According to Kiev, Utro.ru writes, it is Moscow that insists that Russians and Ukrainians cross the border only with a foreign passport. At the same time, the Russian side proposes introducing a new regime from January 1, 2006, but since “Ukraine’s position differs on this issue, the negotiation process is still ongoing,” the deputy head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry emphasized, without specifying on what exactly the parties cannot yet reach a consensus. The press service of the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow said they learned about the negotiations from news agency reports, so they would not comment on Buteiko’s words.
Rumors that trips of Russian and Ukrainian citizens to visit each other would be impossible without a foreign passport have been flaring up and dying down for several years. The latest surge was observed at the end of last year, after the “Orange” events. A specific date was named — May 2005 — from which border guards would require Russians and Ukrainians to have foreign passports. But they did not dare to break the existing order shortly before the start of the holiday season in Ukraine, fearing to lose income from the tourism business in Crimea. In early June 2005, a meeting was held in the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, at which representatives of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, the Crimean Ministry of Resorts and Tourism, and the Ukrainian Border Service came to a common opinion — there would be no changes in the procedure for crossing the Ukrainian border for citizens of Russia and Belarus this year.
Nevertheless, no one has completely buried the idea of new border crossing rules. True, there is still some hope that the “border issue,” which is relevant for millions of citizens of the two countries, can be removed from the agenda during future visits of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Moscow and her Russian counterpart Mikhail Fradkov to Kiev. The dates and protocols of these trips are currently being worked out.
However, the passport regime between Ukraine and Russia will not change until the end of the year. Citizens of both countries will still be able to use internal passports for travel to the adjacent territory until January 1, 2006. This was reported to RIA Novosti by the Department of Information and Press of the Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the statement by Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Anton Buteiko.
“Negotiations are being held between Russia and Ukraine on revising the list of documents contained in the Russian-Ukrainian agreement on mutual visa-free travel of citizens from 1997,” the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized. In particular, a representative of the ministry noted that in May of this year, an agreement was reached with the Ukrainian side on the expediency of excluding from these lists certain types of documents that give the right to cross the Russian-Ukrainian state border. At the same time, internal passports and birth certificates (for children) remain valid for mutual travel of citizens until the end of 2005.
As for other possible changes in the list after January 1, 2006, if they arise, the Russian and Ukrainian sides will discuss this issue at appropriate consultations before the end of the current year.