussion on prospects for introducing a visa-free regime between the EU and Russia has been going on for over a decade. Former chairman of the European Commission Romano Prodi suggested in 2003 that this could happen even in 2008. However, the European side has not fixed real dates for turning to a visa-free regime up to this time.

Companies Cry Foul at New Russian Visa Center

Published: 09:54

Tour operators have come up against a stone wall in getting Russia to change rules requiring them to apply for visas through a new system that charges a much larger fee.

The new visa center, outsourced to Invisa Fiduciary Services, charges tourists and tour operators 21 euros, but tour operators can only apply for visas through the center, ETV reported. Citizens, on the other hand, can apply directly through the consulate.

Companies have argued that the visa center abuses its monopoly status and have called for an open application procedure to find alternative providers to make prices more competitive. SV Tours director Jelena Bodrova said it previously cost 3 to 7 euros for consular fees and travel documents.

The Russian Embassy did not comment. The visa center said in its press release that there are many visa applicants and there was a desire to offer them a higher quality service.

 

Kristopher Rikken

Britain breaks Russian laws and humiliates Russians in visa center

The situation with issuing British visas to Russian citizens still remains a tense one. One may not say that the British Embassy is friendly to those Russians who want or need to visit their country. Now the embassy has stopped issuing visas because of technical problems.

"We are seriously concerned about the fact that because of technical malfunctions in the work of the consulate office of the British Embassy many people experience very big problems. It goes about tens and even hundreds of people, who suffered moral damage because of that," Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the State Duma committee for international affairs said.

"These technical problems occur against the background of the policies of restraint about visas, which the British side has been practicing during the recent years, since the so-called Litvinenko's case," the official added.

According to the official, he does not understand, why the British try to connect these two absolutely different issues.

"From our point of view these two subjects do not relate to each other. Of course, we are interested in solving Litvinenko's case and punishing the guilty, whoever they are. However, it is inadmissible to make other people hostages of this criminal case. They just want to cross borders for educational, cultural, scientific and political interests," Kosachev said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that one should not connect the visa issue with Litvinenko's case. Britain's David Lidington, the Minister of State responsible for European issues and NATO, stated that Britain could resume the talks with Russia about easing the visa regime with Russia only after Russian national Andrey Lugovoy goes on trial in London.

Britain accuses Andrei Logovoi, a deputy of the Liberal and Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), of being involved in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer, in 2006.

Russian citizens do not see the connection between visas and Mr. Lugovoi either. Now there are technical problems in the British Embassy in Moscow, although British diplomats have not been friendly towards Russian travelers recently. The humiliating problem of the process to receive the visa to England, as well as numerous unfounded refusals to people have made many Russians rethink their plans to visit the UK.

Many Russians are particularly concerned about the fact that they have to undergo the process of dactylography. Moreover, people must fill in all the documents only in English. Consulate offices of the majority of all other countries accept questionnaires and other documents written in Russian.

It is humiliating indeed that people have to use a foreign language in their homeland. This rule violates the Constitution of Russia and the Federal Law "About the Russian Language." The law says that the only state language on the entire territory of the Russian Federation is Russian (except for the national regions where the language of a title nation is the second state language).

The fact that the English language virtually acts as the language of international communication does not give it any preferences at all. English is no different from any other language of the world from the legal point of view. Just try to imagine what would happen if the consulate office of, let's say, China would make Russian travelers fill in visa forms in Chinese.

Moreover, when going to the British Consulate for a visa, Russian citizens communicate with the British visa center, not with the consulate office. The British visa center is a Russian legal entity. The Russian law does not allow a Russian legal entity to use a foreign language as the only possible one in written communication with Russian citizens.

It just so happens that Great Britain violates Russian laws as it tries to put pressure on Russia just because a Russian citizen offended against the law on the territory of Great Britain. It appears that Britain does not see any problem about it.

Dmitry Lukin

Pravda.Ru

04:07 12/07/2011ALL NEWS

Lithuania begins demarcation of water borders with Russia.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/183715.html

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VILNIUS, July 12 (Itar-Tass) — Lithuania on Tuesday begins demarcation of its water border with Russia, the Baltic state’s border service said.

“The border with the Russian Federation remains the only section of Lithuania’s border that has no demarcation signs,” the source said.

The first demarcation sign will be installed on Lake Vistytis in the municipality of Vilkaviskis. Lithuania will also demarcate Matlaukis water reservoir, while Russia will do this on the Curonian Spit.

According to Lithuania’s border service, this problem is very up-to-date as many fishermen and tourists violate the border that has no demarcation signs.

In the near future the Baltic state plans to begin land demarcation with Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region.

The Russian-Lithuanian border (Lithuania borders only Russia’s Kaliningrad region) stretches over 294.4 kilometers, of them 253.7 kilometers are land and inland water borders. The border across the Curonian Spit runs across 18. 5 kilometers and across the Baltic Sea – 22.2 kilometers.