Russian Tourists Flock to Luxury Resorts in Cuba, Venezuela While Locals Suffer

Russian tourists have begun to return to Cuba and Venezuela through new flight routes after the sanctions imposed following the Ukraine invasion shut them out of European and American airspace.

In Caribbean leftist countries, Russian can once again enjoy amenities that the citizens of these countries can only dream of accessing.

The Russian state-controlled news channel Russia Today (RT) reported on Tuesday that Russia has resumed flights to Cuba through a new 13-hour route after Europe decided to close its airspace to Russian airlines in February. 

The Russian Nordwind Airlines will conduct seven weekly flights to Cuba: four to Varadero, and three to Cayo Coco. These two locations are among Cuba’s most luxurious tourist spots, exclusively reserved for foreigners and out of reach for the nation’s citizens. While Russians have access to these resort destinations, Cubans have faced severe blackouts and severe food and medicine shortages all year, prompting incessant protests against the Castro regime’s six-decade communist rule.

More recently, Cubans have suffered through the effects of the passage of Hurricane Ian that has worsened the nationwide blackouts and left many without homes and supplies, leaving dozens of cities protesting against the regime’s mishandling of the emergency situation. Despite the precarious situation that Cuban citizens are currently going through, the Castro regime has boasted that its tourist destinations and hotels are fully functional.

The Castro regime’s Radio 26 Matanzas celebrated the arrival of Russian tourists through a Facebook post that reads: “After several months of pause, the air routes between both nations have been reactivated with direct flights to Cayo Coco and Varadero.”

The Spain-based Diario de Cuba reported that Russia was the main source of tourists in Cuba in 2021, with over 140,000 Russian citizens vacationing on the island – a number that came to a grinding halt after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted tourists to return home.

In the case of Venezuela, Russia’s ambassador to the Maduro regime, Sergei Mélik-Bagdasárov, informed on Saturday that more than 400 Russian tourists arrived to the South American nation’s Isla Margarita on that day via a Nordwind Airlines flight.

Isla Margarita, an erstwhile insignia tourist destination in Venezuela, had become a prime destination for Russian tourists by January 2022. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the closure of European airspace to Russian airlines, a sizable group of Russian tourists found themselves stranded on Isla Margarita in March, returning to their country through emergency flights from Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

While foreign tourists partake in Isla Margarita’s hotels and amenities, the situation of its inhabitants is similar to that faced by most of the country courtesy of the ruling socialist regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Margarita’s inhabitants face severe running water shortages that can see them go 60 – 80 days without a brief period of rationed supply. By August 2022, the state of Nueva Esparta — which the island is part of — was among the most affected by the 87,178 reported power failures registered during 2022.

Argentine news website Infobae reported on Monday that the Maduro regime seeks to establish five weekly flights with Russia to attain 100,000 tourists by the end of 2022. Due to its inability to travel through European and American airspace, the Nordwind flights go through a “neutral” route.

The Maduro regime still maintains severe Chinese coronavirus travel restrictions, limiting international flights to its allies Turkey, Russia, Cuba, and Iran, as well as Mexico, Bolivia, Panama, Dominican Republic, Spain, Portugal, Saint Vicent and the Grenadines, Brazil, Algeria, Qatar. Flights to and from Colombia are in the process of being reestablished after far-left president Gustavo Petro restored diplomatic ties with the Maduro regime.