Are the Russians fleeing the country? Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this Wednesday morning in a televised speech the “partial mobilization” of the Russian population in the war in Ukraine. These are “citizens in reserve, those who have already served” and it is “necessary,” assured the Head of State, who specified that 300,000 people were initially affected by this order.
The content of this announcement was expected and since last night (the speech would normally be broadcast on Tuesday), the sites have seen a sharp increase in the purchase of tickets out of Moscow.
“Between Tuesday and today, searches for plane tickets from Russia have multiplied by 2.5”, confirms to BFMTV.com the spokesman for the flight comparator Liligo, who points to “an upward trend” on Wednesday. .
Address Georgia, Turkey or Armenia
The Turkish aviation platform HavaSosyalMedya wrote like this on Tuesday night. that “Russians flock to airports”. As a result of this great demand, “the price of tickets for Moscow-Istanbul flights, which Turkish Airlines sells for an average of 30 to 35,000 rubles (500 to 600 euros, editor’s note), exceeded 80,000 rubles (about 1,300 euros, editor’s note)”. In some banknotes it even exceeded 1700 euros, write the site.
Aviasales.ru (Russia’s leading travel planning website) also saw a sharp increase in traffic this Wednesday morning according to the statistical tool Google Trends, starting at 8 am, the start of Vladimir’s speech Fries with cheese. At the same time, the terms “tickets” and “plane” more than doubled in searches.
“Flights from Moscow to the capitals of Georgia, Turkey and Armenia for September 21 were no longer available minutes after Putin’s announcement,” writes the Moscow Times. “As of noon Moscow time, direct flights from Moscow to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan also ceased to appear on the website.”
At AirSerbia, to reach Belgrade, the next flight with available seats was announced for Monday 26, according to AFP.
“It shows how much they really support the war”
On Google Trends, the search for “how to get out of Russia” also increased sharply since Tuesday night, with peaks in the afternoon and overnight, showing the impact of Vladimir Putin’s announcement on the population.
“The Russians bought tickets for all available planes abroad right after the announcement of the partial mobilization. This shows how much they really support the war,” he said. ironically, on Twitter, Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian deputy.
At the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, there had been a first exodus of Russians opposed to the assault or fearing mobilization. No official estimate has been made public, but it affected at least tens of thousands of people.
Source: BFM TV
