Tourists have been stopped from disembarking a Silversea cruise ship in the Bay of Providence in Russia.
It has been claimed that the British, German, Australian and US tourists have had to remain on board the Silver Discoverer ship at Provideniya, under orders from Moscow, although the exact reasons are not yet known.
The Siberian Times has quoted tour organiser Alexey Frolov, general director of Pacific Network, as saying that the “majority of our guests are from America. All of the tourists have visas and the cruise was agreed with the government in Russia.
“But none of the passengers can go ashore because the border authorities do not permit them to do so. Allegedly there was an order from Moscow not to let the foreigners off the boat.”
All of the travellers, most of who are in their 70’s, have tourist visas, according to Frolov, but the local FSB (Russian security) will not allow them to enter.
However, the FSB press service contradicted the claims telling Russian website Lenta.ru that the passengers lacked the necessary paperwork.
The same office told LifeNews website that the border authorities acted according to the law, as there were no permits issued for the visitors.
The vessel had applied for permission to leave the waters of Russian Federation, which meant that the programme for the tourists was cut from four days to one.