Ukraine introduces visa requirement, v1lat claims it will not affect StarLadder

With the recent dispute between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has announced the potential introduction of a new visa regime for those who wish to travel from Russia. If the situation does not change, Russian representatives may face issues traveling to Kiev to participate in Star Series Finals.

The tension has been high in Eastern Europe, with Russia and Ukraine having a fiery dispute over the peninsula of Crimea. This conflict may have a very grim effect on the SLTV organization, and its major event, Star Series.

To be more specific, the Reuters news agency published an update on the situation between the two countries, stating that Kiev may impose a new visa regime on Russian citizens. This regime forces the residents of Russia to obtain a visa in order to travel to Ukraine. Due to heavy bureaucracy, these official papers may need months to be obtained, given that the applicant meets the criteria required by the destination country.

Given that this situation persists, the Russian competitors may be unable to reach Kiev in time for the LAN finals of this season's Star Series.

The teams affected are :

Empire

RoX.KIS

Virtus.Pro

Cleave

Insane

TheRetry

Relax

It remains to be seen whether Ukraine will maintain the policy, and the reaction by the SLTV organization (based in Ukraine). This is bad news for the Eastern European community, as several other tournaments like Techlabs and EXCELLENT Dota2 cup may be affected.

UPDATE: StarLadder host Vitalii 'v1lat' Volochai just tweeted the following, hopefully the visa issues will not interfere with StarLadder. Location for the playoffs will still be Kiev, Ukraine and the StarLadder organisation will make sure nobody will cancel due to not having visas.

#SLTV Finals will be held in Kiev! And some stupid politics wont stop us! We will help everyone to obtain VISAs if needed! — Vitalii Volochai (@v1lat) March 19, 2014

Source : Reuters