Egypt: New travel restrictions to Russia and Ukraine

Egyptian authorities have started applying new regulations for travel to Russia and Ukraine, according to The New Arab.

These include mandatory approval from the security establishment for citizens who want to travel to the two countries.

They come in the wake of warnings by lawmakers and security experts against the possible recruitment of Egyptian nationals in the militaries of both countries.

A Russian embassy source confirmed earlier this month the application by Egyptian authorities of new regulations to the travel of Egyptians to Russia.

The warnings of parliamentarians came after a Ukrainian journalist published a video last month in which he interviewed an Egyptian national who was taken hostage by Ukrainian troops while fighting alongside the Russian army.

In the interview, the Egyptian national says he went to jail in Russia for working illegally to pay his university fees.

In jail, he said, he was tempted to sign a contract to join the Russian army in return for his release and obtaining Russian citizenship.

Ibrahim al-Masri, a member of the Committee on Defence and National Security in the Egyptian parliament, commented, “The new regulations are important for the protection of Egypt’s national security”.

He added, “Some Egyptian students become prey for temptations, which quickly turns them into mercenaries involved in proxy wars”

These regulations include more stringent measures for the issuance by Egyptian authorities of travel permissions to Russia.

The same Russian embassy source added that the Russian Ministry of Defense usually handles deaths among soldiers with dual nationalities, including communication with their families back home.

He added that the embassy does not directly deal with this issue.

Egypt does not have an estimate of the number of its nationals involved in the Russian-Ukrainian war now.

However, observers express fears that this number can be in the hundreds or the thousands, given the difficulties some Egyptian students might be facing in paying their study fees in Russian universities and academic institutions.

In 2022, around 50,000 Egyptians lived, worked and studied in different cities in Russia.

Egypt has attempted to stay neutral since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The Russian-Ukrainian war has had a heavy effect on the Egyptian economy and tourist inflows into the Arab country, given the fact that Russians and Ukrainians used to constitute a sizeable amount of the tourists visiting the Arab country every year.

The New Arab