people looking for today plane tickets to leave Russia have found that there were no more tickets to Istanbul, Yerevan or Baku or other destinations that do not require a visa, coinciding with the president’s announcement Vladimir Putin of a partial mobilization, according to media such as RBC and The Moscow Times.
According to the Turkish Airlines, Azerbaijan Airlines and Armenia Aircompany search engines, there will be no flights for a few days or only in Business class.
According to The Moscow Times, the tickets “were not available within minutes of Putin’s announcement.”
By noon, direct flights to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan also disappeared from aggregators such as aviasales.ru, Russia’s most popular website for buying flights.
Also, some nonstop routes, including those from Moscow to Tbilisi, were also unavailable, while the cheapest flights from the capital to Dubai cost more than 300,000 rubles ($5,000), about five times the average monthly salary.
According to the head of the Federal Tourism Agency, Zarina Doguzova, there are currently no restrictions on Russians leaving the country due to partial mobilization.
“I get a lot of questions about going abroad under conditions of partial mobilization. According to our information, at the moment there are no restrictions on traveling abroad, ”he wrote on his official Telegram channel.
He indicated that “we must wait for the pertinent official clarifications. We have requested this information. We will promptly inform you of any changes,” he added.
The first mobilized will be reserve non-commissioned officers under the age of 35 and officers under the age of 45, according to Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Defense Committee of the Duma or chamber of deputies.
It should be remembered that Putin announced this Wednesday a “partial mobilization” in order to reinforce the front in Ukraine.
In this way, the Russian president called for a partial mobilization, of up to 300,00 reservists. “Our armies are not only facing neo-Nazis, but also the Western military machine. In this context, due to the threat we face, I have decided to defend our homeland, its sovereignty, territorial integrity and ensure the security of our people and free territories, to support the proposal of the Ministry of Defense and the General Command to make a partial mobilization in the Russian Federation,” Putin said.