Russian tourists who want to wait out the crisis or just spend the winter in Sri Lanka, got “out of the fire into the frying pan”: the financial and food crisis is spreading around the world, and after it mass protests “light up”, when on the island of Ceylon (the former name of Sri Lanka) this began to manifest itself especially sharply: disasters and mass protests.
“The prices of basic commodities, including milk and rice, have skyrocketed, and people are forced to stand in long lines to replenish fuel supplies. Energy supply in various regions of the country has also suffered greatly. It is not possible to hold exams in schools due to lack of paper. Essential goods have become unavailable due to inflation,” Sri Lankan publications describe the situation. Local residents either flee to India or go out to protest.
“Almost certainly the price of rice will reach 500 rupees (Sri Lankan) per kg in a week. Today it is 290 rupees/kg of rice, 290 rupees/kg of sugar, and 790 rupees for 400 grams of powdered milk,” say those who fled to India. For understanding, at the moment, 1000 rupees is about 3.5 dollars. At the same time, the inflation rate in February showed 15.1% and was the highest in Asia. Food inflation even reached 25.7%.
“Sri Lanka has been struggling to find dollars to pay for increasingly expensive fuel supplies since January, and its foreign exchange reserves have fallen to $2.31 billion,” Reuters says. “From the ground” the information is confirmed on their channel in Yandex.Zen by Russian “winterers”: “The problem with fuel in Sri Lanka is now more relevant than ever. “Gasoline is over, you need to go to another gas station, 20 kilometers from here” – we also managed to feel the problem ourselves. We approach the gas station and see kilometer-long queues, people with canisters ready to wait for hours … And at some gas stations of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation even law enforcement officers began to appear, as the locals begin to lose patience, ”they say. According to Russian tourists, a liter of gasoline here costs about 250 rupees, with our money it is 100 rubles, “for the locals it’s a huge amount, everyone complains that fuel has become very expensive,” they write.
At the same time, local residents not only are they fleeing – protests are also flaring up in the country. Many kilometers of queues for gasoline, as expats mention, lead to the fact that armed guards are on duty at gas stations – but the local people are already losing their patience. Protesters take to the streets demanding the resignation of the government.
In this regard, the warning sounded by Russian tour operators in connection with the proposed launch of flights to Sri Lanka from Aeroflot looks very relevant. “Currently, no one can guarantee whether a particular flight will fly. But, of course, we warn tourists that the situation in aviation is not easy now, ”explained the press service of the Intourist company.
Recall, theoretically, Aeroflot planned to launch a flight program to Sri Lanka on April 8. However, experts express doubts that this will succeed. The head of the Space Travel tour operator Artur Muradyan put it this way: “In order to fly to Sri Lanka, a long-haul fleet is required, and there are enormous problems with it. Foreign aircraft requisitioned by Russia will not be able to fly for a long time without proper hardware and software,” he said. However, in such a situation on the ground – perhaps if the program “does not take off” – it is for the best …
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