MADRID, Spain. – The Russian government will lift coronavirus restrictions in airline services to 52 “friendly” nations, among which Cuba is not included.
According to Interfax Agency, Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, announced this Monday that: “Starting on April 9th, we will end our fight against the coronavirus and will lift the restrictions applied to our regular and charter flights between Russia and other countries.”
“Airline services are being reestablished with 52 nations, including Argentina, India, China, South Africa and other friendly countries,” specified Mishustin during a meeting with representatives from the United Russia Party.
Restrictions are being lifted also with respect to: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrein, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauricio, Moldavia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Oman, Pakistan, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
At present, one can fly from Russia without restrictions to a total of 15 countries, including Mexico, Qatar, and states in the Eurasian Economic Union.
The opening is due to a drop in the rate of incidence of the coronavirus, and therefore, “it’s time to expand our accessible destinations to Russian airlines.”
None of these countries has expressed its support for the sanctions applied against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
Following the cancellation of flights between Cuba and Russia at the end of February, thousands of Cubans remained stranded in Russia.
Last March 19th, the government in Havana stated that it was conducting negotiations to solve the situation of Cubans stranded in Russia, although it gave no details as to the number of people involved.
The prohibition of flights to Cuba has also affected the plans of Tourism authorities in the island. They were expecting Russian visitors to be up to 20% of all foreigners to arrive in Cuba during 2022.
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