Flight Disruptions and Internet Outages Bring Chaos to Russia’s Regions
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Flight Disruptions and Internet Outages Bring Chaos to Russia’s Regions
The threat of Ukrainian drones grounded at least 485 flights and delayed 1,900 more at airports across Russia. The aviation collapse, which lasted from Saturday until early hours of Monday, is estimated to have cost airlines around 20 billion rubles ($250 million) in damage. Three of the 21 republics of Russia don’t have working airports at all. For the rest, most rely on connections with Moscow and operate only a few flights to other regions of the country. The transportation system of the world’s largest country is almost entirely dependent on Moscow.
This week, MT’s Indigenous special correspondent Leyla Latypova explores how mass flight delays and frequent mobile internet outages transformed the lives of ordinary people in Russia’s regions.
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Over the weekend, the threat of Ukrainian drones grounded at least 485 flights and delayed 1,900 more at airports across Russia.
While Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport and Nizhny Novgorod’s Strigino Airport were hit the hardest by the wave of cancellations, the ripple effects were felt even in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and as far east as Vladivostok.
The aviation collapse, which lasted from Saturday until early hours of Monday, is estimated to have cost airlines around 20 billion rubles ($250 million) in damage, industry experts say.
To understand the gravity of the situation, it is important to keep in mind that Russia’s centralization of power is not limited to politics and business.
The transportation system of the world’s largest country is almost entirely dependent on Moscow, as air and train travel between some regions is impossible without a connection in the capital or St. Petersburg.
This remains true even for Russia’s ethnic republics, which were initially designed to be equal partner states within the federation.
Three of the 21 republics of Russia don’t have working airports at all. For the rest, most rely on connections with Moscow and operate only a few flights to other regions of the country, let alone international flights, according to a study by news outlet From the Republics.
Magas Airport in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia only operates flights to and from the Russian capital and Tatarstan’s Kazan International Airport remains a rare outlier used as a hub for cross-regional travel.
Train travel rarely offers a convenient alternative. Even the republic of Tatarstan’s capital Kazan and Bashkortostan’s Ufa, the two major economic hubs of the Volga-Ural region that are 450 kilometers apart, are not connected by a train line despite repeated demands by the many business travelers, tourists and families with work and family ties in the two regions.