Daria Miklyaeva and her husband Dmitry Zhurin flew to Moscow from Geneva on the evening of March 18. They had planned a trip for a long time, but during the trip, a coronavirus epidemic broke out in the country, and the couple hastened to return to Russia.
Daria and Dmitry were already preparing to pass passport control at the Sheremetyevo airport, when it turned out that they could not cross the border together. It was on this day that a decree came into force restricting the entry into the country of foreign citizens in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Daria, who does not have Russian citizenship, was literally locked in terminal F of Sheremetyevo Airport.
“My wife and I got off the plane and came to passport control,” Dmitry told RT. “When the employees saw that my wife had a Kazakhstan passport,” they said that they would not let her through the border. She ended up in the drive - this is such a small room between the stairs leading from the arrival corridor and the room where the passport control booths are located. ”
Daria spent more than a day at the airport awaiting deportation to her homeland. According to her, several other foreigners who were not allowed into the territory of the Russian Federation were with her in the room. The girl emphasized that on the first night spent at the airport, she was not provided with either food or water. It was not even possible to sleep - because of the potential threat of the spread of the coronavirus, Daria was not allowed to stay in the waiting room for the night. At the same time, they also did not provide the opportunity to take a virus test.
Daria explained to RT that she had lived and worked in Moscow over the past few years. Her husband has Russian citizenship, but Miklyaeva herself could not get a Russian passport. However, according to the girl, the lack of citizenship has become a serious problem only now, in an epidemic and the introduction of restrictive measures.
“I’ve been living in Russia for eight years, I don’t have Russian citizenship, they don’t give me it. I can’t say that because of this I had some special problems. Still. In general, according to the law, before the flight we should have been warned that we should not go to Russia, that they would not let me go there. But they did not warn us, ”Miklyaeva assures.
The girl was told that she could be sent home, but she had to buy a ticket herself. At the same time, it became known that as early as March 22, Russia would limit air traffic to Kazakhstan. Tickets for the latest flights to Nur-Sultan skyrocketed, and the seats ran out - according to the husband of Daria, Dmitry, the cost of the remaining tickets reached 100 thousand rubles.
Spouses asked for help with buying a ticket from the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation. According to them, they tried to prove that Daria is not to blame for the situation, but to no avail. In the end, they bought a ticket on their own. Miklyaeva and her husband feared that air traffic with Kazakhstan would cease and Daria would be locked up at Sheremetyevo for an indefinite period.
Aeroflot representative Maxim Fetisov confirmed to RT that the problem with sending Daria Miklyaeva to Kazakhstan had been resolved, the girl flew to Nur-Sultan on the evening of March 19. Fetisov noted that he did not have data on the total number of passengers in this situation, and added that air carriers could not deal with such problems if passengers had already flown to a “closed” country.
“In this case, the question should be addressed to the border guards, as these are cases when the passenger has already left the plane,” Fetisov explained.
It was not possible to fly to Nur-Sultan with her husband Miklyaeva - Dmitry simply refused to sell a ticket. Now the couple will not be able to see each other for at least a month and a half - there will be so many restrictions on air travel introduced because of the coronavirus.
“As I understand it, the sky in Russia is closed to Russians because of quarantine - they don’t sell me a ticket at all. I don’t know how long I will not see my wife. I'm afraid that we will not see each other until at least May, while such a quarantine regime is in effect. And yet it is still unknown how long this situation will last. And we couldn’t even say goodbye, because we were promised that we could fly to Kazakhstan together, ”Dmitry sighs.