Russia to ease border restrictions with focus on tourism amid steady COVID-19 cases

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the first steps to ease border restrictions, allowing its citizens to travel beyond its border amid the sustained rise in coronavirus cases. Russia has reported over 476,000 confirmed case of coronavirus and nearly 6,000 deaths related to the virus so far.

During a televised meeting, Mishustin said that an order has been signed to allow Russian nationals to leave the country for work, study or taking care of sick relatives. The main agenda of the meeting was to discuss the measures to develop tourism, the opening of the holiday season, and the finalisation of the national plan for economic recovery.

Addressing the Vice Premiers, Mishustin said that the nationwide action presented to President Vladimir Putin on the restoration of employment and incomes, economic growth and long-term structural changes are being finalised. He emphasised that the first priority of the government is to restore employment, adding that it is necessary to start a new, full-fledged investment cycle for sustainable income growth.

“That is why so many measures in our plan are devoted to supporting investment in projects of both large business and medium and small enterprises,” said the Prime Minister.

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Mishustin assured that the government will continue to support citizens who are unemployed due to the pandemic and said the minimum unemployment benefit from May 2020 to July 2020 will be tripled. He announced that individual entrepreneurs who were forced to stop their activities from March will receive unemployment benefits up to 12,130 rubles for each month from June to August.

Focus on domestic tourism

Highlighting the impact of coronavirus on the tourism industry, the Russian Prime Minister said that the industry is not only one of the most affected, but also one of the most promising. He asserted that its potential is extremely high and the government has no problem with the demand for domestic tourism,

“The problem is the lack of quality tourism infrastructure and services at competitive prices. We will overcome this barrier by actively supporting industry investors. Appropriate measures are included in the national action plan,” said the 54-year-old Russian leader.

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(with inputs from agencies)