Foreign Ministry says Russian visa applicants get fair deal

The Czech Foreign Ministry has rejected criticism regarding the process of issuing Czech visas to Russian nationals. The statement comes in response to a complaint from the Czech Association of Travel Agencies according to which the process of issuing visas to Russian applicants had got slower and more complicated after the foreign ministry had employed a private firm to do the job. Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said on Thursday that the procedure was fully in line with accepted standards elsewhere in the EU and that the vast majority of applicants received a visa within five days. He said that under a Czech-Russian agreement Russian applicants should receive a visa within ten days.