Moscow: fuel crisis, nightly airspace closures, and a payments gap that now shapes tourist risk
The FCDO continues to advise against all travel to Russia, and the three changes logged since our last Moscow review have made the practical picture worse rather than the political one clearer. The most recent, added 3 July 2026, concerns fuel. By early July the shortage triggered by sustained Ukrainian drone strikes on refining capacity had reached almost every one of Russia's 83 regions, and Moscow filling stations began rationing. Russian crude output in June ran roughly 28 percent below its five-year average. Yandex has opened a queue-tracking layer in Yandex Go and Yandex Zapravki showing which stations actually hold fuel, which is a fair measure of how routine the queues have become. Omsk lifted its caps on 28 July, the first region to do so, so the trend is easing rather than resolved.
For a visitor the fuel crisis is not an abstraction, because it reshapes the taxi market. Yandex Taxi has formally asked regional authorities to raise fuel allocations for drivers, and carriers have complained that petrol near 80 RUB per litre makes app fares unprofitable. Expect surge multipliers to bite harder, and expect more drivers to test a fuel surcharge on top of the app price. That is the mechanism to watch now, rather than the older airport-tout story we already document at Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo.
Airspace is the second change. Moscow's airports -- Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky -- have logged rolling closures through the summer. On the night of 6-7 July Russian officials reported more than 430 drones over the Moscow region, 36 of them approaching the city, with flight restrictions imposed at Sheremetyevo. Restriction bulletins running to 31 July forced Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia into rerouting schemes. Diversion to a regional field rather than outright cancellation is the common outcome, which strands passengers away from the city with no scheduled way back and no consular capacity to help.
Third, guidance for dual British-Russian nationals was added on 13 April. Russia treats dual nationals as Russian citizens only, consular assistance is minimal, and men aged 18 to 30 fall under compulsory military service, where a conscription notice blocks departure. British nationals continue to report questioning about political views at the border, fingerprint and DNA collection, and demands for device data. Detention risk extends to acts committed outside Russia, including expressing support for Ukraine or displaying LGBT+ symbols, which are now classified as extremist symbols.
The payments gap is unchanged but increasingly consequential. Visa and Mastercard do not function anywhere in Russia -- not at Circle Line metro turnstiles, not at the Okhotny Ryad ticket machines, not at ATMs -- and Apple, Google and Samsung Pay are out with them. Settling a transaction in foreign currency is itself illegal. The workable routes are cash brought in and exchanged at a licensed bank, a UnionPay card, or a Mir card obtained in person with a passport, which is free at most banks and available at branches inside the Moscow airports. That gap is precisely what the newer frauds exploit.
Terrorism guidance stands unchanged: attacks are assessed as very likely, aimed at concert venues, tourist sites and transport networks. The March 2024 Crocus City Hall attack killed 145 people. Add to that drink spiking leading to robbery around Tverskaya and Kitay-Gorod nightlife, and methanol poisoning in bootleg spirits.