Russia has become one of the few countries slapped with a brand-new “risk indicator” in the US State Department travel advisories. Russian security services have “singled out US citizens” for “detention and … harassment,” the state department warned on Tuesday in its fresh advisory update.
The US has given Russia the highest possible risk level: “Do not travel.” Americans “residing or traveling in Russia should depart Russia immediately,” the state department said.
The list of reasons one should not even consider going to Russia included Moscow’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine, which Washington called an “unprovoked and unjustified invasion” as well as supposedly “arbitrary enforcement of local law,” Covid-19 restrictions and even “terrorism.”
Now, Washington also says that Americans traveling to Russia might face targeted persecution by local security services. “There is the potential throughout Russia of harassment of foreigners, including through regulations targeted specifically against foreigners,” the travel advisory said, adding that both former and current government officials and private citizens alike might all “become victims of harassment, mistreatment, and extortion.”