From Russia With News

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2022) In this digest, you will find out where Russians go to receive foreign COVID-19 vaccines, how warm it will be in Saint Petersburg in late January and which Russian cities have the best paying jobs.

About 44% of Russian tourists would like to go abroad to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and are ready to pay up to 40,000 ($518) rubles for this, according to a survey conducted by travel website OneTwoTrip.

The survey was conducted among 1,400 people who were asked if they are ready to travel abroad to receive a vaccine approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

"It turned out that every second respondent was interested in this topic - they studied the list of countries where you can go, the cost of vaccination and the regulations. Slightly fewer people are ready to actually make this trip: 44% of respondents said yes when asked if they are ready to go if possible," OneTwoTrip said.

Experts also found that people are willing to pay 40,000 rubles on average per person for a "vaccination" trip.

"Interestingly, the very idea of vaccination with a foreign drug is of interest to tourists primarily because it provides more opportunities for travel - 87% of respondents said this. Only 13% would like to be vaccinated for health reasons," the travel website said.

In addition, 12% of respondents said that would like to receive WHO- or EMA-approved vaccines in Russia.

"When choosing a country where they could get a foreign vaccine, tourists most often picked Turkey - it was chosen 21.5% of respondents ... 11.7% of travelers are interested in Croatia. Another 6% of tourists are ready to go to Armenia, and 4% - to Serbia," OneTwoTrip said.

The survey also showed that 51% of Russians hope that domestic vaccines will be approved abroad.

'WARM' END OF JANUARY IN SAINT PETERSBURG

Saint Petersburg will see a thaw with a temperature that exceeds the norm by 8 to 10 degrees of Celsius in late January - weather conditions that resemble nights in Sochi, Roman Vilfand, a scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center, told Sputnik.

"The weather is very warm in the Northwestern Federal District (of Russia), since the transfer of air masses is along the periphery of the cyclone, the center of which is over Svalbard ... The temperature will be 8-10 degrees above normal. In St. Petersburg, it will be 8 degrees above the norm on Monday, and on Wednesday - 4 degrees above the norm. A thaw is expected in St. Petersburg on Monday," Vilfand said.

He added that the temperature in the city will be from 0 to 3 degrees celsius these days, mentioning that it will get colder on Wednesday and then warmer again.

"The temperature in St. Petersburg will be the same as at night in Sochi these days." the expert added.

JOBS WITH HIGH SALARIES ARE HARD TO FIND

Volgograd, Omsk and Ufa are at the bottom of the ranking of cities where it is easy to find a well-paid job, according to a fresh study by the SuperJob job search service, which also said that best-paying jobs are in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Perm.

The experts surveyed 9,000 people from big Russian cities and found that residents believe it is very hard to find a vacancy with a high salary.

"Even in prosperous Moscow, the assessment of the availability of highly paid work that matches skills of an employee does not reach 3 points out of 5," the survey said.

At the same time, Moscow still turned out to be the undisputed leader - 2.8 points on a 5-point scale. Yekaterinburg (2.57 points) and Perm (2.56) came second and third in the ranking. In addition, Saint Petersburg and Kazan made in the top 5.

"Things are worst in Volgograd and Omsk: the chance to find a job that matches with skills and with a high salary was estimated by local residents at an average of 1.89 and 2.09 points, respectively," the survey said.