THE FEDERAL SERVICE FOR SUPERVISION OF CONSUMERS PROTECTION SUGGESTED TO RESUME FLIGHTS TO EUROPE AND ASIA

On July 8, the deputy head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare sent a proposal to the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency to open the borders for flights to nine European countries and several Asian states, including China, Vietnam, Mongolia and Sri Lanka.

The problem, however, is the reluctance of the EU countries to open borders for Russian citizens.

For the moment, the various proposals are being discussed by the Russian departments, so a final decision on 13 countries announced in a letter from the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare has not yet been made. The experts suggest that the result will be a decision that will diverge greatly from what has been proposed in a letter to the deputy head of the supervisory authority.

We should remind our readers that the government suspended all scheduled and charter flights on March 27.

Even in early June, the Federal Air Transport Agency suggested that the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare should resume flights from July 15, but this suggestion was then left without answer. At the same time, Russian airlines and the airports management received a dispatch from the Federal Air Transport Agency, in which the ban on foreigners entering the country was extended until August 1. It would be strange to talk about the possibility for Russians to travel abroad while the entry for foreigners is prohibited, say the experts.

According to the text of the letter, 13 countries were selected as a result of the assessment of the epidemic situation with COVID-19. The previous decision of the Russian authorities on the possibility of resuming flights in two stages was made at a meeting of the operational headquarters on June 6, where the date of July 8 was determined. The Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare should have submitted the list of countries where the Russians can travel by this time.

The expert opinion on this document is still very critical. This is confirmed by the statement of the President Vladimir Putin, voiced at a meeting with the head of Aeroflot a few days earlier.

Putin expressed the idea that European states would yet have to figure out what to do with the opening of borders among themselves before opening them for the Russian citizens.

The leadership of the European Union, by the way, has not included Russia in the treasured list of those states whose citizens are allowed to visit the EU countries. Even China was included in this list, despite the fact that the PRC authorities themselves are in no hurry to open cordons for their citizens.

It is interesting that the CIS countries with high potential in the field of labor migration were not included in the list of countries that the   Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare designated in the above letter. There are no countries in it that have expressed a desire to warmly welcome Russians to spend summer holidays (Turkey and Egypt). It is possible that they have not yet met the criteria that Anna Popova voiced at the meeting on July 6. We should recall that the head of the department pointed out two criteria: the growth rate of the incidence in two weeks and the prevalence rate of viral infection.