"I believe Europeans' fear of an inrush of immigrants from Russia is largely artificial," Sergei Yastrzhembsky told government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
In June last year Russia and the European Union signed a visa facilitation agreement, seen as a crucial step toward a visa-free regime, and a readmission agreement. The readmission deal was designed to facilitate the expulsion of illegal immigrants who arriving in the EU from or via Russia. Both accords came into force this June.
"Before signing the readmission agreement with Russia, Lithuanians were also worried about a possible uncontrolled inflow of migrants," Yastrzhembsky said. "But in the two years since the agreement was signed, not a single readmission case has been registered, and I think the same with happen with the EU."
Under the readmission deal, Russia will be responsible for the return of illegal Russian migrants for the next three years, after which it will take responsibility, including financial, for other migrants entering the EU via its territory, Yastrzhembsky said.
The presidential aide said Russia was also negotiating agreements with other countries to make them pay for the return of their illegal migrants.
"We are now in talks on this issue with 30 countries, including China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam," he said.
Yastrzhembsky also said Russia needed first to put its own migration policy in order. "We must create a new system of electronic registration for all those who arrive in our country," he said.
He declined to give an estimate as to when the visa regime could be abolished between Russia and the EU. "Unfortunately, nobody in Brussels of Moscow can answer this question exactly."
However, he said no visa-free regime can be expected in the next three years, "before the readmission agreement takes full effect and the Europeans realize that there is no threat of Russian illegal migrants flooding their territory."
