Russia restarts flights for citizens stuck abroad

Russia has lifted its blanket cancellation of flights bringing Russian nationals back into the country from abroad. According to the country’s task force for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the first two flights to take off since that pause will depart on April 6.

One of those flights will run from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Yekaterinburg, and another will run from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Nizhny Novgorod. Subsequent flight schedules will be posted on stopkoronavirus.rf, the Russian government’s online hub for the pandemic.

About 30,000 Russian nationals are thought to be stranded abroad. Russia suddenly stopped allowing flights to bring them back into the country on April 4. Whether or not flights to bring foreign nationals out of Russia will be renewed as well is not yet clear.