New rules for CIS travel will be implemented with new year

Beginning on January 1, 2002, Ukraine will become a true abroad: residents of all CIS countries except for Russia and Belarus will have to present not their internal passports but the foreign ones to enter Ukraine. The same rules will be implemented for Ukrainian citizens traveling the CIS with the same exceptions. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the new travel regime is connected with the Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution No. 426 of May 6, 2001 coming into force.

There is no question of implementing a visa regime, the Ukrainian leadership repeatedly stressed. Foreign passports are necessary to control people’s migration and especially to fight illegal immigration. Representatives of Ukraine are convinced that it is much easier to falsify internal passports than foreign ones. However, it is necessary to remember that major migrants streams to Ukraine come across Russian border. Moreover, in the overwhelming majority of cases the sources of such migration are not CIS states.

Ukrainian officials made no mention of the inconveniences that those wishing to travel the post-Soviet expanse will suffer. The most uncomfortable the situation will be for Ukrainian citizens who do not yet have foreign passports (to get one is a long and expensive affair for the major part of Ukraine’s population) and would want to go to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, or Uzbekistan. For citizens of some of these countries the new Ukrainian rules mean absolutely nothing, since they do not have any separate internal and foreign passports: the same identity document has equal legal power both inside the country and abroad, e.g., in Georgia. However, Ukrainian citizens have had to enter that country on foreign passports since May 1999. The only exceptions for the Ukrainian resolution will be Russia, Belarus, and Moldova. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry announced gradual switching to the new border regime with Russia as early as last year, but no specific terms were mentioned. With Moldova it is more or less clear: Moldovans will be able to come to Ukraine on their internal passports until July 1, 2002. During this period Kyiv and Chisinau are supposed to work out documents for transition to new travel regulations. The Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution concerns Turkmenistan less, since Ukraine already has a visa regime with this country.

Are CIS citizens ready for the new rules? The question seems to be rhetorical. In spite of the fact that the resolution was discussed in detail by the media six months ago, the phones in CIS consulates in Ukraine keep ringing. The Moldovan Embassy informed us that many people are still unaware of the six months favorable term for both Ukrainian and Moldovan citizens. The Azerbaijani Embassy told The Day that it would comment on Ukrainian government’s decision only after thoroughly studying it. Answering The Day’s question whether this could be too late, since the document will come into effect in less than two weeks, embassy officials said that they had nothing to add.