On Russia’s only inhabited Baikal island, residents now wait hours behind tourists to board the ferry home

Residents of Olkhon Island, the only inhabited place on Lake Baikal, have lost their priority boarding on the ferry home, Meduza reports. The island's sole link to the mainland is a ferry crossing that locals could skip by showing proof of residency—until mid-July. Now ferry staff cite a governor's decree preventing separate queues for residents and tourists. Residents and journalists say this decree does not exist. With peak season and only two of three ferries operating, waits have stretched to twenty-four hours or longer. One family recently waited through the night to return after a hospital visit, with their seven-year-old son in tow. The tension escalated on July twenty-eighth when ferry service halted. The company claimed residents blocked the route with parked vehicles; a passenger said fog was the reason given. Police have since detained fourteen people, with one charged under Russia's Code of Administrative Offenses for blocking transportation routes. The region's transport ministry says it is working to restore resident priority, though the backlog persists.

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