MOSCOW, November 27 - RAPSI. All technical issues regarding the cancellation of the Russia-EU visa regime have been resolved, Russian Ambassador at Large Anvar Azimov said. He added that a political decision by the EU is needed to cancel the visa regime.

"The Russian president is planning to discuss priority issues with EU partners during the upcoming Russia-EU summit in December. He will be appealing to them to take joint steps to introduce the visa-free regime in one or two years," Azimov said.

"Tomorrow the European Union's second expert mission will begin its work; it comprises ten experts and members of European commissions and it will be studying the state of affairs in Russia involving immigration, readmission, asylum and border management," Azimov added.

He also said that Russia will be forced to come to certain conclusions if the Russia-EU dialogue on visa-free regime does not commence by the end of 2013.

Russia is in talks with the EU to amend legislation and to liberalize visa procedures, which would allow some citizens to travel without visas. Moscow and Brussels finished discussing the step-by-step transition in late November. The list of joint measures for developing an agreement on a visa-free regime was agreed upon at the Russia-EU summit in Brussels on December 14-15 last year.