November 14, 2022

A Travel Uptick?


A Travel Uptick?
Going places, despite the war. The Russian Life files.

The invasion of Ukraine put a pause on international travel to and from Russia. But, according to Russian sources, citizens in recent months have begun to wander far and wide to a remarkable extent.

According to the Russian state security service (FSB), Russians made 9.7 million trips abroad from July to September. That's more than double the previous period.

Of course, international travel options are limited: 70 percent of those trips were to locations like Abkhazia, Turkey, Finland, and Georgia, which have remained open to Russian visitors even as the conflict simmers.

Even more remarkably, the FSB reports that thousands have visited the LNR and DNR, the separatist Ukrainian republics at the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, other Russians are hardly leaving the ground.

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