What you describe is the result of Russian government policies and tit for tat retaliation between Russia and the US over several years. And what percentage of Russians can afford to travel to the US, and how many does the government even allow to travel to the US.
It’s pretty naive to assume that the Russian people actually support the policies of their government, a government that increasingly cracks down on dissent and shuts down any news outlets or journalists that are critical of the the Putin regime.
And, of course, government is working on plans to deny Russian citizens ongoing access to the world wide web. What the Russian people really want for their nation cannot be easily determined with the circumstances that exist there now.
But there was still a pretty busy Russian anchor baby tourist business to south Florida the last I heard.
“” “” What you describe is the result of Russian government policies and tit for tat retaliation between Russia and the US over several years. And what percentage of Russians can afford to travel to the US, and how many does the government even allow to travel to the US.”” “”
There is no iron curtain and much more Russians than Americans are travelling abroad although numbers vary by year in the first case. For example in 2017 exactly 36% of all Russians traveled abroad for average two weeks mostly to Turkey, Belarus, Finland, Spain, Germany, Cuba, Vietnam and China.
Compare it to average just 5% Americans coming abroad every year and these are mostly short trips near-abroad to Mexico or Canada. Considering these statistics it is more like US and not Russia maintains the iron curtain to keep people in.
Currently Russia doesn’t have any legal procedures to keep its citizens in so I have no idea what you means by “how many does the government even allow to travel to the US”. It is the decision for traveler himself and US consular officers. Russian government has no say on it.
Of course, you are right that the purchase power of an average Russian folded about twice in the five years but if you would look into a statistics by credit card companies it has mostly affected their spending abroad but not the ability to travel. According to Visa their Russian card holders spent average $2730 during foreign trips in 2016 and only $1676 in 2018.
That is quite a dramatic decrease but latter is still more than enough to afford a travel to US because it is still higher than the average EU national spending in North America which is $1174.
Also US is obviously a cheaper destination comparing to Europe, hotel fees, restaurants and shopping considered.