UPDATE: on October 7, 2020, the Russian government announced the visa will cost $40.
Russian authorities have announced the requirements for obtaining an electronic visa to enter the country that will be in effect as of January 1, 2021. There will be no much difference from the e-visa to St. Petersburg, except the cost and the time period of its validity.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Eugeniy Ivanov said at a meeting with the representatives of the Lower Chamber of the Russian Parliament that the government is not going to cancel its previously announced plans to introduce a country-wide electronic visa as of 2021. As we reported, this kind of visa is now available for entering only the Kaliningrad region, the Primorsky region as well as St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.
The main parameters of the new visa will be different from those that have been in place so far:
— the cost of an one-entry e-visa will be $50 instead of the free visa now;
— it will be valid for two months, a permitted stay in the country will be 16 days (now it’s 30 days and 8 days respectively);
— it will be issued within four days after an application has been filled in — there is no difference here;
— the process of application and issuance will be fully electronic as is case now;
— the new e-visa will be available for citizens of 53 countries, just as it’s now.
16 days are quite enough to see the main Russian landmarks or to have a railway trip via the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok and vice versa.
But beware of the mistakes many people made when filling in application for the visa.
Read also our basic post on entry to Russian with and without a visa.