According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s Press-Secretary Dmitry Mironchik, the system of crossing the Belarusian-Russian border is effective and sufficient in terms of security and does not deter bona fide travelers.
As for “undesirable persons”, both countries are guided by a unified list of such persons when issuing visas and during border control. However, the Foreign Ministry stressed that third-country nationals should arrive in the territory of both Belarus and Russia, including transit through Belarus, only via international checkpoints. Increasing the number of the checkpoints is not the only way to make crossing the border easier for foreigners, Belarus’ Foreign Ministry believes. One of the solutions, according to Mironchik, is the mutual recognition of transit visas. This issue is currently being discussed by Belarusian and Russian specialists – an emergency meeting was announced by the Foreign Ministers at a joint press conference the day before yesterday.












