Russia plans to resume flights to Japan, Serbia and Cuba starting next month, the country’s coronavirus crisis center announced Wednesday.
From Nov. 1, airports in Moscow will be able to operate two flights per week to Tokyo, Belgrade and the Cuban islands of Cayo Coco and Cayo Santa Maria.
One weekly flight will operate from Russia’s Pacific port city of Vladivostok to Tokyo, the crisis center said.
The crisis center has also increased the number of flights and destinations to Switzerland — which has reimposed a 10-day quarantine for arriving Russians this week — the United Arab Emirates, the Maldives and Belarus.
Russia grounded most international flights and introduced entry restrictions for foreign nationals in late March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since then, Russia has restored air travel with Britain, South Korea, Turkey, Egypt, Tanzania and Central Asian neighbors Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Russia is the world’s fourth-most affected country by the coronavirus with a total of 1,340,409 cases.
It has seen its number of new Covid-19 cases more than double within a month and set single-day records in each of the past six days. On Wednesday, it confirmed more than 14,000 new infections for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Greece, Poland Lift Coronavirus Travel Restrictions for Russians for a Short Time
Greece and Poland have updated their coronavirus travel restrictions to allow Russian citizens to cross their borders for two-week periods as Russia’s virus caseload topped the one million milestone.
Poland’s government has removed Russia from its latest list of countries subject to a travel ban, meaning flights will be able to resume from Wednesday. According to the Notesfrompoland.com news website, the Polish government is expected to update its travel ban list again on Sept. 15.
Greece will allow Russians to fly into the country between Sept. 7 and 21, according to a government decision cited by the RIA Novosti news agency. The number of entries is capped at 500 Russian nationals per week, who will be required to provide a negative Covid-19 test result within three days of entry and complete a detailed personal information form.
Belarus has also announced agreements to gradually reopen air and land borders with Russia at an unspecified time in the future. Moscow has not yet publicly commented on Minsk’s announcement.
Several media reports have said that Russian citizens without authorization used the land border with Belarus to travel to Europe. The European Union barred Russian travelers from entering when it reopened its outside borders on July 1.
Ex-Soviet Belarus has officially confirmed nearly 72,000 coronavirus infections, with Poland reporting almost 68,000 cases and Greece confirming 10,500. Russia has the world’s fourth-highest number of cases, with more than a million confirmed infections.
Russia closed its borders and grounded most international flights in late March to head off the spread of Covid-19, allowing only special evacuations of Russian citizens from abroad and government-authorized flights.
Russia gradually lifted travel restrictions to Britain, Turkey, Switzerland and Tanzania starting in August.
