Something new: Russia establishes border zone in regions close to Belarus


Alexander Bortnikov, Head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) ordered to establish a border zone in the regions near Belarus-Russia border. The decision was made to ‘create the necessary conditions for the protection of the state border of the Russian Federation’.

FSB offices in Smolensk, Pskov and Bryansk regions are expected to set warning signs on the border, as well as fix the time and place of entering the border zone.

Until now, there has been no border zone in neighbouring Russian regions .

The decision may well be a response to Belarus president Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s signing the decree ‘On the introduction of the visa-free entry and departure for foreign citizens’. The document introduced visa-free entry through the border checkpoint at the Minsk National Airport and the visa-free stay in Belarus for up to 5 days for the citizens of 80 states, including the entire European Union, Brazil, Indonesia, the USA, Japan.

In turn, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Minsk’s decision to open the country’s territory short visits by the citizens of 80 countries as ‘absolutely an internal affair of Belarus’.

“There is the Union State as an institution, and we are certain that all the necessary regimes were taken into account when the decision was made,” Peskov said on January, 10.

At the same time, Alyaksandr Lukashenka blasted an ‘irrelevant’ information campaign that had unfolded in Russian mass media. The abolition of visas does not mean cancellation of border control, he stressed.

“The traveler’s identity will always be checked. Same as in Russia: you show your passport and have it checked with a computer. If everything is fine, you can enter the country for five days. If there are any problems, the computer will show it right away,” the Belarusian leader said in mid-January.

Belsat.eu, following interfax.ru

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