Rossiya ne khochet znat granits
A.Mineev, Novaya gazeta
January 20 2010

Since, in 1999, R. Prodi, in his role as President of the European Commission, spoke out in favour of abolishing residence visas between the Union and Russia within eight years, once again a minister of a European country recently said he was favourable to having them abolished in a short time. In truth, the question gets raised whenever the opportunity presents itself, and only by the Russians, whereas the Europeans simply say No and postpone their decision. Putin and Medvedev apparently don't comprehend that the issue does not depend on them, but on the state of European public opinion, which fears that the abolishment of visas will result in a mass influx of Russians, Caucasians and Central Asians, whereas polls do not indicate any particular desire of the Europeans to question the visa requirements for entering Russia. The number of European journeys to Russia is relatively low, partly because of diffidence with regard to the Kremlin's policies. They believe that the advantages they might derive from from the abolishment of visas are outweighed by the problems such a development would generate. Even if EU-member institutions decided to abolish the visas, voters would oppose it. What is needed above all else is for Europeans to start preferring holidays in Sochi and weekends in the ancient cities of the Golden Ring that encircles Moscow…