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Russia, Ukraine to sign agreement on simplified border crossing

This decision “will gladden Russian fans who will go to Ukraine to the European Football Championship next year,” the Ukrainian leader said

MOSCOW, October 18 (Itar-Tass) — Russia and Ukraine will sign on Tuesday an agreement on a simplified border crossing procedure. It will facilitate this process for 12 regions in both countries, Russian Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin said on Tuesday.

“In 1996 and than in 2006 our countries signed agreements on a simplified scheme of crossing the state border. In 2006 this concerned some regions of Russia and Ukraine and involved three million people approximately in an equal proportion,” Basargin told reporters.

“Today we sign the agreement in order to spread this scheme to 12 border regions of Russia and Ukraine,” he stressed. According to the Russian minister, this will concern 30 million people in both countries.

The list of border crossing stations will include additional border-crossing points in local settlements, in which residents of Russia’s Bryansk, Kursk, Rostov and Krasnodar regions are interested, the press service of the Russian Federal Border Agency specified.

Besides, residents of the two countries’ border regions will be able to cross the state border not only on private cars or on foot, but also on international buses. Additional equipment will be needed at local check points in order to create comfortable conditions for passengers and to speed up border controls procedures, the agency sources said.

At the present moment, there are 145 local border-crossing points on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich offered to use simplified border customs controls procedures on all trains travelling between Russia and Ukraine.

This decision “will gladden Russian fans who will go to Ukraine to the European Football Championship next year,” the Ukrainian leader said at the Ukrainian-Russian economic forum in Donetsk.

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