The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant drop in the value of passports of Russia, Ukraine and the United States,  the consulting company Henley & Partners said. 

      In the new index of passports, assessing the freedom of movement of citizens, there was only one change compared to the first quarter of the year: the UAE passport fell by one position in connection with the revision of the agreement with Japan. However, the index did not take into account the restrictive measures taken by national governments in connection with the pandemic, as they are temporary. In practice, as noted by H&P, the number of visa-free destinations available is significantly different and depends on how successfully a country copes with the epidemic.

      Experts give an example of passports of the USA, Russia and Ukraine. So, the decision of the EU authorities to open their borders only for citizens of 14 countries led to the fact that the US passport, which ranks seventh in the index, in fact provides the same freedom of movement as the Uruguayan passport.  The passport of the Russian Federation before the pandemic was one of the most prestigious among the countries of Eastern Europe that are not members of the EU. Now, Russian citizens can’t go abroad at all, since the borders of our country are closed until August 1. The passport of Ukraine, which, unlike Georgia and Albania, was not included in the EU list and temporarily lost the possibility of visa-free entry to 27 countries at once, also sank in value.

Without taking into account the restrictions introduced in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the index is still headed by Japan, and its passport guarantees free access to 191 countries of the world. On the second line is the Singapore passport (190), and the third line is shared by Germany and South Korea (189 each).

Sources: https://www.kommersant.ru