LONDON, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday the agreement on visa facilitation and readmission between Russia and the European Union was an important achievement. "The [Russia-EU] summit has yielded agreements on the major elements of visa facilitation and readmission between Russia and the EU," the Russian president told a news conference in London following the summit.
"We believe it to be an essential, real, and practical step toward implementation of the plans we agreed upon earlier. We consider these agreements to be a step toward a visa-free regime," Putin said.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said the agreement was "the first important step."
Putin thanked European Commission experts and Russian representatives, and expressed gratitude to the British presidency in the EU.
