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Coronavirus pandemic

Around 600 Russians repatriated from France, requests keep coming, says envoy

The Russian envoy also underscored that Paris turned into a hub to transport Russians from countries that do not have a direct air travel route with Russia

MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. Around 600 Russian citizens have managed to return to Russia from France aboard special repatriation flights, but requests are still coming in, Russian Ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director-General Mikhail Gusman.

"There were two flights in May and two flights in June. We are now preparing a flight on June 19. Around 600 people were repatriated," he said, adding that there are still people seeking help. "We are providing assistance in the airport. However, only through the embassy itself we managed to send home around 133 people due to various humanitarian cases," the envoy stressed. Meshkov also noted that the number of people looking to return home is constantly changing, "a few hundreds of people are still interested in it."

The diplomat emphasized that starting from March 8 when the lockdown still wasn’t in effect, the embassy tried to warn Russians that the direct air travel could be suspended "sooner or later". According to him, these calls prompted Russians to leave France back in March "in the first and biggest wave." "However, life keeps going, people find themselves in different situations. We should not forget that there were also students who wanted to finish studies and have time to pass exams before returning home, a multitude of life situations," Meshkov added.

The Russian envoy also underscored that Paris turned into "a hub to transport Russians from countries that do not have a direct [air] travel route with Russia.".

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