A senior Russian senator said on Monday the European Union is showing no rush to lift visa requirements for Russia despite Moscow's readiness for the move.
The Kremlin has made visa-free travel between Russia and the EU a foreign policy priority. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly declared his country's readiness to scrap the visa regime with the EU.
However, the European Union has been deadlocked over the thorny issue amid concerns that a visa-free regime could lead to a rise in crime and illegal immigration.
Mikhail Margelov, who heads the upper house's international affairs committee, said Brussels cited the notorious corruption in Russia as a main obstacle for scrapping the visa regime.
"We understand well that this is one of our priority tasks, but nothing can be done within 24 hours," the senator said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has launched a wholesale reform to clean up corruption. However, he recently admitted that his crusade has so far yielded few practical results.
Russia has slipped to the 154th place in Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Index, down 8 from last year.
"Our partners in Europe do not understand the main thing. Abolishing visa requirements for Russia has a great importance for domestic policy. This is a blow to isolationists who still exist in Russian politics and want to separate us by an iron curtain from the rest of the world to build 'something special' in this country," Margelov said.
"There are no special states. A state can be either a part of the world civilization or stay outboard. I want my country to become a normal European country. And we are making great efforts to indeed become part of Europe," he said.
MOSCOW, December 27 (RIA Novosti)
