Passengers search for alternative routes to and out of Europe.

MOSCOW, April 19 (Itar-Tass) - Flying from Russia to Europe has become
even more complicated by the start of a new working week. The number of
cancelled flights has increased from 258 at midnight on Sunday to 475 on
Monday morning.
Because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland Moscow's Sheremetievo
airport had to cancel 297 flights bound for Europe. However, no huge
passenger concentrations in airports are reported. Air companies announced
flight cancellations in advance. Some passengers are being accommodated in
hotels.
Russian Transport Minister Igor Livitin told Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin at a meeting on Sunday that flights to Europe might be restricted
until the middle of the week. Livitin said that 12,000 people, of whom
7,000 are Aeroflot passengers, had been stranded in airports in Germany,
the Netherlands, France and Northern Italy.
Aeroflot representatives have said the carrier is going to cancel 42
European flights on Monday. They say passengers will be able to return
tickets without any penalties. The only problem is that the passengers
will be able to get reimbursements only in places where they bought their
tickets.
In the meantime, the Russian aviation authorities are very proud of
the fact that Aeroflot has changed its flight route from Russia to North
America.
"We used to fly via Reykjavik but now we've switched over to a polar
route via the North Pole to the United States. There are long waiting
lists for these flights," Levitin went on to say.
Russian Railways have helped transporting about a 1,000 people in
extra carriages allocated for European directions.
About 40 buses are waiting for passengers in Kaliningrad. "If the
flights are going to be delayed for the next three or four days, we will
be able to take 1,500 people from Kaliningrad to Russia; the same number
of passenger may be transported via Estonia and Finland," Levitin said,
noting that the ferry service in Scandinavia is being actively used.
However, passengers who urgently need to get to Europe are finding
more exotic ways of travelling to Europe. Market rules are working. Moscow
taxi drivers who have the Schengen visas promise to take their customers
to Prague for 40,000 -50,000 roubles. An Itar-Tass correspondent witnessed
how four foreigners had accepted this proposal. However, the driver couldn'
t say anything definite about how long it will take to get to Prague. He
explained that everything depended on the road situation.

. American delegation delays departure to Moscow.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Itar-Tass) -A delegation of the U.S. State
Department that was due to arrive in Moscow for consultations on adoptions
of Russian children was forced to postpone its departure to Moscow
because flights have been cancelled, a State Department official told
Itar-Tass.
Members of the American delegation planned to board a nearest
commercial flight from Toronto in Canada. But after several hours of
waiting they decided to return to Washington.
The U.S. delegation is led by Michael D. Kirby, the Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary for the Consular Affairs. Other members include
diplomats and specialists of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
The visit's purpose is to discuss the adoption of orphaned children in
Russia by American foster families. The United States is not against
concluding an adoption agreement, although the American side doesn't see
any great need in it.
The Obama administration has shared Russia's indignation over
recurring cases of death of children adopted in Russia in American foster
families and over a recent incident when adoptive mother Tory Hansen
abandoned 7-year-old Artyom Savelyev and dispatched him to Russia alone.
At the same time, the U.S. side notes that a moratorium on adoptions
of Russian orphans by Americans shouldn't produce a negative impact on
these children.

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