Up to 27,000 people are stranded abroad with no flights home after Russian travel company Labirint collapsed.<br /><br />It’s the fourth Russian tour operator to go bankrupt in just three weeks and the fifth during the summer holiday season.<br /><br />The Ukraine crisis has been blamed for a slump in Russians wanting to travel out of the country.<br /><br />A drop in the value of the ruble has also affected travel companies.<br /><br />One tourist at Moscow’s Sheremyetevo airport said: “Some people spent a whole day at the airport. We had more luck. We stayed at the hotel.”<br /><br />Another tourist was not so lucky: “We were forced to leave the hotel,” she said. “They offered us either to pay or to leave.”<br /><br />Russia’s intelligence service has launched an enquiry into the closure over fraud allegations.<br /><br />Oleg Safonov, temporary director of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency: <br />“We are facing bold-faced, cynical fraud here and we believe that the Interior Ministry has to look into the matter.”<br /><br />Safonov suggested that Russians should holiday at home, which would be, “a less risky affair,” he said.<br /><br />It will take around a week to return all stranded tourists back to Russia.
