MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. Moscow plans to expand the list of countries whose nationals can obtain e-visas to Russia after August 1, Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov told TASS.

"Proposals are expected to be made by August 1, which will mark one year since the launch of the mechanism," he said in response to a question.

"There will be a number of proposals on expanding the list of countries, as well as some technical aspects. It’s all in the works," Ivanov added.

Alexey Klimov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department, said in an interview with TASS earlier that 170,000 unified e-visas had been issued to citizens of 55 countries between August 1 and December 31, 2023. According to him, more than 90% of all the unified e-visas were issued to citizens of ten countries, namely China, Estonia, Germany, Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Iran, Lithuania and Italy. As many as 43,000 unified e-visas, or 25%, were issued to citizens of unfriendly countries, Klimov added.