The story of the Seabridge ferry, which, according to ATOR, was supposed to resume the sea service with Turkey interrupted 14 years ago, ended with the ship turning around at the port of Sochi and returning to the Turkish Trabzon. Only five days later, passengers were able to leave the ferry and fly to Russia, RIA Novosti reports.
Sergey Turkmenyan, CEO of SVS Shipping LLC, complained that the Seabridge ferry, with 18 Russian citizens on board, did not receive permission to enter the port of Sochi after more than two days of waiting. The reason he cited was the refusal of the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratiev, to let the ship into the port, who stated that the organization of an international cargo and passenger ferry service in the current conditions is "unsafe and premature." At the same time, another Turkish liner Astoria Grande, on which tourists also arrived from Turkey, according to TC Readovka, was checked in just an hour.
Turkmenyan also assures that the vessel's entry into the port of Sochi has been coordinated with all port services and control authorities, and the Sochi — Trabzon — Sochi ferry line has been officially registered with the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, it has been assigned the status of a year-round regular line until the end of 2027.
Despite the blatant absurdity of the situation, no convincing explanations have been received by the authorities of the Krasnodar Territory for the media to date.