This comes as no surprise and I am very proud of South Korea to take this step. Yesterday South Korea issued an advisory for Koreans travelling to Russia:

·         Considering the recent situation in Russia where crimes against Koreans are occurring frequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has temporarily classified all parts of Russia that have not been placed under travel alert as Travel-alert Level 1 (Precautious) region as of March 11. The classification will last until May 31.

·         Korean nationals staying or traveling in the aforementioned Travel-alert Level 1 (Precautious) region are asked to pay heed to their safety.

The reason for such unprecedented statement is that Russia is defending raise of nationalism and increase in racially-motivated crimes. Just recently a masked assailant attacked a South Korean student last Sunday in the Russian capital. The student was hospitalized after the attack and remains in a critical condition. Three weeks before that a group of young people stabbed to death another South Korean national in Barnaul, the capital of the Altai Territory. Routine attacks by skinheads and gangs of youths on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features are a regular occurrence in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the city of Voronezh, which hosts many foreign university students.

Care to know how Russia responded to the travel advisory? The Russian Foreign Ministry calls the decision to classify Russia as dangerous place as “groundless”, but Russian Ambassador Konstantin Vnukov told Seoul’s Foreign Ministry that Moscow police took into custody two suspects in the recent attack. Which means that once someone puts pressure on Russia there is a chance someone will do something about it.

If, similar to South Korea, the World unites against Russia, maybe there is a chance that Russia will remove the troops from occupied Georgia?