Nazaraliev: hadj pilgrimage is deliberately overpriced in Russia

Islam Nazaraliev, deputy head of the Russian hadj-mission and attache of the General Consulate of Russia in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2004-2008, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the prices on making for Russian Moslems are growing disproportionate to the objective economic conditions.

"For example, this year the cost of pilgrimage could be cheaper. The dollar and aviation fuel did not rise in price. Moreover, because the fear that for virus diseases the total number of pilgrims will decrease (which really happened in the month of Ramadan), hotels in Mecca and Medina were much cheaper than last year," he said.

He has also noted that the cost of the hadj is in the competence of travel agencies, which service the pilgrims. In their turn, Spiritual Departments of Moslems in places are in charge of choosing travel companies.

"This year, the cost of the travel varied for land pilgrims from 30 to 32 thousand roubles, and for the combined route (flight from Russia to the countries neighbouring Saudi Arabia, where pilgrims change to buses) - 70-80 thousand roubles. A direct flight was from 95 to 150 thousand roubles, depending on the distance of the hotel from the Sacred Mosques in Mecca. Some Russian companies also offered VIP trips, where the cost reached 25,000 US dollar," Mr Nazaraliev said.