Tough to get a visa to visit `old friend' Russia

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, January 22, 2007 : India and Russia may be ``strategic partners’’ as well as the best of friends, but the fact remains that it is well nigh impossible to get a visa for Russia, except of course if you’re a diplomat.

Since the European Union and Russia agreed a few years ago that India, along with a dozen other countries was part of a list of ``undesirables,’’ Russian authorities have scrutinised every Indian visa application with a microscope.

The end result is that even as both countries annually celebrate age-old ties amid much fanfare and bonhomie, Indian businessmen – along with potential illegal migrants – often have to wait for weeks and even months before they can get a Russian visa.

This inability to crack the visa issue continues to cast a shadow over the visit of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is this year’s chief guest at the Republic Day events.

On the face of it, relations couldn’t be better. India and Russia are said to be jointly working out a plan to produce a fifth generation fighter aircraft. Both have concerns on the resurgence of the Taliban on the Pak-Afghan border. From Indian investment in the Sakhalin-3 gas project, joint development of gas blocks by GAIL and Gazprom in the Bay of Bengal to an interest in the Iran-Pakistan-Iran pipeline project, energy security is a top priority for both countries.

``There is an absolute similarity and identity of views between both countries, we hardly have any problems to speak of,’’ officials here said.

In fact, three agreements on space cooperation, including the joint launch of satellites, will be signed during the Putin visit. India will renew participation in Glonass, the Russian satellite tracking alternative to America’s global positioning system. India and Russia will also work together to amend guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, so as to create a special place for India in this group.

And yet, both officialdoms have still not been able to crack the visa conundrum. From the time when Infosys chief Narayana Murthy was stopped at Moscow airport a couple of years ago -- to the great grief and embarrassment of Indian officials -- and made to wait and wait until Russian immigration finally let him go, the visa issue continues to plague both sides.

The Russian argument is simple : Hundreds of Indian citizens, armed with a Russian visa, are easily able to smuggle themselves across the long border into European Union countries. Moscow, therefore wants New Delhi to tighten procedures here at home.

There’s also the repatriation argument : Once these potentially illegal migrants enter Russia, they throw away their passports. That way, even if they are caught by EU police and prevented from entering EU states, there is no way of Moscow knowing which South Asian country – India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka – they must be sent back to.

Moreover, Moscow argues that India pay for repatriation. So far, New Delhi has refused.
One way of getting around this problem has been for the MEA to rope in a national chamber of commerce to certify whether an Indian national who wants to travel to Russia is a businessman or not. Another is that all travellers must go through tour operators.

Under the circumstances, Russia continues to remain the great unknown for most Indians.

President Putin will likely smile softly when he sees all those battle-tanks, ack-ack guns as well as the Brahmos missile – an Indo-Russian joint venture – sailing down Rajpath in front on him as part of the Republic Day parade. After all, despite the newly emerging love-fest with America, most of India’s armed forces still remain of Soviet origin.

ENDS