MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to upgrade the website for issuing electronic visas to foreigners by the end of the year and plans to issue electronic visas to citizens of 52 foreign countries, the ministry said on Monday.

The ministry noted it is upgrading consular information systems and a special website of the Foreign Ministry for issuing unified electronic visas to foreign citizens "in order effectively protect them against unprecedented massive DDoS attacks".

"The work is planned to be completed by the end of this year, after which the country's leadership will be presented with proposals for the practical launch of a system for issuing unified electronic visas maintaining a complete list of 52 foreign states whose citizens are issued unified electronic visas, and a complete list of 92 checkpoints through the Russian state border," according to the statement.

The procedure for issuing an electronic visa was first approved in the fall of 2020, and the launch of the system was planned for 2021.