I'm struggling to see what you all expect the FCO to do?

They have information there is a war. They advise not to go there and for the purposes of those who may work better with visuals than text, probably due to health conditions, colour in a map. The FCO aren't a travel agency or a news agency.

Do you all expect traffic wardens to act as tour guides?

I live in the UK and intend to continue doing so. It isn't perfect but probably as good as it gets . Not going to get much further into politics but the biggest problem is a population above the comfort level for a small island. BREXIT was a first step to start fixing that. Over my garden fence is a slum imported from Bucharest, sorting that without importing another and another is logical. Sorry if that makes your holidays harder to organise. Yes, it would be better if the UK acted more like Switzerland and less like the USA, but hopefully that will come.

Andy

... goes further into politics.

In other news, it's heartening to see how Europe has come together from all of this. Despite not having much money the Hungarian branch of my family are prepared to take in refugees, and even though we don't have a lot either we're chipping in to help support them.

Back on the original topic, my sense right now is that this won't have a massive impact on NATO citizens travelling to the former Soviet Union, with the obvious exceptions of Russia and Ukraine.

Support for the war seems to be lukewarm at a Government level in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. See today's UN vote as an indication of that, here, where all either didn't vote, abstained or voted for the resolution criticising the invasion:

https://www.axios.com/united-nations...50f01c754.html

Right now it seems to me that the main obstacles for this year's riding season will a) depend on whether the conflict widens beyond Ukraine and b) continue to be existing land border closures (Kazakhstan and ambiguity on a few others in particular).

Ed

Agreed, and as an indication the map of closed airspace to Russia, which clearly shows the NATO countries blocked off but the south and east open. It seems plenty of people prefer not to get into a dispute between Russia and NATO.

For us, the difficulty to travel rather than bash politics is that Russia and Ukraine are likely to be difficult to travel in for some time yet, which cuts out an awful lot of Asia/Eurasia. How long is anyone's guess.

Not anyone`s, only Putin`s guess.

Looks like this issue has been settled.

If only the authors of this thread were in charge of world affairs.

Hmmm....this looks distinctly suboptimal...

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/...-lavrov-a77111

How dare you bring a piece of evidence into this discussion! :innocent:

Indeed, not looking good. Something tells me the days of easy 1-year multi entry business visas are probably over... let's see when specifics are released.

At least we can remain hopeful that this will only concern Russia for now https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/...rtain-minister

Cheers,
Benjamin

Another piece of evidence to pollute this thread with - a member of this forum has just reported that he secured a 1 year, multi entry (I assume business) visa for Russia in the Netherlands.

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...k-route-102848

It remains to be seen if Russian land borders are open, but it looks like the answer to the thread title, as of now, may indeed be 'yes'.

The visa seems to have been issued before Putin activated his "unfriendly nations" legislation, though. So it remains to be seen whether the visa will work at the border as well as if anyone else would be able to get a visa now.

Cheers,
Benjamin

Were you in contact with the person who posted? I was under the impression he got the visa yesterday.

Yes. My information is that he got the visa from the agency yesterday. I must admit that I assumed that the visa was processed by the consulate before the legislation signed by Putin on Monday came into effect.

Cheers,
Benjamin

Russian road/land borders are open but restricted under Covid regulations that don't look like being cancelled any time soon - for other reasons.

The basic situation currently is -

- to enter. Only Russian passport holders (including dual) and Permanent Residency Permit (ВнЖ) holders can enter Russia through land borders. There are exceptions including immediate Russian family, medical treatment, etc. You still need a valid Visa of any sort, unless your citizenship is visa exempt.

- to exit. Only foreign passport holders (including dual) can exit through land borders. There is a similar set of exceptions.

At the border, there are no extra restrictions specifically for citizens of NATO or 'unfriendly countries".