MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) - Lithuania opens on Thursday it first in Russia and in the world visa center to ease procedures of obtaining visas in Moscow.

Currently, the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow issued Schengen visas at a price between 35 and 70 euros depending on the urgency. The price for the visa at the center in Moscow will be 18 euros higher.

Lithuania's Ambassador to Russia Renatas Norkus said similar visa centers will also open in late March and early April in Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Sochi, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnodar and Ufa.

Lithuania along with two other Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia joined the Schengen visa zone agreement on December 21, 2007.