We have a range of viewpoints from rational assessment (potential sanctions complicating travel) to near hysterical blather (complete with capitals) on the issue.

What we don't have is any evidence. Looking at waytorussia.net, a great source of visa info, I don't see any updates. We have to wait and see.

But, in 2003 when Bush and his lackey Blair and a few others launched a similar invasion of Iraq on spurious grounds of national security, backed up with total lies, opposed my many decent members of the population, did it become dangerous for Iraqis to travel in the West? I don't think so.

When this current war started in 2014 (I remember it clearly as I was about to drive through Luhansk Region into Russia), did it become dangerous for Westerners to visit Russia? Absolutely not. I crossed from Sumy into Russia, skirting the war zone to the north, and never heard anything about it.

Sure, this time is different. It may become very difficult to travel in Russia. It may be that visas are very hard to come by. But people are thinking in too narrow terms. Remember there are probably tens, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians living in the West who have NATO passports and regularly visit Russia to see relatives. That's a strong political lobby. But the idea that you will be at risk simply being in Russia is groundless paranoia. The idea that Russian people will suddenly change from being deeply hospitable to aggressive towards foreginers is pretty offensive, and ludicrous.

There are tens of thousands of Ukrainians living in Russia - have there been any reports of official harassment? Any reports of Westerners being harassed in Russia? Even the Western journalists based there?

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.