Oil on the beaches, drone attacks, gasoline shortages: Russia’s Black Sea coast is now a perilous place to vacation. So why do Russians keep coming?

According to Meduza, Russia's Black Sea coast is facing a threatened vacation season for the second summer running. Last year, authorities in Anapa banned swimming after two tankers carrying fuel oil wrecked, triggering an environmental disaster along the coastline. This year the swimming ban was lifted, but petroleum products fouled the water again, this time after a Ukrainian drone strike on the Tuapse oil refinery. Meduza is publishing a full report from Bereg, an independent journalists' cooperative, whose correspondents traveled to Krasnodar Krai and found airports across southern Russia shutting down almost daily amid drone and missile threats, stranding Sochi-bound travelers for hours on end. And yet, the report notes, the tourists keep coming.

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