MOSCOW (Sputnik) — As part of the decree, the list of categories of Turkish citizens entitled to visa-free travel to Russia has been expanded.
"Citizens of the Turkish Republic who are members of Turkish Republic aircraft crews, as well as citizens of the Turkish Republic who have valid service passports and are sent to Russia for short-term business trips, including to Turkish diplomatic missions and consular offices in Russia," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Moreover, Putin has instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to send a notification to Turkey on partial resumption of the agreement on conditions of citizens’ mutual visits.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry is to send in due manner to Turkey a notification on partial resumption of the agreement between the Russian and Turkish governments on conditions of mutual visits of Russian and Turkish citizens of May 12, 2010."
Putin also lifted hiring restrictions for Turkish citizens.
"When there were negotiations in Sochi, the presidents stated then that these previously introduced restrictions were abolished with a few exceptions. This, in fact, was a formalization of these agreements," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said commenting on the move.
Russia banned the supply of some products from Turkey from January 1, 2016 in response to the attack by the Turkish Air Force on a Russian Su-24 in Syria, later some restrictions were lifted.
Bilateral ties began to improve following Turkey's apology in June 2016. In October, 2016, the Russian side initiated a partial lifting of the embargo on Turkish food products and continued to ease the restrictions in March 2017. On May 3, Putin and Erdogan agreed to continue easing restrictions in Sochi.
On May 22, the Russian and Turkish deputy prime ministers, Arkady Dvorkovich and Mehmet Simsek, signed a joint statement on mutually lifting the remaining trade restrictions. However, the restrictions related to the Turkish tomatoes will remain in force, according to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The issue of reintroduction of a visa-free regime for Turkish nationals was postponed.
