Since January 1st, 2015, citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and some other countries of the CIS can visit Russia, only if they have passports for foreign trips. Previously they could do it, using internal passports.
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin, addressing to the Federation Council in December 2012, ordered to accept migrants from the CIS by passports for foreign trips. After that practical steps were made to fulfill the President’s order. The visa-free regime maintains.
According to the head of the FMS, Konstanin Romodanovsky, only citizens of Kyrgyzstan, as the country negotiates on joining the EaEU, and Ukraine, due to the difficult internal political situation in the county, will be an exception.
The new norm won’t touch on citizens of Belarus and Kazakhstan which are members of the Customs Union.
