The restrictions will be lifted against flights to a number of Arab countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Tunisia, the Russian authorities said.

Other countries include Argentina, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Venezuela, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Israel, India, Indonesia, Kenya, China, North Korea, Costa Rica, Lesotho, Mauritius, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mozambique, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Pakistan, Peru, Seychelles, Serbia, Thailand, Tanzania, Turkey, Uruguay, Fiji, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Jamaica.

Russia has imposed travel restrictions since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. It updates its lists of countries deemed safe for air travel periodically.

Moscow has recently closed its air space for European Union airlines and flights from nine other countries in response to sanctions imposed on its aviation sector as a result of its incursion into Ukraine.

Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, two Russian airlines – Aeroflot and Ural Airlines – have recently suspended flights to and from Egypt and several other countries due to the “circumstances that prevent the performance of flights."

Egypt was one of the three most popular destinations for Russian tourists before the crash of a Russian airliner over Sinai in 2015. 

Some 3.3 million Russians visited Egypt’s Red Sea resorts in 2014.

In 2018, Russia resumed flights to Cairo and in July 2021 lifted a flight ban on the popular Red Sea tourist cities of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh.

According to Russian Ambassador to Egypt Georgy Borisenko, about 125,000 Russian tourists visited Egypt during the first two weeks of 2022. Some 700,000 Russian tourists visited Egypt in 2021.