As after a month and a half of closed borders, the export of the remaining Russians was organized

According to a working group coordinating the return of compatriots from foreign countries, from March 20 to April 26, 172 199 Russians returned to Russia. Now 30–35 thousand of our citizens who are waiting for aircraft to Russia remain abroad. It is impossible to call a more accurate figure. To say, when everyone who wants to return to the country, too. "New Gazeta" tells why to pick up the Russians home turned out to be such a difficult task.

At the time of the announcement of the pandemic abroad there were hundreds of thousands of our citizens. Most organized tourists have now returned home. Several tens of thousands of people who still stayed are independent travelers and people who have long -term tasks abroad - study, work, treatment or they went to visit their relatives for several months.

Moreover, the number of Russians who expect planes home is constantly changing: new people who want to return appear, or even vice versa, someone decides to linger. Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted that the Foreign Ministry was faced with such a task for the first time.

Whested algorithms, how to return citizens home when the whole world closed the borders, was not.

Therefore, they created a working group coordinating the return of Russians home. It included representatives of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Transport, FSUE Gosque Corporation for the ORVD, airports of the Moscow Air School and Aeroflot, Siberia (S7) and Ural Airlines.

The Foreign Ministry explains the complexity of the task of exporting citizens by the fact that the territory of the country is huge, and much depends on the readiness of the regions to accept planes, but emphasizes that the transportation of Russians is subordinated to the main goal: to minimize the spread of infection.

As the head of DIP Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, told Novaya Gazeta, first Russian planes returned mainly residents of Moscow home, but over the past two weeks, the emphasis shifted to the regions: “Moscow gave an example of how to build logistics, and the regions picked up.”

According to her, in order for the city to be able to accept the plane from abroad, many processes should be established: the airport preparations (protective costumes for everyone who are in contact with those who arrived, their documents and luggage), the organization of transport from the aircraft and to the places of observation (and their arrangement), control over people in self-isolation, and the readiness of hospitals.

As the Russian authorities repeatedly explained, a person can fly to where he has housing or relatives who are ready to accept him. So, on the second of May, Shanghai - Vladivostok - Blagoveshchensk was the flight. Residents of the Primorsky and Khabarovsk regions, the Amur Region, Yakutia, EAO and the Chita Region were invited to the aircraft. Residents of other regions could not claim a place on an airplane. And on May sixth, a plane from Shanghai flies to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

On the same day there is a flight Tel Aviv-Rostov-on-Don-Yekaterinburg. He also takes residents of the regions neighboring Rostov and Sverdlovsk regions. When people get out of the aircraft, they will either wait for buses to observators, or buses that will take them to the home region.

That is, the region taking the plane must be ready to ensure observation for all citizens who have left the plane and do not live in this region.

Of course, among other things, the arrived must pass 14-day quarantine. There are other rules: Moscow can immediately accept no more than 500 people a day, and regions - no more than 200. Obviously, not everyone is lucky.

Get together and fly away

In order to increase the chances of a export flight, in some countries the Russians began to specially gather at one point, because first of all the aircraft take large groups of people.

So, Russian citizens gathered in Miami. Now there are more than 350 people who are in the lists of the Ministry of Communications. Most of them are women with babies. They deliberately flew to the United States so that their child receives American citizenship in the fact of birth in the States.

One of the women told the “New” that they wrote letters to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Communications and the Federal Air Transport Agency with a request to organize the Miami flight - Moscow. “Moms do not risk small children to get to New York and wait there, because in New York a very dangerous Coronavirus situation. And for almost four hours to fly to New York with a baby, walking around the airports seems impossible. Miami is calmer, and many have rented housing here. ”

The woman asked not to mention her name, fearing aggression and hatred of the Russians who went to give birth in the United States.

A similar situation on the Tenerife. Now there are about 120 citizens of Russia and most of them are older people with health problems. They ask them to be taken from Tenerife.

Says a Russian who stuck in Spain

Ivan Pustovalov

People want them to be taken out of their region, because the majority who stayed are elderly people walk badly, they are poorly oriented in areas, in schedules - in everything. They are scared to go far, afraid to get stuck, be late, communicate with the Spanish police.

Some 90 years old. Yes, they are wealthy. These are those who have real estate here, or those whom the children sent for the winter so that they are warmed up in warm conditions. These are those who are more closely connected with Spain than just tourists.

In total, in the lists of expectations for departure from Spain from 300 to 400 people, among them 120 - on Tenerife, 100 - in Barcelona.

Advisor to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Elena Mikheeva confirmed:

“Getting together at one point is a working principle. The more people are in the same region, the more likely it is that the flight will be organized there faster. ”

Sergey Lavrov also spoke about this in his interview: there are cities where a couple of dozens of our citizens, so they will need to be collected at one point. But the Russians are in Miami and the Russians on Tenerife - from different regions of Russia. Therefore, whether there will be one plane for them or it will be needed several is still unknown. The Los Angeles-Moscow flight took place on May 4, other flights from the United States have not yet been planned.

Sometimes our compatriots themselves are looking for a way to return home. For example, “Belarusian Airlines” take on their flights. Maxim Timoshin from Suzdal said that he and another 34 Russian fell on the Goa -Moscow flight. “The Belarusian consulate in India helped us, they evacuated their citizens and took us on board also. The ticket cost me about 55 thousand rubles, I did not receive financial assistance from Russia and borrowed. ”

On April 26, 85 citizens of Belarus and 95 citizens of other states flew to Minsk on April 26. The Russian workers met the Russians, put him on the bus and brought to Moscow for two thousand rubles. There, as Timoshin said, everyone was released home. He took a taxi and came home to Suzdal.

According to Timoshin, at the airport of Minsk, everyone who arrived took a test for coronavirus and promised to call a positive result. None of his flight, according to information in their chat, did not receive such a call.

The working group on the return of Russians itself collaborates with foreign airlines. So, the Turkish airline on April 29 was performed by Istanbul - Moscow - Istanbul in order to export their citizens to their homeland, but some Russians were also lucky - they were taken to the same side.

There is a plane, but you can't fly away

Another decision of the Russian authorities on the export of Russians: first of all, those who left Russia after January 1, 2020 take home. If a person has left earlier, it will be difficult for him to get into the export lists now.

67-year-old Galina Gukalenko is in Miami, in the Hallandale area. She flew at the end of October 2019 to visit her relatives. Her visa is open for three years, and the tourist status was active until April 25. She wanted to buy a return ticket in March, but the air traffic was just closed.

Says a Russian woman stuck in Miami

Galina Gukalenko

I pay day and night from resentment, why only from January 1, if tourists in the country are allowed for six months? I was immediately refused material assistance, because I did not have a return ticket. I suffer from high pressure. I take pills every day. I have arthrosis. Every six months I put injections in the knee and shoulder joints to relieve pain, because they are unbearable. Now the medicines are ending. From pressure, tablets are sold here only according to a doctor’s prescription, and my medical insurance is over. While I live with relatives, but they were left without work, and they themselves need help. They have two children and a rented apartment, they cannot support me.

Galina lives in Murmansk, and in this region she is alone from Miami, and she does not take her for flights from the USA to Petersburg or Moscow. Therefore, Galina does not leave the house for a month and a half, so as not to become infected with coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the situation of Galina Gukalenko falls into the category of "humanitarian cases". These include pregnant women, people with disabilities, those who urgently need Russia for treatment.

Sergei Lavrov in his interview says that such cases of the Foreign Ministry are engaged manually, individually. The turn has not reached Galina.

There are frequent cases when people have no money for a ticket. It is worth noting that the export of Russians is not evacuation, but ordinary commercial flights. If the passenger had a return ticket to the Russian airline, then the flight to the person will be free, as the Russian airlines will cross the ticket.

If the ticket was foreign airlines, you will have to find out if this carrier has an agreement on ticket offices with Russia.

You will have to pay again if there is no such contract, and also if there was no ticket at all. The price is fixed: for flights from Europe, a ticket costs 200 euros, 400 euros for longer routes.

Sometimes a family of travelers of three or four people cannot find the necessary amount. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the working group upon the return of Russians is considering such cases separately, and there were already people who were put on the aircraft due to the Russian budget.

There are other difficulties. According to a source familiar with the organization of export flights that did not appear on the flight of citizens sometimes up to 30 %, although the situation is gradually improving. “If it was planned to send 250 people from New York, and in fact 100 passengers arrived, then the company incurs losses and does not solve the problem of the return of citizens,” the new one in the Federal Air Transport Agency explained.

But it often happens that people simply do not have time to get to the airport. So, in India, a full location has been declared. Trains and buses are canceled, rickshaws do not go and it is difficult to find a taxi. To move from state to state, you need to get permission, apply to the embassy in 48 hours. And in the Philippines it is almost impossible to find water transport, which will quickly deliver from the island to the island.

As Russians said in India and the United States, sometimes announcements of a flight to Russia come in a day and even five hours before departure. People do not have time to move out of the house, find transport and manage to the airport. As a result, they are considered not appearing on the flight and lose their roof over their heads.

True, according to the government’s decree, if the passenger did not appear on the flight, which was proposed, the money will cease to go to his account.

However, it happens that people, having begun to receive material assistance, decide to stay in a warm country where you can still go out.

Help money

Since April fourth, Russians who were stuck abroad, Russia has promised to issue financial assistance. You can claim help if there was a ticket to Russia for dates from March 16 to the end of May. Money is paid at the rate of 2400 rubles per day for an adult and 1600 per child under 14 years of age. Funds to help Russians abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the amount of a billion rubles were allocated by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, which was now removed from work due to illness ( it became known about its infection with coronavirus at the end of April ). According to the instructions, everything is simple: to get help, a person must fill out a special uniform on the public services portal.

But a week after the launch, it became clear that it was extremely difficult to get money. On April 12, the Foreign Ministry announced that the statements were submitted by 37,382 citizens (not counting the members of their families); 31 946 applications were verified with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Transport, of which only 4058 statements were correct, and people began to receive money from them. The rest had to break the phones of embassies and the Foreign Ministry.

The main reason for the refusal of assistance is that in the original questionnaire several points are marked as optional.

These are points: “Electronic reservation number”, “Scans or photos of air tickets and (or) other documents”, “Settlement account number”. People left places empty, and the system read it as a mistake. The fact that this information is necessary clarified in its Decree No. 621 of April 30.

Alla Safronova from the Moscow region flew to Goa on March 1, together with her daughter, friend and return tickets on March 25.

“I filled out the application for financial assistance twice. At first, I did not fill the fields with the card number and the billing account number, since they were indicated as optional, ”she says. On April 17, Safronov with her loved ones flew to Russia with a stifled flight.

Says a Russian woman stuck in Goa

Alla Safronova

We spent an additional 23 days there, lived with the locals, rented a house. They gave about 370 euros for the house, 200–250 euros for food and 1200 euros for tickets, ”she says. Alla did not receive material assistance and plans to file a lawsuit against the Foreign Ministry. The plane was completely filled. There were refuseniks, but these places through public services officially canceled and provided to people who want to fly away. Everything was loyal, there was a pregnant woman from another region.

Now the problem of payments is being solved: now the Russian embassies will answer questions of people in financial assistance and help correct errors in statements. And the Ministry of Communications developed a special bot in Telegram. He needs to report the number of the statement on the sovereigns, and he will indicate incorrectly filled fields.

Closed sky

Sometimes it is impossible to pick up our citizens because of the refusal of another country to land the plane. In order for the plane to land even for two hours, 200-300 airport employees are required, who will take a flight and communicate with crew members. Therefore, fearing the spread of infection, some countries refuse to plant planes.

So, the United Arab Emirates closed the air traffic before Russia managed to take its citizens. The Federal Air Transport Agency said that they had to get permission for a long time, but in the end the plane was accepted in early April.

And from Fiji, our citizens did not work for the third time. According to the Foreign Ministry, the local authorities did not allow the landing even for a couple of hours. “So much was done by the federals and the region, we tried very hard. But it didn’t work out, ”Maria Zakharova comments on Novaya Gazeta. - All structures were involved, six crews flew so that the board would not land on the night. But the Fiji authorities did not allow the land to land. ”

But our citizens at Fiji at least know that the Russian authorities seek to take them away, and in a state of unknown and abandonment, Russians in Argentina are now 169 people. At least a thousand Russians are scattered across South America. They are in the lists of the Ministry of Communications, and the working group knows about them to return the Russians about them. But nothing can do yet. Argentina closed the air message until September, and Russian airlines do not fly to South America.

Instructions
How to get financial assistance if you are stuck abroad and cannot return home.