Paul
Goble
Staunton, December 12 – Because of
declining demand and profitability, Russian Railways says it will suspend
passenger train routes beginning on December 14th between the Russian Federation, on the one
hand, and Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, on the other, but it
is not blocking any trains from these countries to Russia.
But a spokesman for the Russian
railway’s daughter company which handles passenger travel said that it was not
eliminating routes between Russia and the following countries: Belarus,
Uzbekistan, Moldova, and Abkhazia. As a result, Russian Rail will maintain five
international trains (top.rbc.ru/society/08/12/2014/5485c586cbb20f7d05c640a3).
If Moscow follows past practice, these
suspensions will last at least throughout 2015, a development that will
significantly reduce the flow of people in both directions and represent yet
another unpacking of the Moscow-centric post-Soviet space as those who seek to
travel between these countries will now have to fly, a much more expensive
option.
Moreover, these suspensions will
exacerbate Moscow’s relationships with countries from which many of its
gastarbeiters are drawn, quite possibly leading to the radicalization of those
now in Moscow and the increasing impoverishment and radicalization of those who
want to seek work in Russia but won’t be able to.
This announcement follows cutbacks
in service between Russia and Ukraine over the past eight months, the result of
Kyiv’s imposition of restrictions on admission to the country of men between 16
and 60, Moscow’s occupation of Crimea, and disagreements over routing and
schedules between the two.
Since March 2014, Russian flights
have bypassed Ukraine, and Aeroflot has suspended service to Kharkhiv and
Dnipropetrovsk. At the same time, Russian railways and airlines have reduced
their schedules within the country, cutting off many smaller and mid-sized
cities from the country’s transportation network.
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