Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said Russia would have to meet certain conditions before a visa-free regime could be seriously considered.

TALLINN — Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip echoed comments by European Union officials this week in saying that Russia will have to meet certain criteria before a visa-free regime could be set up.

Ansip told Estonian Public Broadcasting Tuesday that Russia must fulfill requirements such as giving international travel documents to all of its citizens, agree to take illegal immigrants of Russian origin in the European Union back and also lose all the restrictions on European Union citizens for traveling in Russia.

“Russia must take back those citizens who do not wish to return to Russia and stay illegally in the European Union,” said Ansip. “There are more technical requirements but all are realizable.”

Marko Pomerants, the Minister of Interior told Estonian Public Broadcasting that the visa-free regime is years away still.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev requested a looser visa regime between Russia and the European Union at the recent Rostov-on-Don summit, saying he would like to drop the current restrictions “tomorrow.”

However, Brussels is cooler to the proposal.

Michael Webb, the deputy head of the EU diplomatic office in Russia said at a press conference in Rostov-on-Don that tan agreement on visa-free regime with Russia will not happen straight away but will be approached step-by step.

“We will certainly study it, but we would not want to raise expectations that this is something that can be settled very quickly,” Webb said.

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