Russian tourists stranded in Asia are running out of cash

NOTHING BREAKS the spell of a beach holiday as abruptly as news that it is impossible to go home, as many Russians know through hard experience. In February tens of thousands of tourists fleeing their country’s bitter winter thawed out in several equator-hugging countries in Asia. But on February 24th their holidays came to a sudden end when Russia invaded Ukraine, spurring many countries to impose sanctions on Russia. Airspace restrictions prompted some airlines, including Russia’s flagship carrier, to cancel flights. Then Visa and Mastercard announced that from March 10th credit cards issued in Russia would no longer work abroad. Cut off from their bank accounts, many Russians struggled to rebook their flights. Some 7,000 are now stuck in Thailand, with 11,500 more in Sri Lanka and more than 19,000 on Bali, an Indonesian island.