Soon the summer will end. You can think about it already in the first third of it - it’s all the same, it’s over, and still we’ll remember and think: again, summer has passed completely in vain. And so it will pass, and so the quarantine has ended, and the restaurants have opened, and the metro is again crowded, if not crowded. But the main question of this summer is still fundamentally different from the ordinary. They used to ask: where are you going? Now they ask: where will you go? After longing for three months in public places and events, people, at least in Moscow, race around the terraces of restaurants, and some even go to open-air cinemas, while others wait for regular theaters to start their seasons. There are no other things yet, because here it is, the world, and there is nowhere to go in it. Rosavitsia extended the ban on international flights until August 1. This is for now, and then it will be seen.
The matter, however, is not only in the Federal Air Transport Agency, in addition to this department, there are other difficulties that impede the popular and already familiar summer vacation abroad. The European Union has not yet opened the border for Russians and all those who do not belong to the European Union. Turkey seemed to be ready and even agreed to let in for treatment, but there are so many conditions: certificates accompanying, and somehow you need to fly in the absence of air travel.
In general, everywhere conditions, everywhere restrictions. I personally know a family that was able to fly to Italy on a private jet, explaining this to the local authorities by the need to purchase a hotel in Tuscany. The Italians are happy - the economy is not in the best position, why not let those who want to spend a lot of money at once?
But such schemes are not suitable for everyone - private planes are not enough.
And we were in a situation unusual for us. The virus was scary, and everyone has a sick acquaintance, but somehow there is a feeling that everything is gradually passing. And not everyone in a row lost their jobs, and not all areas of the economy collapsed, and stores reopened, and there is nothing to say about restaurants. One thing is missing - a summer vacation abroad.
Yes, people go to Sochi and the Crimea. They say that some hotels there are now twice as expensive compared to last year. Thirst for profit? Yes, just a market - if prices go up, then there are those who are ready to lay out these amounts. Therefore, vacationers do not complain about well-being. They only complain that the circle of directions where you can spend your money has narrowed.
I will give you one simple and relatively abstract example to illustrate the current situation. I saw an advertisement on a social network six months ago - the company sells fresh fruits from Southeast Asia. They carry everything with special boards directly from the Thai beds. The advertisement says: fresh mango and passion fruit. The first comment under the advertisement: “Why don’t you bring durian, or what?”
It is impossible to imagine what kind of consumer leap a Russian citizen has made in the last 20–25 years.
I grew up in the city of Sverdlovsk and I can definitely testify that, say, in 1988, there were exactly two products in city shops: frozen capelin and frozen pineapple in bags. The region’s leadership signed some kind of contract with Vietnam - they drove gems there, and they received frozen pineapples back. Well, at least something.
And now, people are seriously outraged that they are not offered to buy fresh durians in Moscow. And the temporary impossibility to go to beloved Malaga or the adored Rome should have caused popular revolts - it’s just not clear who to rebel against. The situation is objective: it is impossible not because someone forbids, it is impossible because, firstly, they are not allowed in, and secondly, it is dangerous.
Can Russians be taken away permanently from the Russians? No, they can’t.
In order to completely ban travel or introduce exit visas, two reasons are needed. The first is economic, the second is ideological.
The economic reason should work to fill the budget. Russians travel a lot abroad: from the European part to Europe, from the Far East to Korea and Japan. But, firstly, not everything is complete, and secondly, any restrictive measures will naturally reduce the number of people leaving, and therefore it will not be economically feasible.
And the ideological reason should protect citizens from the corrupting influence of the West. Make sure that people never see how people live there, which means that they would not bring this infection of high expectations to their homeland. But in this sense there is definitely no sense.
What can be forbidden to a generation that is dissatisfied with the fact that they don’t bring fresh durians to breakfast? Everyone who could, wherever they wanted, had already visited, saw and visited everything. Now they only want to freshen up memories or acquire new thrills. In addition, we live in an era of hyperinformation, when everyone can access any picture - at least a feature film, at least a video blog from the other end of the world. You can’t hide the awl in a bag, you cannot hide the world from a modern layman. People - tens of millions of people - are well aware of what that very foreign country is. You can’t take it away from them.
The main acquisition of recent decades is an open world for Russian people. And the openness of this world is not connected with this or that position of the boundary barrier, but only with the state of minds. If people are used to traveling, if they want to travel, if they are ready to travel and consider them to be a familiar part of their life, it is simply impossible to stop these people for a long time. Those who know freedom of movement and freedom of money cannot be driven into poverty and stillness. And nobody needs it.
This summer we’ll rest at home - yes, such an unusual exotic. But only then we will travel around ad libitum. I promise.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.