Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated on Wednesday his country's readiness to scrap the visa regime with the EU.
"It is a fairly important problem which we are discussing as part of out relations with the EU," Medvedev told the OSCE summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana. "We are ready to move ahead."
"The OSCE leaders agreed to ease visa procedures as early as 1975. In 1989, it was decided to raise the issue of scrapping entry visas, but unfortunately, no progress has been made," Medvedev added.
The Kremlin has made visa-free travel between Russia and the EU a foreign policy priority.
The EU, however, has been deadlocked over the issue amid concerns that a visa-free regime could lead to a rise in crime and illegal immigration.
In an interview with Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung last week, Russia's powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the EU to determine terms and a schedule for scrapping the visa regime, saying the delays in the process were causing problems in relations between Moscow and Brussels.
ASTANA, December 1 (RIA Novosti)
