President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that Chinese citizens will soon be able to visit Russia without a visa, coming months after Beijing lifted visa requirements for Russian nationals.
Since September, Russian passport holders have been able to travel to China without a visa for up to 30 days as part of a one-year trial program that Putin described as a “friendly act,” promising at the time that Moscow would reciprocate.
Putin repeated that pledge while hosting Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Kremlin on Tuesday, saying in televised remarks that “mirror measures will come into force in the very near future for citizens of the People’s Republic of China visiting Russia.”
“This will definitely be a good and positive ‘explosion’ in the development of our relations,” Putin said without specifying when Russia will lift visa requirements for Chinese passport holders.
Russia and China have a mutual visa-free regime for group tours, which was temporarily suspended after China closed its borders for nearly three years during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, China also allowed Russian travelers in transit to stay for up to 10 days without a visa.
Putin’s pledge in September to lift visa requirements for Chinese nationals triggered a surge in hotel and flight searches by Chinese travelers planning trips to Russia in early October, anticipating that Moscow would move ahead with visa-free entry.
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