Turchynov: Ukrainian government should make a decision on visa regime with Russia
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, stated that the government should speed up the process of introducing a visa regime with the Russian Federation, as reported by Interfax.
According to Turchynov, the government first started working on a visa regime in 2014.
“You know, back in 2014, the National Security Council instructed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to introduce a visa regime with Russia, and in my opinion the government has had enough time to prepare and it has to make a decision,” Turchynov stated in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, a visa regime would allow Ukraine to protect itself from Russian citizens attempting to carry out reconnaissance and subversive activities on Ukrainian territory
"And the visa regime in this context, is quite an effective filter. In addition, Russia rapidly burns through its resources to strengthen its military potential, at the same time, energy prices fall, the sanctions act, and crisis management inefficiencies inherent in any totalitarian and authoritarian state, only intensifies all of these destructive processes… we will be faced with a huge wave of migration, which will go from Russia to Ukraine; therefore, I am convinced that it is better to protect ourselves right now than to do it after the fact," Turchynov concluded.