Murmansk has been included into the list of ports allowing visa-free entry for foreign passengers arriving onboard tourist ferries certified for passenger transportation, says the press center of Murmansk Region Government.
Foreign nationals and stateless persons are now able to stay in the region for 72 hours without a visa when visiting the seaport of Murmansk as part of tour groups arriving onboard ferries. Previously, such an opportunity was available only to cruise ship passengers.
The new regulations and further modernization of the port’s passenger infrastructure is expected to boost the interest in the tourist potential of the Kola Peninsula. Currently, the reconstruction of the passenger terminal building is nearing completion in Murmansk, the construction of the border checkpoint is underway. By the end of 2018 it is to be fitted with all the required equipment for faster crossing of RF border by foreigners. Reconstruction of the pier for long-distance lines was completed in early 2015. It is now being used for mooring of cruise ships.
As of today, there are 12 ports listed in the Russian Government’s resolution dated May 7, 2009 (No 397) “On regulations for foreign citizens and stateless persons arriving in the Russian Federation for tourism onboard the ferries certified for passenger transportation”: Big Port St. Petersburg, Vladivostok (Primorje), Vyborg (Leningrad Region), Kaliningrad, Korsakov (Sakhalin Region), Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Territory), Passenger Port Saint-Petersburg (Leningrad Region), Sochi (Krasnodar Territory), Sevastopol, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Zarubino (Primorje). Murmansk is included in the list under RF Government Decree dated July 22, 2016 (No 707).