Three new Cyprus visa centers will soon be set up in Russian provinces, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cyprus to Russia Petros Kestoras says.

Until recently, Russian subjects could only obtain visas to enter Cyprus in the consulates in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Now they will also be able to apply to visa centers in Yekaterinburg, Samara, and Krasnodar.

‘We have already obtained the permission of the Russian authorities to open these representations,’ the Association of Russian Tour Operators’ website quotes the ambassador as saying.

Russia is actually one of Cyprus’s major tourist markets: over 285,500 Russian tourists came to the country in January-September 2011, which exceeds the figures for 2010 by 51%, the website states.