Russia To Help Greece Tackle Organized Crime and Illegal Immigration

dendias (Photo credit: fbobolas)

Minister of Public Order Nikos Dendias met Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev earlier this week in Moscow where talks focused mostly on police cooperation on issues related to organized crime and human trafficking.

During his two-day visit to Russia, Dendias also conveyed a message by Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos as regards a visa waiver program for Russian nationals with biometric passports to be promoted during the Greek EU Presidency in the first half of 2014.

In such a framework, Russia and Greece signed a protocol to the EU-Russia Readmission Agreement, which is a key step in the establishment of a visa free regime between the EU and Russia. The agreement was signed by Russian Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romanovsky and Mr. Dendias.

Under the Readmission Agreement, signed in 2007, Russia is going to readmit, upon application by a European Union (EU) country, “any person not, or no longer, fulfilling the conditions in force for entry or residence, provided that it is established that the person concerned is a Russian national.”

Portugal is now the only EU country Russia has yet to sign the readmission protocol with.

The EU countries are under the same obligation.

During his two-day visit to the Russian capital, Dendias also held talks with Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov on topics of mutual interest. Later on,  Dendias revealed that Athens and Moscow are to launch procedures to deepen cooperation between their security agencies.