“Thrown back to colonial times”: Russian “whites only” parties in Sri Lanka turned into a big problem

From April 1, Sri Lanka will stop issuing free visas to Russian citizens. Russian relocants who have settled on the island for a long time are sure that they were set up by their compatriots.

We found out the causes and effects first hand.

The official reason for the cancellation of free visas is the completion of the “test visa-free campaign” on March 31, aimed at attracting tourist traffic to the island. Although, when accepting this project in the fall of 2023, the Sri authorities expected to make the “visa-free” regime permanent for Russians after a five-month trial period.

What’s the matter? After all, Russian tourists seem to have justified the “free trial” brilliantly, increasing the foreign tourist flow to the crisis-ridden state by as much as 15%. According to the Sri Lankan tourism industry, starting in November, more than 30 thousand Russian tourists from the Russian Federation arrived on the island every month. Nevertheless, the Minister of Public Security of Sri Lanka, Mr. Alles, already firmly stated in early March that the visa-free regime for Russians would not be extended. That is, for you and me, the visa rules that existed before November of last year are returning: from April 1, only children under 12 years old will be able to get a free visa from Sri; for everyone else, an entry stamp will cost $50-60, depending on the method of registration (upon arrival or in advance via the Internet).

“The government has decided to complete the project,” the Sri Lankan partners of the Russian travel agency answer dryly. – This was a test and, apparently, did not pay off.

At the Russian Embassy in Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka. – Auto.) compatriots are consoled by the fact that visa fees were returned not only to us, but also to citizens of China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan, who were also “tested” with the opportunity to enter a tropical island without a visa. But Russian relocants, not burdened by protocol restrictions, have their own version of what is happening.

“Since November, to get a Sri visa, you just had to submit an application on the website, you don’t pay a single rupee, it’s automatically renewed for three months,” explains Artem from Balashikha, who has been living in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka for the third year. – For “package travelers” (short-term tourists. – Auto.) this only means that they save $50-60, and if they suddenly decide to enter the country again within the next 3 months, then they do not need a new visa: a three-month visa requires multiple entries. But for us, the relocants, this is just a royal gift, since the visaran from the island is a whole problem, and not a cheap one. You can’t get away with a border here.

The so-called “visaran” – traveling outside the country in order to obtain a new visa upon entry – in the conditions of the island is complicated by the fact that it cannot, as in other countries, limit itself to a “border” (aka borderrun) – a one-day trip to the nearest land border .

“Sri needs to fly to India or the Maldives, which is not cheap,” explains Artem. – There are no other neighbors. Further in the west of Somalia, in the east of Bali – that is, a visa extension costs a penny, that is, a rupee. That’s why there were few of us permanently living in Sri, although life here is cheap. But a whole Russian community swooped in on the visa-free route: it began to grow in size in November, and by February it became the largest on the island. Centered in Unawatuna. And instead of sitting quietly, they ruined everything.

Artem, like most of his compatriots on the island, is not eager to blame any of his fellow citizens specifically for the “failure of the test visa-free regime.” But at the same time, the majority of relocants are confident that “the visa-free regime has failed Russian business.” And it was so loud that even the Russian Embassy had to intervene. Although, to be fair, both the Sri Lankan and Russian sides did not stir up the scandal, but, on the contrary, quickly hushed it up. Although under other circumstances it could have become international.

“There is a Russian club in Unawatuna,” says a 23-year-old Sinhalese woman (indigenous population of Sri Lanka. – Auto.) Nandasiri is from a village neighboring this resort town. – It’s considered fashionable here, young people go there, those whose parents let them go. They have a page on social networks where announcements about parties are in English and Sinhala. DJs are from Britain and Russia. We are following the announcements. Or rather, they were watching…

With all the Sinhalese delicacy, Nandasiri does not specify why in the past tense. But her father Lalkumar does it for her:

– On February 23, the Russians had some kind of holiday, and the Russian club announced a party. I let my daughter go there if she is with her older brothers and my sons are 25 and 28. Then I am calm for her. My daughter told me that almost everyone in this club is European. On February 22, she also got ready to go there and chose a dress. And then the son saw that at the bottom of the announcement it was written: “Entrance for whites only.” We haven’t seen anything like this since the days of the British colonialists! They just threw us back a couple of centuries!

The said club, which actually belongs to Russians, claims that they simply “rented out the premises for a party with such a dress code.” And its announcement with the indication “whites only” was seen on social networks by Unawatuna Sinhalese businessman Rukmankan Sivaloganathan. But he didn’t immediately raise a scandal, but wrote to the organizer with a request to clarify “the details of the dress code.” And I received a direct answer: “entrance is for white people only, no locals.” The offended Sri Lankan citizen posted a screenshot of this correspondence on his page on social networks, from where it went viral on the World Wide Web and received the memes “Russian white party” and “racist club.”

After which the influential Sri Lankan businessman Heshan Da Silva wrote a post on his page on social networks, which already in the first hour received almost 3 thousand “likes”, “shares” and angry comments from Sri citizens. “Today we learned,” Da Silva wrote, “that “face control” means that if your face is any color other than white, you are not allowed here. Remember, establishment owners, it doesn’t matter that you are foreigners, banning entry just because of the color of your skin is not the policy of the establishment, but genuine racism.”

After which the owners of the establishment not only had to cancel their “white party” by publicly apologizing, but even the Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka had to apologize, expressing official condemnation of the behavior of their fellow citizens. The Russian owners of the club published a letter of exculpation, and demanded that the organizer of the party, a Russian informal DJ, immediately leave the island. Everything seemed to have settled down, but a sediment remained. And it is possible that the return of entry fees is just the “smoke” from this “white” fire.