Transfering at SVO, Belarus bound flight
 

So we are thinking about visiting a friend who lives in Minsk (MSQ). The most logical in terms of flight times and distance way to do this is to fly GUW-SVO-MSQ all on SU. Other combinations result in going to AMS, or ALA/TSE and long (12-18 hour) layovers.

Unfortunately, it looks like you need Russian transit visas to transfer to a flight to Belarus as it is treated as a domestic destination. Has anyone had any experience doing this? A complication is that there is a statement that I've seen also that flights heading to Kazakhstan get treated similarly? Will this impact flights originating from Kazakhstan?

If it's relatively straight forward I have no problems doing it, but the last thing I want to do is get stuck in an immigration dispute in Moscow.

I'd start by checking the visa rules in TIMATIC. A visa requirement for transit might make the SVO connection infeasible for you, for example if there's no time to get the visa before your trip.

We have plenty of time, it's drawing board stuff at the moment but checking TIMATIC is a good suggestion.

I'm looking for peoples experiences here - certainly according to all SVO/Russian government websites it should be doable, but not sure if that translates into reality.

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By the way DME website says the following:

Transfer to Republic of Belarus:

Foregeneirs transiting from Belarus to other countries or vice versa need a Russian transit visa.Transit visas can be obtained (provided onwards tickets and visas to destination are shown):

-at any Russian embassy
-at consulate office at DME prior to immigration

http://www.dme.ru/passengers/procedu...trol/passport/

So... effectively on arrival....at DME anyway

Yeah,but I am not sure if the airline will let you board the flight to DME since timatic says TWOV is not valid between RU and BY.

You will definitely need a Russian transit visa to fly to Belarus via Moscow.
Kazakhstan may be a different case depending on the airport

The consulate office BTW, is not immediately obvious. Its on the lower level on the right hand side, before the immigration counters.

( the reason why I know is because last year? a BOM-EWR flight diverted to DME and I found a number of UA crew getting emergency visas for their layover).

So conclusively yes you need one. Has anyone ever done this transfer at SVO? I'm curious how easy it is on the ground.

If you do not have a passport from Belarus or Russia, it is not allowed to cross the border between Russia and Belarus in any way. It is even not allowed if you possess both a Russian and Belarussian (transit) visa.

Its a new and very unfortunate development.

http://www.dw.com/en/eu-citizens-fac...cow/a-36026221

Nothing I could see there refers to air travel however?

The Austrian Foreign ministry has a current warning on their website.
https://www.bmeia.gv.at/reise-aufent.../land/belarus/

A transit through Belarus from or into the Russian Federation is neither possible by land (road or train), nor by air travel.

I would consider an official warning by the Austrian government as a pretty authoritative and reliable source.

The statement is supported by a warning by the German foreign ministry:

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/La...heit_node.html

You may use google translate. The language is pretty clear.

I'm thinking about traveling to Belarus in a few months. And my carrier of choice was Aeroflot, with a stopover in SVO. Hence this news surprised me, but apparently it only applies to EU citizens.

I'm from Ecuador, a country in South America, and AFAIK we have visa-free access to both Russia and Belarus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_r...orian_citizens

Timatic seems to confirm that transiting through Moscow is possible on the way to Belarus.

Check the new rules, starting this week regarding visa rules for European and some other country. Things are changing with "specific" rules when flying to/from Russia.