From Dubai to Moscow in the middle of Russia-Ukraine war

The Aeroflot cabin crew maintained a Putin-esque poker face when we asked them why our direct flight from Dubai to Moscow had unexpectedly landed in Nizhny Novgorod.

Russia’s sixth-largest city, Nizhny Novgorod nestles at the confluence of two rivers, the Oka and the iconic Volga. A mighty inspiration for some of the greatest Russian writers of all time, the Volga did not stir my imagination when we were facing an anxious wait inside an aircraft stranded at the runway.

Why was our flight diverted to another city? Is Moscow under attack? Have Ukraine’s missiles and drones broken through the Russian capital’s famed air defence system?

Just as an avalanche of intrusive thoughts crossed my mind, a flight attendant finally smiled and informed us that we had received the green light to take off for Moscow.

About 45 minutes later, as the captain instructed the cabin crew to prepare for landing, I looked out of my window seat and watched the sun sink behind the clouds in a surreal mix of grey and gold. The vast green spaces dotted with streetlights and elegant villas below felt like a soothing balm to my mind after a three-hour period of tension and uncertainty on the flight.

The free Wi-Fi at Moscow airport confirmed my fears — the airspace had indeed been temporarily closed after a drone attack was repelled by the Russian defence system.

Are we safe? I asked myself nervously. But before my restless mind could wander off at an airport teeming with people, a game of hide-and-seek broke out between two toddlers, and a security guard looked more than happy to help an elderly woman with her luggage in the immigration queue.

A few feet away, a couple of young girls giggled while stealing a glance at a handsome officer in one of the counters.

Those ordinary human scenes at the airport put me at ease. This was Moscow embracing a nervous traveller, assuring me that I could peacefully roam the streets of a city steeped in rich history.

From drone scare to sweet surprise

Are the Soviet-inspired Putin’s ambitions to turn back the clock bordering on insanity? And has Ukraine been abandoned in a no-man’s-land by its own allies? The complex geopolitical questions could linger in your head if you consume 24/7 news updates and opinion pieces on the world’s leading websites.

But as I leaned back on the back seat of the cab on my way to the hotel, what caught my eye was the ‘Russianisation’ of global giants like Starbucks. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the western corporate exodus from Russia has led to the birth of new chains of food and coffee shops.

The changing corporate landscape was such that it was difficult to escape the Russian Stars Coffee’s logo. Depicting a woman with a star on her head — eerily similar to Starbucks’ famous emblem — Stars Coffee popped up several times during my 45-minute taxi ride from the airport to the hotel.

When I finally arrived at Novotel Kievskaya in the middle of the night, a sweet surprise was awaiting me. Alex, our media team coordinator, gave me a warm hug at the lobby before presenting me with a box of Russian chocolates.

“This is not from our office, this is from me, a token of thanks for coming to my country,” Alex smiled as he bowed his head.

“Now get some sleep, my friend, and see you in the morning. You are going to have an amazing time in Moscow.”

A criminally underrated city

The next morning, after attending a cybersecurity festival at Luzhniki Stadium with a group of journalists from Dubai, we set out for the iconic Red Square in Moscow. As it turned out, the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral are not the only places that evoke a deep sense of admiration and reverence.

It’s impossible to keep the beauty of this city out of your head — its sprawling parks on the banks of the Moskva river, the spotless wide roads lined with the majestic Soviet-era buildings and the grandeur of its underground metro stations where the awe-inspiring paintings and the high-ceiling chandeliers give you the vibe of an opulent exhibition centre.

Launched in 1935, the Moscow Metro is an ageless wonder. “It’s a work of art, you won’t find such majestic metro stations in any other European city,” Alex told us, his face beaming with pride.

The Komsomolskaya metro station in Moscow.

A group of tourists at Kievskaya metro station in Moscow.

The Russian capital also offers a breathtaking blend of old and new as modern skyscrapers live in perfect harmony with the Soviet era monuments and museums.

And yet, unlike the European heavyweights — Paris, Rome, London and Barcelona —Moscow has rarely featured on the bucket list of global travellers.

But Artur Russo is different. A Brazilian national who lived in Russia for two years from 2016 to 2018, Russo couldn’t escape the magnetic appeal of Moscow even after he returned to Sao Paulo.

“I was missing Moscow so much that I started making TikTok videos in Brazil, talking about Russia and this amazing city. The videos eventually became so popular that I had 30,000 people following me on TikTok,” Russo said.

Despite the sanctions on Russia after the Ukraine war, Russo returned to Moscow in 2024 to work as a marketing director.

But what is even more remarkable is that he now makes videos for his Instagram page — Brazilian_in_Russia — to help people change their perception of this giant Eastern European country and its capital city.

Russo zeroed in on one factor when I asked him why Moscow is perhaps the most underrated tourist destination in the world.

Artur Russo, the Brazilian in Russia. 

“I think it’s the Western propaganda. A lot of people from my country visit Europe. But I have rarely met anyone who has visited Moscow or Russia, for that matter, because there is a lot of Western propaganda in Brazil. People form an opinion about some countries based on what the Western media is writing,” Russo said.

“I think the government here (Russia) has also not aggressively promoted the country as a tourist destination. I hope they will do more because it’s an amazingly beautiful country, especially the southern part of Russia.”

Tourism in time of war

While the Russian charm brought Russo back from Brazil despite the raging war, Oleg shares stories about Moscow’s famous monuments with visitors. Like all good tour guides, Oleg is also blessed with a sense of humour. “I know Putin very well,” Oleg said as we gazed admiringly at the Kremlin walls. “It’s another matter that Mr Putin doesn’t know me. I don’t blame him — he never got a chance to meet me!”

But the smile on Oleg’s face faded when I asked him if the tourism industry had taken a hit following the Ukraine War. “It has suffered a lot,” he admitted, blaming the travel advisories of Western countries which warn their citizens about the risk of visiting Russia.

“In the past, we had tourists from so many countries like Australia, America, Canada and other countries from Europe. The summers were very hectic for us. Now we get two or three tourist buses a day at the most.”

Amid the dwindling number of visitors from the West, Oleg has noticed a new trend in his country’s tourism sector. “I don’t know how, but I see more people now from India, China and the Middle East, especially from Egypt. Maybe with direct flights available from most of these countries, they are now finding it easier to come to Russia, and it’s probably cheaper for them as well,” he said as a group of Moroccan tourists posed for a selfie with the luminous St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background.

Dubai resident Natalia Pankina, the first Russian woman to complete the solo English Channel swim in 2007, was also surprised to see tourists from the Middle East flocking to Moscow’s historic places.

“I saw many Emiratis and people from other Gulf countries in Moscow when I went to my country last year. I was so happy to see them, especially the Emiratis,” Pankina said.

A city that makes you feel safe

What is also fascinating to see in Moscow is the ease with which Muscovites go about their lives and the sense of security you feel even while walking alone on the streets in the middle of the night.

For a resident of Dubai, widely hailed as the safest city on the planet, it was surreal to feel the same sense of calm in a country in the middle of a deadly war.

Russo, who lives in Moscow with his Russian girlfriend, Alina, has visited several countries in western Europe, which traditionally draw more tourists every year. But he never felt safe in any of those places, including the metro stations in cities like Paris. “That’s why I started to post videos on Instagram to show the real Russia, where people actually feel safe. A lot of people from countries like America and Germany have made very positive comments after watching my videos,” he said. “It’s very important to show that because people think of Russia as a country which is very dangerous. So I decided to show the truth. It’s a very safe country, you can walk here all night long — even if you have an iPhone, no one will touch you. That’s why I’d love to live here all my life.”

For someone who had a hard time convincing friends in the UAE that ‘people with horns on their heads’ don’t live in her native country, Pankina gets goosebumps when she hears positive things about Russia from foreigners like Russo.

“Many of my friends in Dubai wanted to go to Russia for the 2018 Fifa World Cup, but they were scared because they had seen reports in the media that Russia is not a good country, Russians are not nice people, that it’s a dangerous place to go,” Pankina recalled.

“But when they went there eventually (for the World Cup), they absolutely loved the country. They went to so many cities — they took the trains to go from one city to another, and they faced no problem at all. They told me that all the stories they had seen in the media (before the start of the 2018 World Cup) were a big lie!”

Echoes of Lennon

As we emerged from a metro station on our last day in Moscow, the sun was beginning to sink behind the city’s skyline. A group of young soldiers were sitting on a bench. Puffing on cigarettes, they looked on as the cobbled streets were bursting with life. What they saw was not the scar of a war, only happy faces strolling beneath beautifully decorated streetlamps. A few yards away, five teenage girls were dancing in tandem in what appeared to be an attempt to make the perfect Insta reel.

“They are enjoying a short break before they return to their base,” Oleg smiled again, pointing to the soldiers who were quietly watching the girls dance away to glory.

But I failed to see even a hint of enjoyment on their faces. Their hauntingly blank expression had echoes of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ as I wondered if these young men could ever dream of flying high above the man-made borders to enjoy the sunset from a window seat.

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