On October 1, St. Petersburg introduced an electronic visa for citizens of 53 countries. It will remain free at least until 2021. Now, in order to visit St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, tourists just have to fill in an online application form on a special portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and take transport documents, if tourists come by a private car.
However, the launch of visas is accompanied by at least one serious issue: railway checkpoints are not equipped with the necessary infrastructure. For example, electronic visas hasn't allow to come to St. Petersburg by train yet.
However, the Tourism Development Committee believes that an electronic visa will increase the tourist flow by 2 million people. More than 3 thousand applications were already received on the first day of its launch.
October 25, 2019
https://paperpaper.ru/photos/vlasti-delayut-peterburg-vsyo-bolee-tur/