Russia likely to launch visa-free travel for Indian tourists from 2025
New Delhi: Indian tourists may soon be able to visit Russia without needing a visa, with the new system likely to commence in the spring of 2025.
Russia and India had held discussions earlier about a bilateral agreement to ease visa restrictions, aiming to introduce visa-free group tourist exchanges.
This follows a move in August 2023, when Indian travellers became eligible for e-visas to travel to Russia, which generally takes about four days to get processed.
In 2023, India was one of the top five countries receiving e-visas, with around 9,500 issued to Indian citizens.
Currently, Indian nationals are required to have a visa issued by the Russian Embassy/Consulates in the nation to enter, stay and exit from the Russian Federation.
Notably, Russia allows visa-free entry for travelers from China and Iran through its visa-free tourist exchange programme. The program has been successful, and Russia is hopeful it can extend this benefit to India as well.
Indian passport holders currently have visa-free access to 62 countries.
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RG Kar crime anniversary: One held for 'assaulting' police constable during protest
Kolkata (PTI): Sleuths of the Kolkata Police on Wednesday arrested a person from here for allegedly being involved in assaulting the guard of an IPS officer during 'Nabanna Abhiyan', a march to the West Bengal secretariat, last week, an officer said.
The person, identified as Chandan Gupta, a resident of Jagatdal in North 24 Parganas district, was arrested from Bow Bazar area in central Kolkata this morning, he said.
"The person has been booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for attempting to kill constable Prasanta Poddar, who is a guard of DC SSD Bidisha Kalita Dasgupta. He is being questioned," the officer said.
Chaos and violent agitation dominated the streets of Kolkata and adjacent Howrah on August 9, a day that marked the completion of one year of the rape and murder of the doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
"The search for other accused is underway," he said.
Seven FIRs were filed against several individuals, including BJP MLAs Ashok Dinda, Agnimitra Paul and other leaders, for allegedly obstructing security personnel from performing their duties, assaulting them and causing damage to public properties during the march to the West Bengal secretariat on August 9.
Incidentally, the father of the deceased doctor of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital filed an FIR, accusing the police of torturing his wife during the protest.
