A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the immediate call-up of 3,00,000 reservists, the airfares to India from Russia have skyrocketed and flight tickets out of Russia on some sought-after routes have been sold out.
As per the latest booking trends on some online platforms, passengers will have to pay through their nose to reach India. The cheapest airfare from Moscow to Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi airports on Friday is around ₹2.5 lakh.
Parents concerned
A flight ticket to the Cochin International Airport from Moscow on Sunday will cost ₹1,97,968, while a flight to Moscow from Cochin is available for ₹55,314 on Friday. The airfares have gone through the roof after fears that the President may impose martial law in the country to prevent youngsters of fighting age from leaving the country. The latest development has created flutters in Kerala as a good number of students from here has gone to Russia for higher studies. The parents of these students are keeping their fingers crossed.
Shymala Kumari, a native of Thiruvananthapuram, whose daughter has been pursuing a medical degree at Bashkir State Medical University Russia, told The Hindu that the students there hardly knew about the political development in that country. For them, there were no major issues till now, except the recent devaluation of the Indian Rupee against the Russian Ruble.
Data not available
According to NoRKA Roots, the field agency of the Department of Non-Resident Keralites (NoRKA), soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Indian government evacuated 3,369 Malayalee students from there. In the case of Russia, the agency doesn’t have any data on the number of students or people who have gone there for studies and work. “However, we estimate that the students’ number would be anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 and we do not anticipate a crisis similar to the one that happened in Ukraine,” said a senior NoRKA Roots officer.
