Starting April 16, 2011, Russia and Turkey are to lift all the visa regulations for one another.

The agreement between the Russian Federation Government and the Turkish Government was signed on May 12, 2010 in Ankara, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry reports.

Now under the agreement the citizens of Russia and Turkey with valid international or special passports can enter, leave, transit, and stay in either country with no visa required for thirty days after the entry date (diplomatic passport owners can enter either country without a visa in accordance with the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement on no-visa trips for diplomatic passport owners as of November 5, 1999). The proviso is that a citizen’s total duration of stay in the other country must not exceed ninety days for every six months of the year.

The citizens of either state entering the other state with the purpose of working of studying or for other reasons that make it necessary for them to stay in the country for over thirty days will have to procure a visa in accordance with the laws of the country they are going to enter.