Russia who will still visit
 

I terribly regret the conflict. As a Russophile & admirer of their art collections and opera and classical music stature, I hope to go back. But let us be clear - as guilty as both Russia & Georgia both are, the U.S. is equally guilty & prospect of a major breakout of hostilities over resources in the region is frightening. How could the u.s. hope to put missiles on the borders of Russia - which brought on the Cuban M. Crisis- & not cause trouble? Idiotic, cavalier, & provocative. But far worse is Putin. So many of us & Russians had such hopes for him as a leader & he has turned out to be a mad cobra: Very dangerous, money- and power hungry, macho jerk. My increasingly disinclination to travel there is more due to Putin's dangerous behaviour - but that ought not forgive/neutralize the insanity of the U.S. position.

There is an ongoing thread with the same name.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35149675

(The other thread referred to by vjpblovesitaly seems to be closed to further comment.)

Interestingly, I was in Russia on a Viking River Cruise during the time of most of the posts on the "other thread" and found no animosity or feeling of danger at all. I returned home (US) August 20 and only then learned much more about the conflict.

What was interesting while in Russia was to hear the sentiments of the guides toward the US, NATO, and Bush administration reaction to the actions in Georgia. All negative, as you might expect, but fascinating to hear their perspective whether I agree with it or not.

While the guides were negative toward the US and NATO official stands (on this plus the addition of radars and missile capability in Poland announced recently), I felt no animosity against me and fellow tour members or citizens of these countries at all, and definitely felt no danger. (I found the same in China after the US/NATO bombing of their embassy in Belgrade some years ago: hatred of the government but friendship toward the people.)

I personally feel there is no danger in traveling to Russia (but what do I know?), and I always would recommend travel insurance unless one can afford to lose all their investment in a trip and pay for any medical issue that could come up. For instance, a 68-year-old woman on our river boat had a stroke during the cruise and was moved to a Moscow hospital. I don't know the outcome of her condition or what kind of expense might be incurred, but insurance is only prudent when your own personal insurance does not cover potential risk while away.

At any rate, I'm working on a trip report that I hope to post before too long.

K.

I just returned from Russia (Moscow, Golden Ring / St. Petersburg). I strongly urge all to visit but don't expect customer service like over in Canada. I don't want to paint Russia as a bad place because it isn't all. It's just a different way of running things and we need to respect that.

People were awesome and very helpful. I didn't feel unsafe at all.

I'm sure I'll visit but it has dropped fairly low on my priority list.

Kudzu, we would really like to see a trip report. There is a small opportunity that we may be offered an expat package to be stationed in Russia (we both are American citizens).

We go next month on a GCT, Russia Revealed which is a river cruise.

Thinking of adding a few days in St. Petersburg after my home exchange north of Helsinki is finished in August 2009.

I have a friend working in a travel agency that arranges tours to Russia for Americans and she tells me that there has been no decline whatsoever. I guess it makes sense, more people traveled to Russia in a heyday of Cold War...