"Many residents of Russia prefer to travel to Moscow, Karelia, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar and the Stavropol region instead of buying a gift for Women's Day," Oleg Safonov, head of the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm), said according to Interfax. "Of foreign countries, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Italy top the list."

International Women's Day, March 8, is a public holiday in Russia, which will be followed by a bridge public holiday on March 9.

According to figures published by Estonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demand for Estonian visas grew significantly last year, with most of the increase attributable to Russia.

In 2017, a total 144,578 applications for Estonian visas were filed with Estonia's consular offices, up 15 percent from the previous year.

Applications for Estonian visas are handled at 22 consular offices in 20 countries. As before, the overwhelming majority of applications for Estonian visas were handled at five offices in 2017: in the Russian capital Moscow; in St. Petersburg, Russia; in Pskov, Russia; in the Belarussian capital of Minsk and Ukrainian capital of Kiev. 94 percent of the total number of visa applications were filed at these offices last year.