Abstract

The following article researches the specifics of Belarus' perception of the visa-free regime with the European Union. The European Union, starting with 2014 grants the visa-free regime to the post-Soviet states, its eastern neighbors, or to those that are in its immediate vicinity in the east. For the EU the visa-free regime is an important element of societal transformations on the way toward democratization and European integration in the framework of the geopolitical and modernization project. Belarus perceives the visa-free regime as an economic project that aids tourism of foreign citizens into Belarus. The authors are uncovering the main steps taken by Belarus on the way of facilitating the visa regime for EU citizens. These actions prompted Russia, as a member of the Union-state of “Russia-Belarus” to take measures of reactivating the Russian-Belarusian border. The final part of the article examines the possible consequences of granting Belarus with the EU visa-free regime, noting that the consequences will have both positive and negative effects. However, the Belarus specifics will also manifest in this under the influence of different factors of the demographic, socio-economic, political, and mentality type.

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