The Russian government has discussed establishment of temporary checkpoints on the Russian-Belarusian border in advance, Russian First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Gorovoy said at Friday’s Federation Council meeting.
“The Russian government has discussed establishment of temporary border checkpoints along the borders with Belarus both along the highway and the railroad,” state-run news agency TASS quotes Gorovoy.
“We will be working rather hard starting from May 2018. We are, of course, concerned about our open border regarding the decree signed in Belarus that provides the right of visa-free entry for five days for citizens from 80 states,” Gorovoy said in response to a question on preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Russian side is also concerned about the opportunity of transit via Belarus. According to them, it is used by some people whom Russia put on its wanted list after ‘suspicious’ visits to Syria.
“They come to Kyiv, then drive along the road [to Belarus] – the border is open, then they head for Russia,” Gorovoy stressed.
In January 2017, Belarus president Alyaksandr Lukashenka signed 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 February 2017, Alexander Bortnikov, Head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) ordered to establish a border zone (which was removed in 1995) 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’.
In May, Moscow moved all Belarus-Russia flights to international airport sectors. Until that day, such flights had been considered as domestic. Third-country nationals arriving from Belarus or flying to our country are subject to border control. New rules do not affect citizens of Russia and Belarus.
The tightening of Russia-Belarus border control was caused by the ‘Islamic State threat’, Russian ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov said in June.
