EU not prepared to lift visa requirements for RF yet - Prikhodko

MOSCOW, June 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russians will have to obtain visas to
travel to Europe, like they are doing now.
"As yet, they /Europeans/ are not ready for a political decision to
lift visa requirements for Russia," Russia's Presidential Aide Sergei
Prikhodko told reporters, adding that the issue will be on the agenda of
the Russia-EU summit in Nizhny Novgorod on June 9-10.
"They /Europeans/ are not ready to fix dates for a visa free regimen,
but the negotiations to ease the visa requirements continue."
"The negotiations continue, and there is some progress," he said and
gave as an example the option to obtain long-term multi-entry visas.
"It is not a breakthrough, but still some progress," he said. "Of
course, a visa-free regimen is on the agenda, as visa requirements suspend
development of our cooperation in many directions."
"The strategic character of relations between Russia and the EU
requires more trust between us, including that in the visa-free sphere,"
he stressed. Now, "at a level of an experiment, we coordinate joint
effort, which would let Russia and the EU reach an agreement on a
visa-free regimen for mutual short visits."