OREANDA-NEWS. Tour operators in a number of European countries and neighboring countries began to offer customers a new type of tourist trip to Russia — «vaccination tours». A trip to Moscow for coronavirus vaccination with hotel accommodation, meals and excursions will cost €1,190.

Preliminary applications have already been submitted by several thousand people, Forbes reports. There is, however, an important caveat: Russia does not vaccinate foreign citizens. Therefore, only those who have a residence permit or a temporary residence permit in the country can get vaccinated.

There are many of them. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, before the pandemic, there were 9-11 million foreigners in the country at one time, in 2020 their number decreased to 6 million. Many who have left for the lockdown period have legitimate reasons to return for vaccination.

Despite the position of the head of «Rospotrebnadzor», Anna Popova, that first of all it is necessary to vaccinate Russian citizens, foreigners still receive the vaccination before and now. Among such people are even foreign diplomats, who were not officially allowed to do this, since Russian vaccines were not recognized anywhere in the European Union at that time. In the Ministry of Health, foreigners who have a residence permit or a temporary residence permit are not denied the right to vaccination, but they also emphasize, that the priority belongs to the citizens of the Russian Federation.