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Skift Take
Sanctions be damned, locations like Dubai and Maldives proceed to welcome an influx of Russian roubles to their tourism economies.
Sitting in a luxurious room of what looks as if a resort or a villa at The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, Sonia Plotnikova’s Instagram publish about “the strongest nation” Russia, invited the wrath of social media customers.
Plotnikova is the daughter of Vladimir Plotnikov, an MP of Putin’s get together and the richest deputy of the Perm Metropolis Duma. Within the final 48 hours, Plotnikova’s posts are all tagged with a Dubai location.
Because the West slapped sanctions on Russian oligarchs, locations like Dubai and Maldives have proved to be a protected haven for these Russians desirous to flee the nation.
Alex Finley, a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, began the hashtag #YachtWatch after recognizing some yachts owned by Russian oligarchs in her neighborhood in Barcelona. “A variety of them appear to be going to the Maldives or to the Seychelles or are already over within the Arabian Sea close to Dubai,” Finley informed Yahoo Information.
And it isn’t simply the yachts, a tweet in early March learn, “It appears that evidently Dubai would be the capital of Russia in exile. Solely within the final 24 hours, the emirate was visited by RA-67226 plane of Dmitry Medvedev (from Moscow), T7-SSM plane with Andrey Kostin (from Cyprus), and Arkady Rotenberg (from the Maldives).”
A software program developer from Russia spoke on situation of anonymity and defined his determination to take refuge in Dubai till he figures out the place to go subsequent. He stated coming into Dubai was a breeze, “I wished to go away Russia as quickly as doable and Dubai was the only option as flights to a lot of the locations from Russia had been cancelled. The vacation spot offers a 90-day visa with nearly no necessities. It wasn’t tough in any respect. I had all the things I wanted like Covid assessments, however even these weren’t required. A free take a look at was made out there proper on the Dubai airport. I’m not going to stay right here. I simply want a while to resolve the place to go subsequent.”
And whereas he does that, he can even be contributing to Dubai’s tourism financial system.
The inbound figures from these locations additionally inform the same story. Russia continues to retain its prime spot amongst supply markets for Maldives Tourism with a market share of over 14 per cent (as of March 13, 2022). In Dubai, Russia has grow to be the third-largest supply marketplace for the journey and tourism sector with 70,000 arrivals in January, up from 27,000 in January 2021.
Shut on the heels of European Union-imposed sanctions in opposition to Russian airways, Azimuth Airways is increasing its worldwide community, with flights ranging from Mineralnye Vody in Russia to Dubai from March 15.
UAE carriers — Emirates, Flydubai and Air Arabia proceed to function flights to main Russian cities. Emirates operates every day flights on the Moscow-Dubai and St. Petersburg-Dubai routes.
Having lived within the UAE for the previous 5 years, Anya, a Russian nationwide, who focuses on tech hirings and who requested that her final identify not be used, had two of her members of the family be a part of her in Dubai final week. “They got here on a vacationer visa, and visas right here aren’t an issue, all it’s worthwhile to do is get on a airplane.”
As the entire of Europe has imposed sanctions on Russians, Anya can think about why locations like UAE are a success with Russian vacationers, “The UAE is certainly one of only some international locations that Russians can go to with out having to fret about something. UAE by no means actually had an issue with such sanctions so long as guests had been contributing to the emirate’s financial system.”
Russian Emirates, a life-style journal based mostly in Dubai, has had over 83,000 views for its publish that reads, “Can I get a UAE citizenship?” The second-most considered publish additionally pertains to entry into the UAE.
Dare we are saying, all Russian roads result in Dubai and Maldives, no less than for now.
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