"This does not concern you"

The Foreign Ministry left thousands of Russians without support and information abroad, referring to high workload

Thousands of Russians are now in other countries without the opportunity to return to their homeland. More successful ones have housing and money, less successful spend the night at airports and transit zones. For example, in India, in which the insulation mode is valid until April 14, more than 4 thousand Russian citizens are now.

Maria Sonina with a two -year -old son has been wintering in Goa for the fourth year. She flew to India back in October, she has a six -month visa that allows her to legally be there. As the mother of Maria says, who is waiting for her daughter and grandson in St. Petersburg, for their family it was a “budget option”, because living in Goa is cheaper than in Russian cities.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that on March 22, one day of isolation is introduced in the country. From 7 am to 9 pm people were forbidden to leave the houses. Such restrictions also concerned local sellers, respectively, all stores were closed at this time.

“Naturally, we bought ourselves food for this day, but did not buy half a gumpermarket like crazy. Then we were told that quarantine would be extended for another three days. For these three days, the bought food was enough, everything was fine, ”Maria says about the first days of universal isolation.

But on March 24, India authorities announced that the country would be injected in the country for 21 days, and Modi Prime Minister warned people about the last hours left to buy food during isolation. However, the head of GOA prohibited the opening of stores. According to Maria, people gathered at grocery shops and asked sellers to illegally give them a little food. The police quickly came to the places of crowding and, beating people, dispersed the crowd.

“It was very difficult with the child, he needs milk, but I can’t get it. I had food. A few days later, a local resident appealed to the Supreme Court with a request to open shops, because he has small children. To this, the head of the state replied that he was now developing the organization of delivery. Everything is done in India for a very long time, it was not clear when this delivery would work at all. After that, they said that stores could open for several hours a day. The shops are now huge queues.

My store closed in front of my nose today, I stood there for a hundred years, and all that I managed to buy is cookies and one pasta, ”says Maria.

When asked about whether the consulate helps citizens, the girl replies that the representatives made lists for “evacuation”, also asked to fill out the questionnaire to provide food. “As a result, as far as I know, they never called anyone about the products. They simply formally compiled lists for evacuation with paid tickets for 70–80 thousand, and the same with products: formally they say that they help the population with products, in fact they simply took our data. No one even calls and does not help at all. I fly through Delhi, a single mother, so I expected a maximum of 22 thousand per ticket. An ordinary ticket of Delhi - Moscow costs 12 thousand. At the moment, tickets cost 60–80 thousand, I have no opportunity to spend that kind of money, ”continues Sonina.

According to many Russian citizens who can now not fly out of other countries, consulates and the Foreign Ministry do not provide them with the necessary information and assistance.

Petr Avramenko, who is in Saudi Arabia, told the “new” that the role of Russia's official representative offices is reduced to “compiling lists”.

“No dates, evacuation deadlines are not informed of us. The answer to all one - wait.

The saddest thing is that Saudi Arabia does not appear in the official plans of the Foreign Ministry for evacuation. The embassy does not monitor the situation of citizens, but the answer to all questions - wait.

The only thing they said that when the evacuation dates would be known, they would write on Instagram. And it will be in a month or in a year is unknown. Complete uncertainty, ”says Avramenko.

“The number of people who call in hundreds, and sometimes thousands of times the number of foreign employees. Given the World transport collapse, hundreds of thousands of Russians began to contact the embassies and consulates. It is impossible to process such an amount of appeals, because diplomats are primarily busy with practical work: lists, documents for flights of aircraft, paperwork, organization of transport messages from remote regions, etc., ”explained“ new ”in the Foreign Ministry.

To the question of why people are not provided with information about how the work of consulates and assistance to citizens in a difficult situation is being built, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, told the correspondent of the “new”:

“This [journalists] does not concern you. This applies to people we help, this is our story with them. ”

Due to the lack of official reliable information, people began to believe in a large number of rumors and gossip. So, for example, there was information that the FV-5672 commercial flight, which flew from Goa to Moscow on March 31, was half empty. However, the Russian citizen Olesya Efimova, who was on this side, said that empty places were only in the first two rows, which, according to her, were allocated so that the pilots could rest. Also empty places were in the last two rows. According to the crew, this is a sanitary zone in case someone becomes bad.

Tickets for this flight cost more than 60 thousand rubles. Due to the fact that many flights were canceled and the tickets purchased on them were invalid, people were afraid to spend their last money on this flight. There was also no reliable information about the consulate’s website about whether to trust the tour operator “Bibli-Globus” that organized this flight. Olesya Efimova, according to her, decided to take a chance and took a loan in order to be able to fly home.

At the arrival of Sheremetyevo to people who were supposed to go to other regions from Moscow, they told them to get to them.

For example, there were people from Surgut on board. Having arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport, they themselves got to Vnukovo, that is, there is no talk of any precautions returning from the country closed to quarantine.

Maxim, who is now also in India, is outraged by how Russian airlines overstate ticket prices at times, and the government does not control this. According to him, the departure from India for citizens of other countries organize their governments, and citizens of the Russian Federation are taken out by a tour operator at prices 3-4 times higher than at normal times.

“It is with the funds allocated by the state to return to the country of those who want to return,” writes Maxim. Many people went to relax with young children, so they need to buy more than one ticket for 60 thousand, but several.

“Imagine a family of four, who should pay $ 900–2500 for a ticket for each family member to return to the Russian Federation, despite the fact that they have already bought some tickets and no one has returned money for them yet. At the same time, tourists with a limited budget fly to India. Plus, now the whole economy in the world has stopped. Many people are left without work or lost business. I would have thought well before giving $ 1000-2500 for a ticket in such a situation. It doesn’t matter if it is your own money or credit. After all, with a return to the country for people, nothing ends. Then they still need to live somehow in the conditions of a cruel crisis, ”he continues. “Most of those who are stuck in Goa, Mexico, Argentina and other countries consider this price for airline tickets high at times, and the actions involved in such pricing - extortion and looting.”

Maria Zakharova told Novaya, the carriers to the question of the Foreign Ministry of the Foreign Ministry about why prices are becoming higher, they answer that they are companies that should pay for fuel and salaries to staff.

The situation is also complicated by the fact that the state introduces laws that inhibit the possibility of arrival in the country. Recently, the Ministry of Transport has limited the number of passengers who can accept Russian airports. Now no more than 500 citizens returning abroad are accepted in Sheremetyevo daily, regional airports are no more than 200. Because of this, on March 31, during a transplant in Doha-the capital of Katar, tourists from Russia learned that their flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg were canceled. Katar at this time closed their borders, so people were locked at the Dochi airport.

Irina Rosenberg, who was one of these tourists, writes on Facebook that the head of the consular department manipulates panicing people and does not help them in any way.

“While there is strength, I want to thank Qatar Airport for care and purity. When it became clear to them that our government was not able to take care of us, they themselves began to solve this issue. Yes, it was they who decided to place parents with young children and elderly passengers in the hotel. Our leadership did nothing, ”Irina writes.

However, Maria Zakharova claims that Russia agreed with the Qatari side, so our citizens were fed there and kept clean. According to her, people are not time to explain because they will not understand. However, the fact that citizens who are stuck in the airports of other countries and transit zones have an information request is completely ignored by the Foreign Ministry.