Number of Russian visitors in Phuket instantly drops, Phuket struggles to find solutions for hundreds of stranded tourists with no access to funds due to sanctions

[wwest5829]

Interesting and rather amusing reading the article wording. The cause of the lack of air travel? Western sanctions? Ok, but let us not confuse the root CAUSE and that very clearly was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation under international law. Here is hoping that Putin, et.al. feel the full brunt of the decision to invade. I stand with the Ukrainian citizens defending their country in the streets ... and I stand with the Russian citizens subjecting themselves to beatings/arrest by protesting the invasion by taking to the streets in Russia.

[wwest5829]

8 hours ago, steven100 said:

These stranded rusky's should tell their embassy in BKK to call Putin's rich Oligarch's .....and have them bring their  $200Million dollar yachts over and pick them up on the beach.  

 

 

Sorry, I am reading that some of the yachts have been seized, at least in Italy due to the sanctions.

[Almer]

8 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Great news, I am checking flights to Phuket now.

Agreed, see you there.

[ourmanflint]

Trans Siberian Express must still be working. Flight to Beijing and jump on that home

[wwest5829]

6 hours ago, steven100 said:

wrong,  it's not only the russian government.. it's also the millions of russian's who did nothing to oppose the murderous regime for the past decade,  it's the millions of russian's who support Putin and his filthy Oligarchs getting richer by the day.  It's the millions of russians who are so gullible to this murderous regimes TV propergander tactics. 

It does beg the question whether it is to be blamed on any county's government, or whether it is the citizens in each country that bears the ultimate responsibility. Russians currently protesting in the streets certainly are demonstrating not being in agreement with Putin, et. al. Yes, I hold my own country's citizens responsible for wrongful government actions (of which there are many examples). Still, I had no difficulty of demanding severe punishment for Afghanistan for allowing the training camps for those who attacked the US. I do not propose that I know where to draw any lines but there is a recognized mixing of responsibility with "government" and the citizenry.

[steven100]

1 minute ago, wwest5829 said:

Sorry, I am reading that some of the yachts have been seized, at least in Italy due to the sanctions.

yes that's correct ,   and others were moving around faster than Muhammed Ali boxing Joe Frazier .

I am skeptical that the US, UK and whoever else can actual seize these yachts, mansions, apartments,  castles, Ferrari's and the rest as it will obviously all be in company names, wife's names,  cousins names,  next door neighbor's names  etc .....   and usually a house or property can't be seized if it's not in the criminals name or family.   Maybe i'm not correct on the legality of this.   I mean i'm sure these rich guys have paid a Lawyer to tell them what to do with their assets .

[Eloquent pilgrim]

3 hours ago, crazykopite said:

They did, breaking that treaty which Russia allowed to slide ..... but not without objection.

What treaty ?

 

Name of the treaty, where it was signed, and the names of the signatories please

[norfolkandchance]

16 minutes ago, Almer said:

Agreed, see you there.

Don’t bother. Just returned. It’s <deleted>.

[fdsa]

@steven100 are brainwashed people guilty for being brainwashed?

Should there be a law stating that if a person is susceptible to propaganda then they must be executed?

[itsari]

13 minutes ago, wwest5829 said:

It does beg the question whether it is to be blamed on any county's government, or whether it is the citizens in each country that bears the ultimate responsibility. Russians currently protesting in the streets certainly are demonstrating not being in agreement with Putin, et. al. Yes, I hold my own country's citizens responsible for wrongful government actions (of which there are many examples). Still, I had no difficulty of demanding severe punishment for Afghanistan for allowing the training camps for those who attacked the US. I do not propose that I know where to draw any lines but there is a recognized mixing of responsibility with "government" and the citizenry.

You advocate a Russian revolution as in 1917 

I think if the west keeps the economic pressure on Russia that could well be reality

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

I think that Cyprus is now the place they prefer tostash some Money.

has been for several Years now.

I don't know, it's all Greek to me.

[Ricebarnandrooms]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Two airlines from Russia have paused their services to other areas including Phuket

Most of the aircraft in Russia are leased. They also won’t be able to service the Aircraft or pay the leases. Airlines must return the planes to the leasing companies if they don’t then the planes will be repossessed when they land abroad.
kiss goodbye to Russia.  

[wwest5829]

2 minutes ago, itsari said:

You advocate a Russian revolution as in 1917 

I think if the west keeps the economic pressure on Russia that could well be reality

Well, not as in 1917 but ... let us call it a radical "adjustment" away from authoritarianism as embodied by Vlad, et. al. He is not alone in the world but, sticking to the current issue ...

[wwest5829]

3 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

I don't know, it's all Greek to me.

The Turks are not going to be pleased with your statement!

[steven100]

10 minutes ago, Ricebarnandrooms said:

Most of the aircraft in Russia are leased. They also won’t be able to service the Aircraft or pay the leases. Airlines must return the planes to the leasing companies if they don’t then the planes will be repossessed when they land abroad.
kiss goodbye to Russia.  

Not only has Europe banned Russian planes from its airspace, European sanctions mean that Russian airlines face repossession of more than half of their planes. That’s because they’re leased and those leases become illegal, and void.

The problem is, according to Air Insight Group and Ernest Arvai,

 

• 236 planes need to be repossessed. In one month.

   

   

• If the airlines are willing to return the planes, where do they go? They can’t fly to Europe. They can go to the Mideast, for instance Dubai, where lessors can collect and store them.

   

   

• But Russian airlines may not return the planes. If you can get crew into Russia to repossess the planes “there simply aren’t enough repossession crews in the world to be able to retrieve all of these aircraft in the” time remaining.

[DjSilver]

Good to see the Russians cut off from the rest of the world. It's the only way to get rid of Putin, when they realize they can't do anything outside if Russia or get products from outside of Russia.

[a340bangla1]

4 hours ago, IamNoone88 said:

Nato has a short memory as well. Under the Minsk Agreement, after the break up of the Soviet Union, they were not meant to expand into Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. They did, breaking that treaty which Russia allowed to slide ..... but not without objection.

 

Nato and Europe then, having taken an inch, wanted to take the full yard and pushed for Ukraine to join and that was always a red line for Russian .... yet they kept pushing. Putin warned and warned again ...... you don't poke the bear. If the Minsk Agreement was observed by Nato, then it may be a different outcome today than the sh1tfight we have now.

 

 

I think you are somewhat mixing up history here.

 

The Minsk agreements were made in 2014 (Minsk Protocol) and 2015 (Minsk II) and had nothing at all to do with a possible eastward extension of NATO (or inclusion of Ukraine). It was all about stopping the fighting in the contested territories of Eastern Ukraine. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements)

 

What you might have been thinking about are the Budapest accords (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances)  which were made in 1993, which were made when Ukraine (and others) gave up their nuclear weapons - to Russia, by the way. Some claim that during that time reassurances were given to Russia that NATO would not attempt extension towards the East. It would not have made sense anyway - those countries that Putin is now so upset about promises having been broken were still members of the Eastern Block in those days. The Iron Curtain ran east of the German border.

 

It is worthwhile to remember that all those countries you mentioned applied to be members of NATO of their own free will. Nobody forced them. And you forgot Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Croatia.

 

As far as membership of Ukraine is concerned, I remember there was some discussion on that subject at one of the Munich Security Conferences (do not remember the year), which was strongly opposed by then German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

I am not saying you are wrong, but in both cases going by the news reports, innocent women and children were slaughtered, so there can be n excuse for that.

To that end I agree. Loss of innocent lives is reprehensible at best and avoidable unless they are being used as human shields, in that case they become collateral damage and is felt deeply within those that took the lives unless it was indiscriminate bombings.

[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

“The reason that they have paused is because of European and American sanctions which caused airplane rental contracts to be paused too. Some ticket booking system companies have stopped their services. Airspace has been restricted and limited in conflict areas of Ukraine and Russia. So these make ticket bookings more difficult if not outright impossible for citizens of both countries

Also with the dramatic drop in the Ruble value they might have to sell the family tank to afford a flight.

[KhaoYai]

6 hours ago, smedly said:

well you can say all you want but I don't think Putin would have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still in the Whitehouse - I'd be willing to put money on that

You really think Putin was Trump's buddy?  Putin was using him, he lies constantly (they , in fact he both do) lives in a fantasy world of his own but he hates America, always has, always will - he doesn't care who's in charge.  All he was doing with Trump was finding ways to get closer and closer - entirely for his own purposes.

 

The fact that Putin and Trump have some things in common - like lies, making billions in dubious ways and get drunk on power + talk sh*t, made them a pretty good match.

Edited March 8, 2022 by KhaoYai

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, Victornoir said:

For the record, no country in the world has declared as much wars as the USA.

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States

Wars always legal since they are the ones who decide.

As for the civilian victms, I don't know without it but we all can see the soldiers decents in the front of the bold and proud civilians who ask them to return home.

As an American, I can say our foreign policy has been poor. Alot of unnecessary wars and aggression, no doubt. Vietnam being the worst. 

 

However, that does not excuse the current behavior of the dictator. He is heinous, he is dangerous, and he needs to be stopped. 

[PETERTHEEATER]

9 hours ago, Thunglom said:

Russia's only real currency now is fossil fuel.

What about the fossil fool in the Kremlin?

[friendofthai]

I think you should help Russian tourists. We all know that your countries need cheap gas and oil desperately. Let`s make a friendly step forward!

[pagallim]

1 hour ago, fdsa said:

 

2) Also Biden & friends do not understand why there is such a heavy support of Putin. It is quite simple: a massive amount of russians have never been abroad, 70% of russians do not have a passport at all. So they've never seen a life outside Russia and do not know what a life with a normal government looks like. So they believe the television and internet propaganda, that Europe is bad and Russia is strong, etc, because they've never seen how things really look like.

 

This is equally applicable to the US.   A surprising number have not only not travelled outside the US, there are many who have not ventured outside their own State.

[Rimmer]

A troll/baiting/inflammatory post and replies have been removed

[slonopotam]

Russian here.

This is not the first time I read incorrect IMO generalizations on this forum, so I decided to clarify a bit.

There is a very wide range of opinions in Russian society about Putin and the war, but in general, more educated and wealthy Russians are strongly opposed to what is happening. And it is the people from this stratum who travel more often and use foreign goods and services, and it was they who were hit the hardest by the sanctions. A typical Putin supporter sits at home watching TV and does not go to Thailand (and never been abroad at all), little will change for him.

Many Russians would not like to return to Russia now - those who have the opportunity are looking for options to stay. Many have foreign currency savings and / or income in foreign currency. The situation with the blocking of bank cards outside of Russia has made it difficult to stay in Thailand, but there are many options to get around this blocking. My colleagues, for example, are going from Moscow to Thailand in the near future for an indefinite period in order to be away from the military psychosis.
 

As for the Russians, who did nothing to stop Putin, this statement is for some reason repeated uncritically over and over again. There has been an active protest movement in Russia for the last 11 years, it is risky to participate in it and many have suffered in one way or another, but the struggle continues. If you think it was worth just trying a little better and overthrow Putin - welcome, you can also try to come to Moscow and personally participate in these attempts, maybe after that you will understand our situation a little better.
 

Sorry for the long post.

[Ricebarnandrooms]

4 minutes ago, slonopotam said:

Russian here.

What Russian people should worry about is, and also ask themselves. Putin has more money than he could ever spend, absolute power and getting old. Perhaps he wants to go out with a bang, and it would be a very Big Bang. Also when you corner a rat it will attack you. This is going to go really bad in short order. 

[onthedarkside]

Several off-topic and trolling posts have been removed, along with replies.

 

[Ricebarnandrooms]

11 hours ago, pomchop said:

How many stranded Russians are in Thailand now?  Do they even want to return to Russia?  It is not Thailand's responsibility to house and feed them indefinitely.

Why are all the posts concerned with Russians stuck here?? Nobody has asked how many Ukrainian are stuck here with nowhere to go!!!

Russian embassy will help Russians how about we help the Ukrainian families with no money and unable to survive here. How about us hotel owners stepping forward with accommodation for them. The rooms are empty anyway. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

24 minutes ago, slonopotam said:

There is a very wide range of opinions in Russian society about Putin and the war,

 

Thanks for the serious, thoughtful perspective on the current situation. It sounds like a realistic assessment of the situation in Russia, as opposed to some other posters here parroting the Russian government propaganda playbook.