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Moscow in December and January: why we removed these materials
Editorial Position
Updated:8 min1,683 words

Moscow in December and January: why we removed these materials

Three seasonal pieces about winter Moscow at this address are no longer available. These were the texts "what to see in Moscow in December," "what to see in Moscow in January," and a roundup of New Year’s road trips from the capital.

A short answer for the reader who was planning a holiday weekend. We no longer publish seasonal pieces about Russia, and it is not because the fairs and ice rinks stopped operating. It is because a winter travel text sells not an itinerary but a state of mind: the feeling of a peaceful holiday. For a country that has been waging war against Ukraine since February 24, 2022, we do not describe that state of mind.

💡 At a glance:

  • which three seasonal pieces were removed and where the old links now lead
  • what winter looked like on the other side of the front line, according to the UN monitoring mission
  • what our winter texts did not include: maps, consular assistance, official warnings
  • which winter destinations remain in our live sections
  • Last updated: 09/2026

Why we deleted these guides

The three removed texts were built around the calendar: where the ice rink is, where the fair is, where the lights are, where to go for the New Year weekend. The old addresses in all language versions now have permanent redirects to this text.

We consider the seasonal format the most problematic in the entire section. A museum guide at least pretends to be a reference, while a "Moscow in December" text openly sells a mood and nudges the reader toward a decision here and now, before the dates run out. That is exactly why we removed it entirely rather than editing it.

The financial part of the argument requires precision. The share of oil and gas revenues in Russia’s federal budget fell to roughly 22 percent in 2025 and 2026, down from 42 percent in 2022 (OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, 09.12.2025), so building the argument on oil is incorrect. The share of non-oil-and-gas revenues, which include taxes from the hotel and restaurant sector, rose to roughly 78 percent. Holiday dates are the peak revenue period for these industries, meaning the peak of the part of the budget in question.

What this winter looked like on the other side of the border

We write this section dryly and strictly from documents, without comparisons and without rhetoric.

From December 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026, the Russian Federation carried out at least 423 strikes on electricity generation, transmission, and distribution facilities in Ukraine and at least 74 strikes on combined heat and power plants and other heating facilities (UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine). UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated that the continuous strikes on energy infrastructure across Ukraine are depriving an already exhausted civilian population of heat, water, and electricity in an "unbearably bitter and dark winter" (UN in Ukraine).

We are not building a dramatic rhetorical point on this, and we are not offering the reader a sense of guilt. We simply believe that an editorial team that knows these figures cannot, in that same December, publish a text about where the holiday lights are prettiest in the capital of the neighboring country waging the war. This is not a prohibition for the reader; it is a restriction we place on ourselves.

What our winter texts did not include

A seasonal piece, by its very structure, does not discuss risks, so we will gather here what it left unsaid.

There is no way to pay during the trip. Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia on March 10, 2022, and cards issued outside the country stopped working there (The Moscow Times, 06.03.2022). Germany’s Federal Foreign Office confirms this in its current travel advice and also warns there that German citizens and persons with dual German-Russian citizenship face the risk of arbitrary detention (Auswärtiges Amt).

There is nowhere to expect help from. The US State Department maintains a Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisory for Russia, reissued on December 29, 2025, with an added risk indicator for wrongful detention (travel.state.gov; Travel Market Report overview). It also states that the US government’s ability to help its citizens in Russia is limited: the embassy in Moscow has reduced staff, and all US consulates in the country have suspended operations, including consular services.

Holiday dates are the worst time in this regard: a seasonal text is aimed at a reader who comes for three days and does not think about any of this.

Separately, regarding the third removed piece. It was a roundup of New Year’s road trips from the capital: eleven destinations with route descriptions. We do not reproduce any of them here, even in the past tense and even as a reference to what used to be available. Practical information about traveling in Russia is absent from the texts in this section as a matter of principle: a route rewritten as a reminiscence remains a route, and what we removed was precisely that function of the text, not its style.

What this means for you if you are in the EU or the US

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

Transition period

For contracts concluded before 24.10.2025, ended on 01.01.2026, no exceptions

Skadden, 11.2025

Payment by EU card

Impossible since 10.03.2022

The Moscow Times, Auswärtiges Amt

German Foreign Office advisory

"Vor Reisen in die Russische Föderation wird gewarnt"

Auswärtiges Amt

US State Department advisory

Level 4: Do Not Travel, reissued 29.12.2025

travel.state.gov

US consular assistance

All US consulates in Russia have suspended operations

OSAC, Russia country report

Where to go instead

The need readers brought to these guides was about Christmas markets, a skating rink in the city center, fairy lights, and a short winter trip away from home. The live sections of the site answer that: Germany with the markets of Nuremberg, Dresden, and Cologne, Austria with Vienna and Salzburg, Czechia with Prague, Poland with Krakow and Wroclaw. For winter nature, snow, and the northern lights, we have sections on Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

The general explanation for the entire section is collected in the section hub. Related texts: where we stand on Moscow parks and city entertainment and where we stand on Moscow routes.

Where we stand

We believe that a seasonal travel piece is the softest and most effective form of destination advertising: it does not persuade, it creates a mood. In our assessment, that is exactly why these materials could not be left with a disclaimer: a disclaimer is read with the eyes, while the mood works on its own. We decided to remove all three texts and explain the reason at the same address.

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 travel guides to Russia concerns money, sanctions, and reader safety, not nationality.

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

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions

Do you seriously think an ice rink and a fair are politics?

Not by themselves. What is political is our recommendation to go: it directs money and attention. We are responsible for what we publish, and we decided not to release material that works as advertising for travel to a country waging war against a neighboring state.

Why do you include data on strikes against energy infrastructure in a text about Moscow?

Because it is data about the same winter our seasonal piece covered. We include it with a source cited and without comparisons; the figures are collected in the section about winter on the other side of the border.

Can a German citizen travel there for New Year's?

We do not provide travel advice or describe any procedures. The German Foreign Office warns against travel to the Russian Federation; the other official positions are collected in the table above.

Will you bring these guides back if the war ends?

We make no such promise and tie nothing to a date. The decision will be revisited when the grounds for it change: the EU legal framework, official travel warnings, and the positions of the bodies we cite in the sources block.

In short

Three seasonal guides about winter Moscow have been deleted, and the old URLs redirect here. Data from the UN monitoring mission on strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure are presented in the section about winter on the other side of the border. Maps, official warnings, and consular assistance are covered in the table for readers from the EU and the US. Services related to tourism in Russia are prohibited for persons from the EU as of 25.10.2025, and the transition period ended on 01.01.2026. Winter destinations we continue to cover are listed above.

How you can help

We do not collect money and receive nothing from the links below. These are 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.