Wiadomości: ​Russia seeks an agreement on visas with the EU for 2014.

The Russian Foreign Ministry last week threatened the European Union with taking 'retaliation' if the visa regime is not eliminated in time for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, to be held in February 2014.

Anvar Azimov, the country's chief delegate for visa negotiations with the EU, said on Tuesday that Moscow wants to see a radical change by the end of 2013.

"We will be patient for another year, but they know that it is difficult to have the Russians under a yoke, so the response will be adequate and asymmetric," he told reporters, according to Interfax.

After years of failed attempts to relax restrictions on the visa system, the EU and Russia launched a "step-by-step" program to achieve this goal last year, saying that Moscow will meet its share of the program's obligations for the mid-term. 2013 and that he expects the EU to work at the same pace.

An EU spokeswoman said a delegation of ten experts went to Moscow to check the progress of the country. During the ten-day mission, the experts are devoting themselves to inspecting the borders with Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltic States, she said anonymously, as she was not authorized to make official statements. He added that several Russian inspectors will travel to EU countries in mid-December.

Experts have been skeptical of an imminent radical change due to the political reservations of some key EU states.

Azimov said that 17 EU countries were willing to accelerate the process, including Spain, while another 10 were opposed to doing so. He added that President Vladimir Putin would raise the issue during the summit between the EU and Russia next month in Brussels.

That agreement, which will introduce long-term multi-entry visas for businessmen, journalists and NGO workers, has been left in the air because of discrepancies over the so-called passport holders.