Russian Ambassador Threatens Europe…With No Tourists from Russia

As sanctions and limits pile up against Russia, these measures have pretty much cut Russia off from the West. No Russian aircraft are allowed to fly over the European Union, Canada, or the US and aircraft on the ground outside of Russia will be seized due to leases that will no longer exist with these sanctions. And these sanctions have prompted a Russian ambassador to threaten Europe with the loser of tourism.

Russian Ambassador Threatens That Europe Will Not Have Russian Tourists

The Russian Ambassador to Cyprus, Stanislav Osadchiy, gave an interview in Cyprus addressing the sanctions that the EU has put on his country. He claims that these sanctions will actually show Europe that they have “shot themselves in the foot.”

His reasoning for this is that, due to the sanctions, Russian tourists will instead go to Turkey and spend their money there instead of Cyprus, Greece, and the rest of Europe. On a money angle, this actually will hurt both Cyprus and Greece this year since both rely heavily on Russian tourists for their overall tourism industry.

Due to the situation that has certainly been brewing between Moscow and the EU over the last years, Russian tourist numbers to Cyprus and Greece have actually dropped from what they used to be. But both countries are still in the top 10 destinations for Russian tourists and the average Russian tourist spends at least €1,000 each on their trips to Greece. Considering it is just a few hour flight (unlike for American tourists who definitely spend more), that is a lot of money that each Russian has been dropping into local economies.

With Covid, these numbers dropped even more but last year, Russian tourists still came to Greece and Cyprus and made up a very large chunk of the tourism income for these countries. With Covid restrictions lifting all over the world, Greece and Cyprus were looking for even bigger spending by Russian tourists and more of them to come.

But, this is not really a threat in the sense that, as of now, it is Russians that are unable to even visit these countries. It is not a “if you don’t stop it, we won’t come” kind of thing because aircraft from Russia are not allowed to enter EU airspace and sanctions placed on Russian banks have made it not possible to use their money if they could arrive in these countries.

So, according to this same ambassador, these sanctions do not worry Russia and the Russian people will go to Turkey instead and spend their money there. Instead, Greece is welcoming, and preparing to welcome even more, Ukrainian refugees. Even without Russian tourists, Greece will still likely have their best summer tourist season in 3 years.