Simon Calder

Halfway through our conversation, the Consul sent me all the way to the bank. I wasn't laughing, mind. The prospect of a visa was receding with each searching question about my intentions and resources. Being told to scurry off in search of flimsy proof of financial probity seemed a final indignity. But, studying the bank statement intently, he concluded that I was unlikely singlehandedly to undermine society.

After a percussive flurry of rubber-stamping, I emerged with my prize: the right to visit the Co-operative Republic of Guyana - confidante of the USSR.

Seven years on, the bureaucratic tangles for travellers to the Soviet Union (plus its friends and distant relations) have unravelled. The queues outside embassies in the "Bayswater triangle" in West London have dwindled. Prospective visitors to Poland and Hungary, the Czech Republic and Guyana no longer need visas.

Even at the handsome Russian embassy, the officials began to smile and phase out the traditional "No".

Yes, you can have a visa without a detailed, pre-paid itinerary. Yes, if you need to fly to Moscow tomorrow you can have a visa today. The biggest country on earth opened up to the world's largest industry.

On Wednesday, the Cold War broke out again. A fax from the Russian Consulate- General in Edinburgh revealed that "tit-for-tat" diplomacy has spread to tourism. The problem is Britain's attitude to Russian visitors. Until the collapse of the USSR, restriction on Soviet tourists were academic. Now, thousands of the new Russian nouveaux riches want to visit the West. London is top of the average wish-list. But to get a UK visa often requires a visit to the British Embassy in Moscow. For people who live in Vladivostok, 6,000 miles east, an interview in the Russian capital is not awfully convenient. And even after the one-week train, there is no guarantee that the precious visa will be issued.

The Russians are set to give British travellers a taste of the same medicine. As well as your passport and three mugshots, you must supply "a confirmation issued by a Russian tourist company accredited by the Foreign Ministry".

Even if you clear this mountain of paperwork, "The Consulate General reserves the right to call the applicants for an interview and to ask questions dealing with personal, financial, business issues as well as with your Russian contacts and partners".

A bottle of vodka awaits the reader who reports the best dialogue with the Consul. Meanwhile, I commend a visit to the now genuinely Co-operative Republic of Guyana.