As a result of the “partial mobilization” proclaimed by the Kremlin, the price of plane tickets to countries neighboring Russia, which Russians can travel to without a visa, has skyrocketed.

The RBK business portal reported that several flights to Istanbul, the Armenian capital Yerevan or Baku in Azerbaijan were sold out in the next few days.

All flights of the Russian state airline Aeroflot to the Belarusian capital Minsk were fully booked by Friday.

Catherine Wagner

Business correspondent for Russia and the CIS based in Moscow.

  • Follow I follow

On the website of the booking portal Aviasales, a direct flight to Istanbul was offered for Thursday evening, but for the equivalent of around 5300 euros.

In October there will be one-way flights from Moscow to Istanbul for the equivalent of around 400 euros.

However, due to Western sanctions and the closure of European and other countries' airspace to Russian airlines, the number of flights from Russia abroad is already much lower than before the attack on Ukraine at the end of February, and prices for many Russians are the same without the current inflation prohibitive.

Apparently, rumors of the impending mobilization had persuaded some Russians to buy plane tickets even before Putin's speech was broadcast at 9 a.m. Moscow time.

According to the portal The Village, by 7 a.m. there were no more flights available for Thursday to Almaty in Kazakhstan, which would otherwise not be a problem even at short notice.

All flights to Dubai are also sold out for the day.

There are no direct flights to the Georgian capital Tblisi anyway, but with transfers the tickets there usually cost the equivalent of 250 to 330 euros.

In the meantime, they have also become three or five times more expensive, according to The Village's Telegram channel.

It is still unclear who exactly will be drafted as part of the "partial mobilization" and whether those affected will be able to leave Russia at all.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Thursday afternoon that the question of possible border closures would be clarified for those to whom the "partial mobilization" applies.

President Vladimir Putin's Human Rights Council said reservists who had received a call-up order were no longer allowed to leave Russia.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the defense committee in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, Andrei Kartapolov said that those affected by the mobilization "can go to Krasnodar or Omsk on a business trip in peace, but I would not recommend you to go to Turkey on vacation." .

Instead, those affected should go on vacation to Crimea or the Black Sea.