For the first time since 2014, Crimea will be connected by cruise communication with a foreign port
For the first time in five years, Crimea will be linked by cruise service to a foreign port. Tours from Sevastopol to Sukhum, Abkhazia, will begin in 2020. This was announced by Rosmorport CEO Andrey Lavrishchev, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
An agreement between Abkhaz Shipping Company and Black Sea Cruises was signed during the investment forum in Sochi. It is planned that the flight will be made by the cruise ship “Prince Vladimir” once a month with a daily stay.
“During 2019, we will prepare organizational and technical issues, and perhaps make one test run. We plan that the flight will be once a month, that is, three regular flights Sochi - Novorossiysk - Yalta - Sevastopol and one Sochi - Sukhum - Novorossiysk. We think this will be a popular flight,” Lavrishchev said.
General Director of Black Sea Cruises Viktor Glukhovshchenko added that the passengers of the liner will undergo passport control while staying in Sochi: “The issue of crossing the border between states is being discussed, we plan that passengers will undergo passport control in Sochi and then continue on to Sukhum without stopping. We want to complete a week-long cruise in time; the stopover in Abkhazia is planned for a day by reducing the stopover in Sevastopol.”
It should be noted that Abkhazia, where the majority of the population are holders of Russian Federation passports, is still formally a foreign country, albeit the closest one. Therefore, the new cruise route will not be available to those who have restrictions on traveling abroad.
For the first time since 2014, Crimea will be connected by cruise service to a foreign port.