Russia closes borders completely over coronavirus pandemic

Russian government announced that all automobile, railroad, waterway and pedestrian border checkpoints will go on complete lockdown starting this week.

According to Russian government officials, the measure is “temporary,” but no indication was provided as to when the border traffic will resume.

The extreme measure goes in effect on Monday and is introduced ‘in order to prevent COVID-19 from spreading across the country’.

The border ban doesn’t apply to diplomats or members of official delegations departing from the country. Russian truck drivers serving international routes, as well as the crews of trains and river vessels, will be able to return home. Exceptions will also be made for the residents of the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, as well as Russian passport holders living in the separatist People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has been recently taking a large-scale effort to tackle the highly contagious disease, which included canceling all regular and charter flights in and out of the country.

MMP