The Kyrgyz authorities have offered the Russian side to restore the railway passenger service, which was suspended last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the press service of the republic's ministry of foreign affairs, foreign trade and investment told TASS on Thursday.
"The Kyrgyz side has presented a schedule of railway trips to the Russian Federation in case there is an agreement to lift the restrictions. The plan is to run a passenger train twice a week en route Bishkek - Moscow, once a week en route Bishkek - Kazan, and once every eight days en route Bishkek - Novosibirsk," said a representative of the press service.
Since Kyrgyz trains can only get to Russian territory through Kazakhstan, Bishkek is negotiating with the Kazakh side "to resume the former passenger transit rail traffic." "Due to the epidemiological situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan, in accordance with the order of crossing Kazakhstan state border for the period of quarantine restrictions of May 13, 2020, now it is impossible to travel through the territory of Kazakhstan by land and rail transport," reminded the foreign ministry. For this reason, citizens of Kyrgyzstan, including migrant workers, can come to Russia only by air. In this situation, the countries have managed to agree to increase the number of flights.
"Citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic traveling to Russia, including for working purposes, use air transport, in particular regular and charter flights. There are flights from Manas (Bishkek), Osh (Osh) and Issyk-Kul (Tamchy) international airports to Moscow, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Irkutsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Perm, Orenburg, Krasnodar, Kemerovo, Barnaul, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Orsk, Tomsk, Novokuznetsk, Ufa, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Surgut and Rostov-on-Don," - stressed the Kyrgyz foreign ministry.
Freight rail traffic between the two countries has not been interrupted.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS