Sounds serious to me. No telling where this is going to go.

I don't swim in floodwaters and I don't travel where there are wars going on.

.........shu

We have a range of viewpoints from rational assessment (potential sanctions complicating travel) to near hysterical blather (complete with capitals) on the issue.

What we don't have is any evidence. Looking at waytorussia.net, a great source of visa info, I don't see any updates. We have to wait and see.

But, in 2003 when Bush and his lackey Blair and a few others launched a similar invasion of Iraq on spurious grounds of national security, backed up with total lies, opposed my many decent members of the population, did it become dangerous for Iraqis to travel in the West? I don't think so.

When this current war started in 2014 (I remember it clearly as I was about to drive through Luhansk Region into Russia), did it become dangerous for Westerners to visit Russia? Absolutely not. I crossed from Sumy into Russia, skirting the war zone to the north, and never heard anything about it.

Sure, this time is different. It may become very difficult to travel in Russia. It may be that visas are very hard to come by. But people are thinking in too narrow terms. Remember there are probably tens, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians living in the West who have NATO passports and regularly visit Russia to see relatives. That's a strong political lobby. But the idea that you will be at risk simply being in Russia is groundless paranoia. The idea that Russian people will suddenly change from being deeply hospitable to aggressive towards foreginers is pretty offensive, and ludicrous.

There are tens of thousands of Ukrainians living in Russia - have there been any reports of official harassment? Any reports of Westerners being harassed in Russia? Even the Western journalists based there?

EO

Russia is a huge country, you can enter from Finland, the Baltic states and Georgia without traveling where there is a war going on.

Yes. Lose your bike, your money, the ability to get the hell out of there. Have you ever been in a hostile environment?

Thank you for your sane, reasoned and sober view EO. It'd be great if this thread remained something useful in terms of *factual* information sharing about travel in Russia/Ukraine, rather than the hot air found on much of social and mainstream media.

And from Kazakhstan/ Central Asia, Mongolia or Japan/South Korea (by boat) too. For perspective, Moscow is 3 hours ahead of GMT and Magadan is +11. (Tokyo is +8). +12 is the international date line.

If I can get a visa for Russia and a land border is open, I'll go, while of course stearing clear of any shooting war. Just like I don't wish to be judged by others because of the current muppet show "governing" the country of which I have a passport, I won't judge ordinary Russians for the bloke they have in charge.

Well, Russia has even imprisoned most of their native opposition.

And yes, they have been harassing Ukrainians, especially those on Crimea and in the Donbas and Lushenk area who did not want to submit. Hell, they are even harrassing Georgians in Georgia beyond the line of control in South Ossetia (which they are constantly pushing further into Georgia).

They have closed down the German TV office in Moscow and taken the accreditation of all those journalists. They have been closing office of international and local NGOs

So yeah - I would say that there are plenty of reports of harassment going on.

Cheers,
Benjamin

Yes. You are way over-blowing everything. :rofl:

It has started today - Plan Anaconda. The Moscow police are stopping all cars with Ukrainian plates.

Yes, I can see getting a Russian visa, at least for now. And no, I don't see a ban from the US at least for citizens visiting Russia, again unless things change. Can't speak for the UK, don't know.

Not sure what kind of insurance you have in mind, but you should be able to get Russian insurance for Russia. Perfect? No. Better than nothing? I would guess yes.

I have several foreign (English, American, Canadian) friends in Moscow; none of them have reported any issues at all.

You may not like it, but everybody is responsible for what their government does, unless you are a supressed victim of your government.
Putin was elected by the ordinary russian people, he has become a dictator with their approval and as long as they still support him, they are as guilty as he is of the bloodshed that is going on.

Do you have any factual evidence to back up your emotive assertions?

Don't agree at all. I've been in Moscow twice in the last six weeks and spoke with many of my Russian friends. They unanimously told me:
1) they did not have any interest at all in taking over Ukraine; and
2) they thought Putin was bluffing and would not do anything.

Since the invasion, I've only heard from one friend, and she wrote to tell me that she was ashamed. Another friend with Russian friends and family told me that none of the Russians he'd spoke with supported the war. Finally, another friend told me that one of his Russian friends (living in Russia) wrote him to say that she and her friends hoped that Russia would get whacked with severe sanctions to make it pay.

As to your point about "they are as guilty as he is"---bullshit. Their votes don't matter. Peaceful protests don't matter, and they are at least arrested for their trouble, sometimes fired (in a bad economy). So their only solution is revolution--hardly to be taken lightly, and requiring a critical mass that is very, very, very difficult to achieve.

So stop blaming the Russian people for this madness--it is all Putin.

Good to hear a Russophile with extensive experience of living in Russia sharing ordinary Russians' views and calling out some people's random emotive ramblings as what they are.