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Polish frontier service not find serious violations of Russian-Polish local travelling agreement

About 400,000 Russian citizens crossed with special permits the frontier between Poland and Russia since the agreement over local trans-border travelling came into effect

WARSAW, July 22 (Itar-Tass) - Russian citizens, who visit Poland under the agreement on local trans-border travelling, observe the visa-free rules of border crossing and staying in Poland, the border service of Poland’s Warmian-Masurian voivode told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“For the past 12 months since the visa-free rules took effect we did not fix any major violations in security and public order in the Warmian-Masurian voivode, except for petty cases of travelling outside the area, where the agreement is in effect,” the press secretary of the Polish border service said. She recalled that the foreigners, who arrive in Poland on the documents for local border travelling, can visit only concrete territories.

“About 400,000 Russian citizens crossed with special permits the land border between Poland and Russia since the date the intergovernmental agreement over local trans-border travelling took effect,” the Polish border service said.

“About 15 foreigners, who have the permits, enjoy easier border crossing rules. According to our reports, this tendency is developing constantly,” the press secretary said. In her words, the inflow of Russian citizens is growing much higher on weekends and holidays. The Russian citizens mainly visit the neighbouring border territories, paying attention to shopping there. A large inflow of tourists is reported in Gdansk as well.

The Russian-Polish intergovernmental agreement on local trans-border travelling, which was enacted on July 27, 2012, envisages the visa-free regime between the Kaliningrad Region and Polish neighbouring regions, embracing the whole territory of the amber land, including a large part of the Pomeranian Voivode that is the metropolitan area called Tricity (Gdynia, Gdansk, Sopot and Malbork) and a part of the Warmian-Masurian Voivode in Poland.