India liberalises visa rules for Russian citizens
25 Jun 2011
India has relaxed visa rules for Russian citizens visiting the country for business purposes or as tourists, by allowing multiple-entry on a one-year visa.
Business professionals and tourists from Russia can now visit India as may times as they want on a single one-year visa against the earlier practice of allowing single or double entry on a six-month visa.
"We are now issuing multi-entry business visas valid for one year against six months single or double entry in the past and tourist visas valid for six months with multiple entries," Ajai Malhotra, India's Ambassador to Russia, said.
In fact, Malhotra said, the embassy has implemented to visa relaxations from 12 June, Russia's national day, in order to facilitate travel by Russian businessmen and tourists to India.
The Indian embassy in Moscow and the consulates in St Petersburg and Vladivostok had issued about 110,000 visas to Russian citizens during 2010, he said.
"I expect this number to increase by about 25 per cent this year", he added.
