The Russian Foreign Ministry plans to return tourists stuck in Heihe through other checkpoints

Russian citizens stuck on the border with China are planning to be returned home by plane or through other border crossings, it was reported “RIA News” with reference to a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia wrote on November 7 in Telegram channelthat there are about 300 Russians at the checkpoint between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe.

“Currently, the government of the Amur region is actively working on alternative routes for organizing passenger transportation,” said the agency’s interlocutor.

The ministry added that the Russian Consulate General in Harbin “is aware of the situation and is closely monitoring it.” Most of the tourists stuck at the checkpoint, as RIA Novosti’s interlocutor said, arrived in China without visas as part of tourist groups.

The border checkpoint closest to Blagoveshchensk, according to data Rosgranstroy, located in the village of Poyarkovo, the adjacent checkpoint in China is Xunke. From Blagoveshchensk to Poyarkovo – 159 km.

The problem with crossing the border at the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe checkpoint is caused by the “difficult hydrological situation on the Amur” and “insufficient transport capabilities,” the agency’s source explained. How noted tourists, problems with passenger transportation at the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe checkpoint began on Friday, November 3. Then the motor ship from Blagoveshchensk (the last one in this navigation) could not land on the Chinese coast due to ice. The people were transferred to a Chinese ship. Then the authorities of the Amur region announced that passenger transportation on this day was canceled due to the difficult hydrological situation. The next day, November 4, hovercraft (hovercraft) joined the transportation, but they could not transport all the passengers who had accumulated at the checkpoint in Heihe: one of the two hovercrafts broke down, and on the remaining one they could only transport about ten passengers.

Government of the Amur Region in Telegram channel reported the day before that passenger transportation continues daily and on November 8, 84 people returned to Russian territory. China, as stated in the material, “provides assistance” in the return of Russians to Blagoveshchensk. The regional government recommended refraining from traveling to China in the near future.

Petr Buzlaev