By Easwaran Rutnam Russia said it will continue to urge its citizens to maintain caution when visiting Sri Lanka. An official at the Russian Embassy in Colombo told The Sunday Morning that while Russia had lifted the travel advisory on Sri Lanka, visitors would still be advised to maintain caution. Russia, like many other countries, had imposed a travel advisory on Sri Lanka following the Easter Sunday attacks. Almost all countries have since lifted the travel advisory but the Tourism Ministry said that Russia continued to maintain a travel alert. However, an official of the Russian Embassy said that the travel alert has been lifted and only a note of caution has been maintained. The Russian official also said that they expect a surge in Russian tourists to Sri Lanka during the winter holidays. Last week, Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said that he would request Russia to further relax the travel advisory imposed on Sri Lanka. Amaratunga told reporters that the country had returned to normalcy following the Easter Sunday attacks and that almost all countries had since removed or relaxed their travel advice on Sri Lanka. However, he said that Russia had not fully removed the travel advice and that he hoped to raise the matter with the Russian Embassy in Colombo. The Minister said that with the state of emergency being removed tourists have placed more confidence in Sri Lanka. He said that there is a gradual rise in the number of tourists arriving in the country following the Easter attacks and the Government expected the numbers to improve further.