Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry denied recent media publications that the Bulgarian authorities encountered problems in the issuing of visas for Russian and Ukrainian nationals. Bulgaria and Russia introduced a visa regime on October 1, 2001. The consular department with the Bulgarian foreign ministry announced that for the last four months over 70,000 nationals have been issued Bulgarian visas. Over the same period, 28,000 visas have been issued to Ukrainian nationals. The consular department notes that there was no even one tourist who has been hindered to spend his/her vacation in Bulgaria because of visa problems. Many Russian and Ukrainian nationals traditionally spend their summer holidays at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. In another development, Donka Sokolova, chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Tourists Agencies (BATA) said that the association was ready to invest up to USD 50,000 for the installation of a new system for visa issuing posts for Russian and Ukrainian nationals at the Bulgarian borders.