The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, told about the difficulties 230 Russians faced during the retuning from Jeddah to Makhachkala on April 22.
UTair export flight, according to the diplomat, was prepared in close coordination between the Foreign Ministry and its foreign offices in Saudi Arabia, as well as the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Air Transport Agency and the government of Dagestan.
"In the process of organizing the flight, the staff of the Russian Embassy in Riyadh, the Consulate General and the Representative Office at the OIC in Jeddah had to literally gather our compatriots across the entire territory of the Arabian Peninsula from the border with Jordan to the border with Yemen in the conditions of a round-the-clock curfew, violated intercity communications and strict rules for movement within cities, widespread checkpoints and other restrictions established by the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic," Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page.
The vast majority of Russians, according to her, were not part of tourist and pilgrimage groups and did not register, so information about them was difficult to find.
Thus, "two citizens managed to get to Jeddah from a remote mountainous region, which is not an easy task to reach even in normal times."
In the case of students from a number of local universities, there were difficulties in processing exit documents, which eventually led to a delay in the flight's departure.
The situation was "unblocked" only with the direct participation of the Saudi Foreign Ministry.
At the same time, as Zakharova noted, "as it always happens: some worked, others had fun in social networks, publishing unfounded accusations of "inaction" of the Russian diplomatic service," and therefore "foreign institutions had to publicly refute rumors that could mislead Russians who wanted to leave Saudi Arabia."
In particular, the Embassy had to refute information about the participation of Russian representatives in the organization of a certain "private flight" to Russia.
"Any export "projects" in the current conditions can be successfully implemented only based on the results of detailed study of the issue by all relevant agencies involved, both at the Federal and regional levels," the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Vladimir Gerdo / TASS