Russia mulls easing visa regime for BRICS

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to ease visa regime for some categories of tourists from BRICS countries.

"In order to attract foreign tourists, it is probably worth considering to further ease visa regime - for instance, to expand practice of visa-free group exchange. And it can be done for all countries which we call BRICS countries," Putin told the Russian State Council's presidium session on tourism.

"In general, Russian and global experience shows that liberalization of visa regime almost always leads to growing tourist flows," said Putin.

TASS reported that a good example is the situation with Israel. After easing visa regime, the flow of Israeli tourists to Russia has increased.