Special Report: What really happen to Russians in Bali?

Zhestkove Andrei paraded before media. (kanalbali/LSU)

Zhestkov Andrei bows his head down. No word. The Russian man said nothing when he was paraded in front of media at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali, in March.

Aside from the fact that he could not speak English well, Andrei was also seen depressed as he is facing up to 5 years imprisonment. That is because he had tried to smuggle an Orangutan out of Bali.

He was caught at the airport’s departure gate with the drugged Orangutan inside his suitcase. Now, Andrei must stay in Bali longer to serve his sentence, violating law article 21 subsection 2 of the conservation of the living natural resources law.

“He said that he brought the Orangutan from Java.” said Denpasar Police chief Ruddi Setiawan.

Andrei is added onto the list of Russians with negative behaviour in Bali. Previously, in early March, four Russians have also been arrested for violent robbery. Two Russians, Georgil Zhukov dan Robert Haupt were arrested, and another Russian Alexei Korotkikh was shot to death for resisting arrest.

Unfortunately, the police failed to arrest one other Russian on the raid. The man allegedly possesses a rifle. “We are sure that he is still in Bali. We have heigthened alert in all gates of Bali, including Padangbai seaport, Gilimanuk seaport, and the I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport,” Ruddi said.

The Russian after escape in panic from rumbling volcano. (ist)

Russians had also been troublesomed to people living around Mount Agung, Karangasem, especially Mount Agung volunteers and search and rescue team. Many Russians hike up the rumbling volcano despite strict prohibition. Mount Agung has been internationally declared as a prohibited area for hiking activity since 2017, when the volcanic activity started to increase. Not only for tourists, even local people are also warned to stay away from the danger zone, a radius within 4 km from the crater.

Earlier this year, a small group of Russians have carelessly hike up the volcano. Their video of escape in panic from the mountain, as its spewing ash, goes viral in social media.

The bad notes over Russians misbehaving in Bali, however, is in line with the increasing number of Russian nationals visiting the resort island in the last two years.

“There has been a recovery of Russian tourists visiting Bali since 2017, after it had significantly decreased because of their currency drop” said Gilda Sagrado from Bali’s tourism promotion board.

The number of Russians visited Bali reached 111,878 in 2018, or around 85 percent of total number of Russians visiting Indonesia. In 2017, the number of Russians visited Bali reached 117,532.

Gilda Sagrado (dok.kanalbali)

Gilda emphasized that most Russian nationals have a good behaviour. “That they like liquor, I thing thats normal. Thats their culture as their country have cold weather,” Gilda said.

Russian tourist mostly has a very good buying power. As other European tourist, their spending time in Bali are also longer. Most of them spending around two weeks to one months in Bali.

Then, why there are criminals infiltrated among good Russian? Gilda accused the visa-free policy has significantly contributed. The policy has caused selection to tourist become weak.

“Once they already arrive here (in Bali), they would be welcomed to enter Bali. Except, we have special notice from their country,” Gilda.

Gilda said free-visa policy could still be implemented, as it is important to boost tourist arrival. However, it should be proposed by tourist via online at least one month before they leaving their country. Therefore, immigration have time to do review over their record. The policy, she said, is succesfully implemented in Vietnam.

Apart from the visa policy, Gilda said that Russian tourists need more massive information on their language. She said that most ‘troubling’ tourist coming from country that lack of english, such as East Europe ann China. Most of tourism promotion are made in English. “It made them think Indonesian law doesn’t really important,” Gilda said.

Bali Tourism Board Chairman Ida Bagus Agung Partha admitted that most tourists from Russia East Europe have bad reputation. “I heard from a friend in Thailand that it was also the circumstance in his country. Maybe we need to do a tighter control to these Russians? Agung Partha said.

Agung emphasized that visa-free facility should not be given anymore to Russians. “This is not because of our tourism, not also because our law is weak. Thats their behaviour. Russians love to make problems,” Agung Partha added.

Agung said that government should take firm action. “Don’t let them think that they can do anything they want here in Bali,” he warned.

Agung felt sure that without free visa for Russians, it would not affect tourist from other country from coming to Bali. “It is enough. They had been given free visa for last three years. The policy should be revised now. I will propose to the national government to revoke their free-visa policy,” he added.

Head of Bali’s law and human right office, Sutrisno, said that all stakeholders should own the responsibility in monitoring. “We have a foreigner monitoring team involving the police, military and related institutions,” Sutrisno said. Immigration is responsible within the scope of giving entry permit into Indonesia. “If all the required documents are fulfilled we are not able to withhold permission to enter.” explained Sutrisno. However, related to the free visa policy, he will let the national government to decide.

Gede Pitana (Dok.Kumparan)

Tourism expert from Udayana University, Professor I Gde Pitana, said that we should not take conclusion in a hurry, especially in profiling tourist visiting Bali or Indonesia based on their nationality.

“There are 23 million Russians traveling abroad every year. Meanwhile, Indonesians going abroad are only 125 thousand. It is even less than 1 percent of the Indonesian total population,” said Pitana.

Pitana compared it to 900,000 Russians visiting Thailand every year, and 600,000 Russians visiting Vietnam.

He emphasized that it does not need to stop the increasing number of Russian tourists to Bali simply because of a small number of criminals from the country. However, the law must be firmly enforced, whatever the crime. “Even if it is a death penalty,” Pitana said,

Russians, he said, have a huge potential to be developed. Because they like the warm weather in Bali, compared to the weather in their country that tends to be cold and could reached less than 20 degrees celcius.

Statistic Agency recorded that 75 percent Russians visit Bali because they like the beach. As many as 42 percent Russian come for bussiness, 47 percent loves the food, and 85 percent of them loves village atmosphere. “These match Bali. We only need to present the best promotion strategy,” the former official of Tourism Ministry said. (kanalbali/LSU/RFH)