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Spa hotels and pools of Moscow: why we removed these lists
Editorial Position
Updated:8 min1,657 words1

Spa hotels and pools of Moscow: why we removed these lists

The seven roundups at this address are gone. They were lists of Moscow hotels with pools, spa hotels, hotels with panoramic views, hotels with in-room jacuzzis, hotels for couples, hotels for honeymoons, and an "all-inclusive" roundup for the capital.

A short answer for the reader who was looking for a spa weekend. There will be no hotel list here, and this is not editorial squeamishness. The format of discretionary leisure is exactly what the EU legislator named as the purpose of the ban, verbatim: to curb the promotion of non-essential travel and leisure in Russia. We have stopped that kind of promotion.

💡 At a glance:

  • which seven roundups were removed and where the old links now lead
  • how EU documents state the purpose of the ban and why it applies specifically to this format
  • why the money argument is not built on oil and gas
  • which destinations with thermal baths and spas remain in our live sections
  • Last updated: 09/2026

Why we deleted these guides

The seven removed texts were the most commercial pieces across the entire Russia section of the site. They did not tell readers about the city; they offered a choice of where to spend money and sorted options by pool, window view, and spa availability.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. We believe that after that date, a roundup of "the fifteen best spa hotels in the capital" stopped being a service to the reader and became a recommendation to send money into a specific economy. There are no hotel names in this text and there will be none: we are explaining why the list no longer exists, not rewriting it in different words.

This is part of a broader decision, not a selective purge. In September 2026, the editorial team removed all materials about Russia, occupied Crimea, and Abkhazia across all language versions at once, and the Moscow hotel roundups went with the rest. We did not keep an "archived version for those who are going anyway" and did not hide the lists behind a warning: that kind of compromise would have preserved exactly the function of the text that the whole effort was meant to eliminate.

What exactly the EU named as the purpose of the ban

Here it is worth sticking strictly to the documents, because the wording describes our case with unexpected precision.

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 of October 23, 2025 replaced paragraph 2 of Article 5n of Regulation 833/2014 with a direct ban on providing services directly related to tourism activities in Russia (EUR-Lex). The stated purpose is worded as follows: to reduce the revenue Russia receives from such services and to curb the promotion of non-essential travel and leisure in the country (Skadden, 11.2025).

Note the word "leisure." A spa weekend, a rooftop pool, and a "hotel for two" are not a business trip, not a family visit, and not a humanitarian necessity. They are, in the precise sense of the term, non-essential leisure, which is the very category the document names explicitly. The ban also covers online platforms and apps through which bookings and sales are made, as well as advertising services related to such activities (Fieldfisher). A hotel roundup comparing amenities is advertising in this sense, regardless of whether an affiliate link sits beneath it. The roundups in this section had no affiliate links at all.

We are not mocking those who planned such a trip, and we do not consider a honeymoon or a short getaway frivolous. This is not about the reader's motive; it is about the fact that we, as a publisher based in the European Union, no longer have the right to promote such a trip.

Where that money goes and what it costs

The money argument is often framed incorrectly, so let us clarify. The share of oil and gas revenue in Russia's federal budget fell to roughly 22 percent in 2025 and 2026, down from 42 percent in 2022; revenue from commodity exports in 2025 amounted to 8.48 trillion ₽, down from 11.13 trillion in 2024, a decline of 23.8 percent (OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, 12.09.2025; Meduza analysis, 01.28.2026). This means the phrase "money for a hotel room goes to oil" simply does not describe the budget.

What describes it is the mirror figure: the share of non-oil-and-gas revenue, which includes value-added tax and the profit tax from the hotel sector, has grown to roughly 78 percent. Domestic consumption and the services sector have become relatively more significant for the budget than before the war, and the bill for a spa weekend lands precisely in that part.

There is also a very practical side that makes the entire roundup pointless. Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia on March 10, 2022, and cards issued outside the country stopped working there (The Moscow Times, 03.06.2022). Germany's Federal Foreign Office confirms this in its current travel advice: using cards commonly issued in Germany is currently not possible (Auswärtiges Amt). We do not explain how to get around this restriction.

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

Stated purpose of the ban

Reduce Russia's revenue from such services and curb the promotion of non-essential travel and leisure

Skadden, 11.2025

Online booking and advertising

Covered by the ban on the same basis as offline services

Fieldfisher

Paying with an 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

Budget structure

The share of non-oil-and-gas revenue has grown to roughly 78 percent

OSW, 09.12.2025

Where to go instead

The need readers brought to these guides was two days without a phone, a pool, thermal baths, and a view from the window. The live sections of the site answer that: Hungary with the Budapest baths and Hévíz, Czechia with Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně, Austria with its Alpine thermal spas, Germany with the resorts of Baden-Baden and Wiesbaden. For trips for two with a water view, we have material in the Italy, Portugal, and Greece sections.

The general explanation for the entire section is collected in the section hub. Related texts: our position on hotels in central Moscow and our position on country hotels and sanatoriums in the Moscow region.

Where we stand

We believe that a hotel roundup is the most direct form of recommendation that exists in travel media: it does not discuss whether to go, it already answers the question of "where exactly to pay." In our assessment, an editorial team from the European Union cannot publish such a recommendation for Russia when the legislator has explicitly named the promotion of non-essential travel there as a prohibited activity. We decided to remove all seven roundups, not replace them with a "review without links," 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

A hotel is a private business, what does the state have to do with it?

Taxes are paid to the budget regardless of the form of ownership. We broke down the structure of that revenue above, in the money section. In addition, the EU ban is not framed in terms of ownership, but in terms of the service: it covers services directly related to tourism activities in Russia.

Do you condemn people who want a spa weekend?

No. We are responsible for what we publish ourselves, and we do not judge other people's trips. We stopped producing material that organizes and promotes those trips.

Why couldn't you just keep the list without booking links?

Because the ban also covers advertising services related to tourism activities, and a list of hotels with a comparison of amenities serves an advertising function even without a booking button. We do not want to find the line by trial and error.

Where do old links to these roundups lead?

To this page, in all language versions. The reader gets an explanation, a list of sources, and a list of destinations with thermal baths and spas that we continue to cover.

In short

Seven roundups of Moscow spa hotels, pools, and hotels for couples have been removed. The stated goal of the EU ban is explicit: to reduce Russia's revenue from such services and to curb the promotion of non-essential travel and leisure. Our argument about money is built on the budget structure, where the share of non-oil-and-gas revenue has grown to roughly 78 percent, not on oil. Cards issued outside Russia have not worked there since March 10, 2022. Destinations with thermal baths and spas that 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.