Russian Federation to Lesotho visa requirements

Russian ordinary passport holders need a visa before traveling to Lesotho. Russia is explicitly listed as visa-required by the Lesotho immigration authority and is not on the visa-exempt list. Apply in advance through the Ministry of Home Affairs (the online eVISA system is currently suspended; applications are accepted by email). A Russia (RU) ordinary passport holder traveling to Lesotho (LS) for tourism requires a visa obtained in advance. The official Lesotho immigration/embassy visa table marks Russia as "YES" (visa required), and Russia does not appear among the visa-exempt nations or the asterisked group permitted to stay up to 14 days without a visa. Lesotho's electronic eVISA application system is presently suspended, so applications are processed manually: travelers email a completed application and supporting documents to the Immigration Services (VISA-Applications.Immigration@gov.ls), copying the relevant Lesotho mission. Processing takes up to ten working days; if approved, the applicant receives a 72-hour visa-on-arrival authorization letter by email that permits entry, with the visa formalized on arrival. The standard single-entry tourist visa fee for regular passports is M1,000 (Maloti, pegged 1:1 to the South African rand); multiple entry is M2,000. Because the only land access to Lesotho is through South Africa and Lesotho's only international airport routes via Johannesburg, Russian travelers must separately satisfy South African transit/entry requirements (Russia is visa-free for short stays in South Africa). Conservatively, this route is classified visa-required, since no automatic visa-free, visa-on-arrival-at-the-port, or active eVisa channel currently exists for Russian nationals.