Vladimir Putin wants to send 300,000 more soldiers into the war. As part of this “partial mobilization”, the Russian President wants to recruit new reservists. In the population, however, support for the war of aggression no longer seems to be great. The Russians want to leave the country en masse. Long traffic jams form at the borders.
In search engines, the question “How to leave Russia?” is the top search term. Aviation is also affected. As the Moscow Times newspaper writes, practically all flights to available destinations outside of Russia are sold out. What is still available is so expensive that average earners can hardly afford the trip.
Flights from Moscow to the capitals of Georgia, Turkey and Armenia — for which Russians do not require a visa — for Sept. 21 became unavailable within minutes of Putin’s announcement, according to Russia’s leading travel-planning website, Aviasales.ru. .
By midday Moscow time, the direct flights from Moscow to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan could no longer be found on the website either. Rumors spread on social media that men of military age were no longer allowed to leave the country.
Russian Railways and national airline Aeroflot said they had not “yet” been instructed to ban men aged 18-65 from buying tickets.
Air traffic between Russia and the European Union was already suspended in the spring after Putin launched a war of aggression in Ukraine.
This article was written by Laura Frommberg
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The original of this article “”Moscow Times”: Virtually all flights out of Russia fully booked” comes from aeroTelegraph.
