On Wednesday, February 3, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed an order, according to which air and rail links with a number of states are resumed.

The corresponding document is published on the website of the Russian government.

It is noted that this decision was made at the suggestion of the operational headquarters to prevent the import and spread of a new coronavirus infection.

Thus, from February 8, on a reciprocal basis, passenger railway communication with Belarus will be resumed on the route Minsk - Moscow - Minsk and on the route Moscow - Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad - St. Petersburg with a train stop in Minsk.

In addition, from the same day the number of regular flights Moscow - Minsk will be increased from three to five per week.

Also, flights from Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg to Minsk are resumed (one flight per week).

In addition, the number of regular flights Moscow - Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) will increase from one to three flights per week.

In addition, air communication with Azerbaijan and Armenia will be reopened.

From February 15, two and four flights a week will be carried out from Moscow to Baku and Yerevan, respectively.

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According to Natalia Osipova, executive director of the Alliance of Travel Agencies, all three destinations are popular with Russian tourists.

“Belarus was popular with Russian tourists, people went there not only to have a rest, but also to be treated, there are wonderful sanatoriums.

Azerbaijan has also begun to gain popularity as a tourist destination, just like Armenia.

And in general, everything that does not close, but opens, the places where we can send tourists to rest and for treatment, of course, is perceived with a great positive, ”she said in an interview with RT.

In turn, the vice-president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia Alexander Kurnosov stressed that Armenia and Azerbaijan are popular as a destination for weekend recreation and business travel.

"Of course, this will have a positive effect (on the tourism industry. -

RT

), and the volume of business travel will increase, but the volume of the main tourist flow will increase after the end of the pandemic," he stressed.

According to him, the flow of tourists to Belarus was slightly higher, since there is a well-developed sanatorium base there, and these institutions were popular with a certain category of Russians.

Restoration of transport links

As a reminder, since August 2020, Russia has begun a phased opening of borders with other countries.

The suspension of transport links has been linked to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

By now, Russian citizens can fly to Belarus, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Turkey, Tanzania, South Korea, Japan, Ethiopia, Finland, Vietnam, Qatar, as well as to Cuba, Seychelles and Maldives.

On January 28, the Russian headquarters for combating COVID-19 announced the decision to resume international flights from February 8 with Greece (Moscow - Athens, two flights a week) and Singapore (Moscow - Singapore, three flights a week).

On the eve, following the results of the meeting of the headquarters, which was held by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, it was decided to resume international flights from the airports of Kemerovo and Petropavlovsky-Kamchatsky.

At the end of January, the authorities allowed from February 8 to fly to other countries from Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and Khabarovsk.

As for the international railway communication, Russia has restored the movement of passenger trains with Abkhazia since August.

At the same time, the TASS agency, citing sources close to the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation, reported that the republic could resume flights with Russia from February 13.

At the same time, it is noted that India is ready to resume flights on the principle of "air bubble" - only for Indian and Russian citizens.

At the same time, the Russian authorities have extended the deadline for the suspension of flights with Great Britain until February 16.

The flight ban went into effect on December 22, 2020.

The decision was made against the background of the discovery in the United Kingdom of a new strain of coronavirus.

In addition, since December 26, an order has come into force, according to which citizens arriving from the UK must comply with a two-week quarantine.