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If necessary, Kiev may introduce a visa regime with Russia

12 August 2016 10:36 (UTC +04:00)

The Ukrainian side, if necessary, may raise the question of introducing a visa regime with Russia, said the Minister of foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin.

“This issue has several aspects. First, the political. Of course, we have precise control of entry from Russia to Ukraine. And we did – now the entry is carried out only on foreign passports only through international and interstate checkpoints. If we introduce visa regime that will allow it to more effectively filter the agents of the FSB and other Russian special services who will work with our tension? Single answer I do not see here,” said the Minister.

In addition, according to him, in this context, an important aspect of propaganda, which can use RF. “Russia will immediately begin to use the introduction of the visa regime, bringing in media cases, where elderly or children can’t see their relatives. It will be a spiral of propaganda, which will spin indefinitely,” – said P. Klimkin.

In addition, according to the Minister, to issue visas, we need the infrastructure in place. “From the point of view of logistics it requires fundamental changes to the capabilities of our consulates. For example, according to our preliminary estimates, we have more than 100 additional posts of consular officials. But it is a real challenge,” – said the Minister.

“So first let’s define what will bring the introduction of a visa regime in terms of security. If the answer is “Yes”, we will act, if not we find other solutions. Me here often ask: why keep diplomatic relations with Russia in the conditions of Russian aggression? The main point of these diplomatic relations is that we can help the Ukrainians on the territory of the Russian Federation more than 4 million”, – concluded the Minister.