Flight with 271 Russians leaves for Moscow

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 2

A special Aeroflot flight with 271 Russians aboard departed from the IGI Airport here on Saturday to Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

Russia has so far extracted 2,282 of its citizens from India.

But in an indication of how daunting the task is for any country to evacuate its citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic, over 3,500 Russians still remain in India after regular international passenger flights were suspended on March 22. Many of the stranded Russians were provided support by Indian offices of Gazprombank, Sberbank, VTB, Rostec, RSK MiG, Russian Railways and Rosatom, according to a Russian embassy release.

While 1,065 Russians left from Delhi, 1,217 left from Goa.

As many as 3,609 remain stranded in India and are awaiting special flights.