Federal Media Overview

Russia's airlines are now obliged to use only those reservation and ticketing systems that have their servers located in Russia. The respective resolution was signed by Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. The measures shall ensure confidentiality of data and prevent unlawful foreign interference in what concerns transport security. 'By 2021, foreign reservation systems will have to register a Russian legal entity and move their servers with personal data to Russia in several stages. This is primarily aimed at preventing failures during reservation and registration of domestic flights', Dmitriy Gorin explained in an interview to the Russia-24 news channel.

Zarina Doguzova, head of Russia's Federal Agency for Tourism, addressed the government with a proposal to increase the duration of the tourist e-visas to 16 days according to the announcement that Dmitriy Gorin, advisor to the head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, made at the Russian–Indonesian Business Forum in Moscow. 'Russia is huge and a 16-day journey will be more interesting. Visa liberalisation, in particular, the introduction of e-visas, will help increase the amount of tourists coming to Russia by 30%–40%', reports his words Interfax Tourism.

Speaking at the 4th Indonesia Festival in Moscow, Dmitriy Gorin also mentioned the Federal Agency for Tourism's plans to keep working toward visa liberalisation for Indonesian tourists. 'We know that starting from 1 January 2021 foreign tourists will be able to visit practically all Russian regions on an e-visa, and we are now starting a very complicated technological process of introducing a full-fledged e-visa there. We will lobby in earnest to expand the list of countries whose citizens are eligible to come to Saint Petersburg on an e-visa to 53, and we will make sure Indonesia is in there as well', RIA Novosti reports Dmitriy Gorin's words.

Besides, advisor to the head of the Federal Agency for Tourism called the attention of his Indonesian colleagues to the fact that Russia has already developed a programme to subsidise tour operators and suggested making it reciprocal for the companies contributing to the increase in visitor numbers from both sides.