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Kolomna: why we deleted these guides
Editorial Position
Updated:8 min1,668 words

Kolomna: why we deleted these guides

Here there used to be three Kolomna texts: a one-day city route, a catalog of thirty sights, and a selection of fifteen museums with 2021 prices. All three have been removed in every language version.

Below is a direct answer to the query people arrive here with. Kolomna was marketed as "quiet, authentic Russia" a hundred kilometers from the capital, a place for a day trip. But the laws on "discrediting the army" and "fake news about the army" apply in this museum town near Moscow exactly as they do in Moscow itself. The word "quiet" in this context describes not calm, but silence. There are no routes, schedules, or prices in this text.

💡 At a glance:

  • which three pieces were removed and what query they answered
  • why the "the provinces are a different country" argument does not work
  • which laws have been in force since 2022 and how many cases have been opened under them
  • which historic European cities remain in our live sections
  • Last updated: 09/2026

Why we deleted these guides

The three texts were a typical set for a weekend city: a ready-made walking route, a catalog of sites, and a list of local craft museums with admission prices. All three URLs now permanently redirect to this page.

Kolomna held a special place in our catalog, and that deserves to be acknowledged directly. It was exactly the kind of material that let a publisher feel removed from politics: not the capital, not a resort, not a showcase, but a small town with a kremlin, pastila, and quiet. It is precisely on texts like these that a travel publication convinces itself it is describing a country, not a regime.

The argument does not survive a simple check. Russian legislation has no provincial edition: what is banned in the capital is banned in a town of a hundred thousand people, and enforcement confirms this. The quiet we sold as atmosphere is largely a consequence of that, not a property of the landscape.

The financial side of the decision here is the same as throughout this section. The oil and gas share of Russia's federal budget has fallen to roughly 22 percent, down from 42 in 2022, while the non-oil-and-gas share, which includes service-sector taxes, has grown to roughly 78 percent (OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, 09.12.2025). The money a visitor leaves behind in tickets, cafes, and souvenir shops goes into that second part. The decision is dated from February 24, 2022 (UN press release GA/12407, 02.03.2022).

What "quiet" means in numbers

On April 4, 2022, Article 20.3.3 was added to Russia's Code of Administrative Offenses, punishing public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (ARTICLE 19). In 2023 alone, at least 2,830 cases were opened under this article (RFE/RL, 31.12.2023).

Alongside it, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code covers the public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces; the maximum penalty under aggravated offenses reaches fifteen years of imprisonment (Human Rights Watch, 07.03.2022; Committee to Protect Journalists guidance, 07.2022). Both norms apply across the entire country with no territorial exceptions.

The start of this practice is documented in detail. The human rights project OVD-Info recorded 19,644 detentions of anti-war protesters, including more than 18,900 detentions during 2022 and at least 5,982 detentions in the first four days, from February 24 to 28, 2022; separately, at least 413 cases of excessive use of force by police were recorded (OVD-Info, 2022 repression overview). Human Rights Watch described these detentions as arbitrary as early as February 26, 2022 (Human Rights Watch, 26.02.2022).

We cite these figures not to say anything about the residents of Kolomna, about whom we know nothing and about whom we assert nothing. We cite them to show that the calm tone of our previous text rested on omission, not on knowledge.

What we deliberately do not claim

We have no verified facts linking Kolomna specifically to the war, and we will not construct any. We do not attribute sanctions status to city businesses, we do not speculate about the positions of local institutions, and we do not relay reports without citing a source. Everything said above concerns federal legislation and nationwide enforcement statistics, and this is stated directly in each paragraph. The absence of a city-specific fact is not a reason for us to invent one, but it is also not a reason to keep the material: the decision was made across this entire section and rests on norms that apply throughout the country.

What this means for you as an EU reader

Item

Status 09/2026

Source

Services related to tourism in Russia

Prohibited by Article 5n(2) of Regulation 833/2014 as amended by Regulation 2025/2033 of 23.10.2025

EUR-Lex

What the ban covers

Travel agency and tour operator services, work of tour guides, advertising of these services

Skadden, 11.2025

Transition period

Ended 01.01.2026

EUR-Lex

German Foreign Office advisory

"Vor Reisen in die Russische Föderation wird gewarnt"

Auswärtiges Amt

Risk for German citizens

Danger of arbitrary detention, including for holders of dual German-Russian citizenship

Auswärtiges Amt

Article 20.3.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences

In force since 04.04.2022, at least 2,830 cases in 2023 alone

RFE/RL

The second row of the table describes exactly what our materials were. A ready-made one-day itinerary replaces a tour guide, and a catalog of museums with prices replaces an agent. That is precisely why we are talking about compliance with the regulation, not about a shift in editorial mood.

Where to go instead

The query was about a small historic town for one day, fortress walls, craft museums, and a leisurely walk without crowds. The live sections of the site answer it in detail: Poland with Toruń and Zamość, Czechia with Kutná Hora and Český Krumlov, Hungary with Eger and Szentendre, Germany with Quedlinburg, Rothenburg and Bamberg, Slovakia with Banská Štiavnica. All these towns lie within a short trip from major capitals, so they cover the travel format as well, not just the topic.

Neighboring texts in this section about the same old towns route: our position on Suzdal and our position on Yaroslavl. The general explanation of the editorial decision is collected in the section hub.

Where we stand

We believe that the "quiet province" genre was a way for a travel publication to avoid taking a side. In our assessment, such a text asserts no less than a text about the capital: it communicates that near the center of decision-making there are places untouched by what is happening, and invites the reader to spend a weekend there. We have nothing that would confirm the existence of such places.

We decided not to keep these materials and not to republish them with a warning at the top. A day trip route remains a day trip route, no matter what paragraph stands before it.

We write about the state and its policies, not about people based on their passport. There are people in Russia who came out against the war and received prison sentences for it. Our decision not to publish guides to Russia concerns money, sanctions, and reader safety, not nationality.

Publication date: September 3, 2026. Last updated: September 3, 2026.

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions

Kolomna is a small town, what does federal policy have to do with it?

The point is that the laws are federal. They apply in Kolomna the same way they apply in Moscow.

You deleted texts about craft museums that have no politics at all.

There was no politics in them, but the genre was enough. A catalog of museums with admission prices is a tourism service in text form. In essence, such a text replaces the services of a guide and an agent, which are covered by the EU ban.

Why does the text about Kolomna include arrest statistics for the whole country?

Because we don't have city-level statistics, and we're not going to invent them. We only cite figures that have a source with the organization's name and date, and we state directly that they are nationwide, not local.

Will you bring these guides back if the situation changes?

We don't make promises with dates. The decision will be revisited when its basis changes: the EU legal framework, official travel advisories, and the situation documented by the organizations in the sources block.

In short

Three Kolomna articles have been removed in full: the one-day itinerary, the catalog of sights, and the museum roundup. The argument that the provinces live by different rules is not supported. The laws on "discrediting" and "fakes" about the army apply throughout the entire country. Services related to tourism activity in Russia are prohibited for persons from the EU. The transition period ended on January 1, 2026. The historic cities of Central Europe that we continue to write about are listed above.

How you can help

We don't collect money and we receive nothing from the links below. These are the official websites of organizations working with the consequences of the war:

Sources

Link check date: 03.09.2026.

tourism.com.de Editorial Team
tourism.com.de Editorial TeamTravel editorial team: research, fact-checking, updates→ All publications

A small editorial team writing guides for independent travel. We travel ourselves, but we haven’t been everywhere, so we check prices, opening hours and how to get there against official sources.