"I crossed the border on foot"

Many Russians still cannot return home from abroad-we talked with them

Many Russians still cannot return to the country because of the pandemic of coronavirus. Free evacuation and material assistance are not laid for everyone, someone cannot get to the airport due to complex logistics, there are simply no suitable flights in certain countries. Medusa talked with those who were stuck abroad.

Dmitry

(Only the name is mentioned at the request of the hero)

In early March, my wife and son went to rest on Samui (Thailand island , approx. Medusa ). They had to return back at the end of the month, but decided to fly away earlier after they found out what was happening in the world. The airline did not change our tickets because of the pandemic. We stayed in Thailand until the appointed date, but even then it was not possible to fly out. Right at Bangkok’s airport they told me that the already departed plane was deployed.

Now we are on Samui and are waiting for the export flight . Immediately submitted [application] for matches . But they began to receive it only on the 48th day after applying. “State Services” and the Foreign Ministry promised nothing, no one could give information. Now the money is not always sent, but how much it should be - 2400 rubles per person. We live at the very least. The main problem is the need to constantly extend insurance, as well as pay for housing. It is expensive. The cheapest insurance for a week without coronavirus covers costs 3,500 rubles, with a Covid - 7200. Everyone does it - you never know what.

To get from Samui to Bangkok on a export flight, you need to go a long way. We took care of this even before the pandemic, when we took the complex tickets of Samui - Bangkok - Moscow. On the plane to get to Bangkok for one hour. The second option is to go on the crossroads of 740 kilometers by sea and water all day.

We bought tickets from Aeroflot, so the airline is responsible for the whole way to Moscow. But they canceled all flights from Samui to Bangkok. At Skyscanner and at the local airline, we found similar flights and asked Aeroflot to change them to our tickets. They refused with the words that there are no such flights in their base. Then we called Bangkok Airways, which carries out these flights. They said that it is possible to solve the issue if a representative of Aeroflot calls them. But so far nothing has been decided. Aeroflot does not want to strain, although they are straining all over the world. With us, the German changed tickets - there was a representative of a local airline with him on the phone.

If Aeroflot changed our tickets, we would not have to pay for the road to Bangkok. Now for three it costs about 40 thousand in 45 minutes of flight. In the usual time - about 15 thousand. We should not experience inconvenience, because tickets were bought in advance.

On June 8, they sharply declared a flight from Bangkok to Moscow for June 11. We registered. But they are forced to get to the airport for their money by bypass by several buses and ferry. A plane tickets are too expensive. Now we collect things and prepare for tomorrow's crossing.

Daria Somova

On February 25, I arrived at Alma-Ata to visit a relative. In Russia, Kamchatka took a return ticket at the end of March. On March 21, late in the evening they called me from the airline and said that the flight was canceled. And on March 22, the border was already closed.

I began to call the consulate - they all the time told me that there were no flights. I called the airline and asked when they open the border. All the time I watched flights and tickets for planes, thought that I could fly away, but the departures were canceled five times. I did not know where else to go. She suffered very much as she was without information. I hoped that I would fly by plane, and did not understand why I could not be released.

I never received material assistance, although I left the application. In Alma-Ata, she tried to get a job, but did not work out. All this time I lived without earnings, at a loss. She continued to rent a place in a hairdresser in Russia for 10 thousand rubles in order not to lose it, while she did not earn anything. All life has already collapsed. If I had lingered yet, then I think my loved one would not have waited for me.

I stumbled upon telegram chat stuck abroad. If not for this chat, no one would help me. When the flights were canceled through Minsk in early June, I wrote in a panic to the group "stuck." I was told that you can get out on foot. I immediately opened a map of Kazakhstan, found the nearest city to the border and took a ticket for a flight to Pavlodar. It’s good that at this time air traffic was opened within the country.

I was taken from Pavlodar to the border. I crossed her on foot: there were several checkpoints, watched a passport, measured the temperature and put it on their homeland. In Russia, I was met by another driver who drove to the Novosibirsk airport. I am very glad that there were people who help the Russians get home, although, of course, not for free.

Alexey Shikalov

My friend Nona Nikolaevna was stuck in Hamburg and now lives with us. She is 79 years old. In December, Nona Nikolaevna arrived in order to take a pose for her daughter, who passed the course of chemotherapy. Nona Nikolaevna was supposed to fly on March 18, but on March 16 the flight was canceled. We thought that it would be possible to fly away in April or May, but they did not organize flights from Hamburg.

The ticket Nona Nikolaevna is still valid to Russia, it is from Aeroflot. But now flights are offered only from Frankfurt - this is 700 kilometers from us. Nona Nikolaevna is elderly, she alone will not be able to reach [to the airport]: suddenly it will get lost or something will happen on nervous soil. And I can’t take her myself, because I work. We are waiting for flights from Hamburg, but so far they are only on August, there is no guarantee either. Now it all depends on Russia - what the situation will be there. Germany begins to open all [borders].

Only thanks to us None Nikolaevna has where to live and eat. On May 6, we applied for financial assistance. At first he seemed to be approved, but nothing was sent. On May 20, I called and said that there are still no payments. They answered me: they will be soon, everything is approved. Since then, nothing came, and on June 4, a refusal suddenly appeared in the status. I began to call the Russian Foreign Ministry, they said to write a complaint to the mail. I wrote, and now we are waiting for an answer again.

For more than a month I sought that Nona Nikolaevna rendered help promised by the state: he wrote and calls the hotline in the Foreign Ministry many times - but so far, unfortunately, no result. I think to write a letter in the name of [Prime Minister Mikhail] Mishustin.

Olga Polosinskaya

I have been living on Samui since 2011. For the past couple of years I have been leaving for Russia for the summer and returning here in the tourist season - I work as a guide. This year I arrived at Samui in December, worked for the winter months. I did not have a return ticket to Russia: when you work here, you buy a ticket a week before leaving. The working season also ended quickly. Now I live without work, without a visa and without a plane ticket. It’s a little easier for me, since I know the island and there are many friends. I know where you can inexpensively rent housing, eat. There is a serious aggression [in relation to people who are stuck abroad] from the Russians: they say about our situation that we are sitting on matches and still exported us for free. Personally, the refusal came to material assistance very quickly, since I have no return tickets. This is the main reason for the failure.

In order to make the opportunity to sign up for an evacuation flight (export, approx. Medusa ), you need to go a whole quest and enter many lists that are regularly updated. Here we walked here: for three days, new lists do not form - boring lists. There is a list on the website of the Russian Consulate in Thailand, on “public services” - a separate list. If you don’t fit in there [the list on “public services”], then you definitely don’t get a ticket. When information appears that the export flight came, it is necessary to register through the "State Services".

In the peak of quarantine, I was not registered [on export flights], since it was simply not clear how to get from Samu to Bangkok, from where the plane flew out. Now I have brought myself to all the lists that are. Flights are formed about once every two weeks, but at the moment they are not.

The evacuation flights in Thailand are announced at three in the morning. If you did not sleep and heard about the new flight, you can have time to register there. They are free for those who already had tickets for money - those who did not pay for the return flight.

The price of a one -way ticket (for those who did not have a return ticket) - 400 euros. It is expensive, on ordinary days for this money you can fly back and forth. I can spend 400 euros on a ticket, and then get into quarantine and meet people in spacesuits. Or live here for another month. I hope that the boundaries in Thailand will open from July 1 and ticket prices will change.

Elizaveta Perevalova

In September 2019, I came to study at Milan from Novosibirsk. In winter, she returned to Russia. On March 1, I had to end with a training visa, so on February 24 I returned to Italy to extend it and get a residence permit that I submitted back in November.

I did not plan to stay for a long time, because my studies were transferred to a remote format. I bought tickets back on April 5. A week later, as I arrived in Italy, quarantine began and all flights were canceled. All this time I am sitting here, renting a room and waiting for a display of flight.

I submitted [the application] from the very beginning for material assistance. She was considered a month, after that I began to receive money for rent. Through the "State Services" submitted an application for a export flight - there they form a general list [who want to leave]. In my memory there were three flights [to Russia], they are rare, about once a month. None of them was imprisoned, although I am in the waiting sheet. At first due to the fact that there were no aircraft before Novosibirsk. Then I changed the end point for St. Petersburg. My parents live there and there is a place where to conduct quarantine. But she didn’t get there because of a live queue: who first submitted the application, he flew away. It is still inconvenient that in Italy flights are coming only from Rome. I am in Milan. A notification of the new flight may come in two days. And somehow you need to get from north to south [country]. This is either a train for four hours, or a bus even longer.

So far, no new flights are planned. The last charter [flight] from Rome to Moscow was in May. When a new one appears, it is incomprehensible, but they will put me [on the plane] or not - even more so. I can’t influence this in any way.

Mikhail Mikhailin

My wife and I have been in South Florida since October 2019. On February 25, my wife Tatyana Nikolaevna flew to us. We had plans to fly to Cuba, and on April 21, the whole family had a plane ticket to Moscow from Aeroflot. But the last regular flight from Miami flew out on March 15. At first we were transferred to the departure on May 2, we managed to register for him - then there was no story with the “public services”. But in a week we were sent a notification that the flight is canceled and all the air traffic with the United States is interrupted. We did not receive compensation for the ticket, vouchers promise. By the end of April, all Russians living in America were in such a situation. Most evacuation flights fly from New York (once every two weeks), although this is one of the most infected cities in the world. There was also one flight from Los Angeles.

When we did not fly away, Tatyana Nikolaevna asked if she could apply for mattress. I registered on the website of the State Services on May 8, they wrote that the application was completed, everything is in order. Everyone calmed down. Some time passed, but there is no money-silence. They began to find out what happened. At the "State Services" Tatyana Nikolaevna replied that she flew away with a flight from San Francisco. Although there were not even flights from there.

I described the whole situation on Facebook, after which I found a letter from [the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry] Maria Zakharova in the messenger. I sent her all my messages about what was happening because it is a little chaos. So do not do their citizens. Maria called me, we were explained, and I took a pause for a week so that the Foreign Ministry answered Tatyana Nikolaevna. After a week, there was still no answer, and I wrote to Mary once again. After that, Tatyana Nikolaevna was called back, she spoke with someone twice. She was told that the application was approved and she would receive the money. They began to list them only on June 2.

Now I follow the site of the "State Services" every day. It says that in the near future aircraft from Los Angeles and Miami are not planned. The Russians fly out of here a few flights: from here to London, then to Helsinki, from there to Minsk and then to Russia. I believed that such a road takes about 110 hours, if you still stay on vacation. We will fly about the same way. But I hope for one transplant, I found such a flight. We will buy tickets [ourselves] - no one compensates for anything. Of course, there is a chance for an evacuation flight, if I wake up in the night, I will see it and be able to quickly register. But I do not see options and do not count on any help. If you act, then yourself.

Recorded Alexander Sivtsova