Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin today announced that Thailand is offering a visa-free scheme to Russian visitors for three months from May 1 to July 31.
PM Srettha held a press conference at Government House at 11.50am, today, April 23, following a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day. In a part of his speech, the 62 year old Thai PM mentioned that the Cabinet agreed to offer visa-free travel to government officials from Bangladesh while also approving visa-free travel for Russian nationals.
The PM explained that Russian visitors would be allowed to enter Thailand and stay for 60 days without the need to apply for a visa. This special measure will come into effect for three months, from May 1 to July 31, according to a report on PPTV HD.
This measure will replace the former visa-free arrangement, which expires at the end of this month. Under the previous arrangement, Russian citizens were permitted to enter Thailand and stay for 90 days from November 1 of last year to April 30 of this year.
While Thailand prepares to extend a visa-free plan for Russian nationals, MRG Online reported last month that Sri Lanka had cancelled its visa exemption plan for both Russian and Ukrainian nationals due to racism.
This decision followed an incident at a nightclub called The Sarayka Lounge, where locals were banned from entering with a sign that read “Face Control: White.”
Thai people, especially in Phuket, previously expressed concerns about the behaviour of Russian nationals on social media. They accused Russians of taking their jobs by illegally working and operating businesses. Several crimes committed by Russian nationals have also made headlines in Thai news outlets.
According to a report from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, more than 9.9 million foreign visitors entered Thailand between January 1 and April 7, generating over 480 billion baht in income for the country.
Russian nationals ranked among the top three foreign visitors with 661,000 people entering during the period. The other two top countries were China (1.8 million people) and Malaysia (1.2 million people).
Thailand began implementing a visa-free scheme for visitors from China and Kazakhstan last year. The country then reached a mutual visa-free agreement with China to allow residents from both countries to travel and stay for 30 days without visas, starting from March 1 onwards.