Russians suddenly introduced “total passport control” at the entrance to Crimea

A “total passport control” has been introduced on the Crimean bridge at the entrance to occupied Crimea, the “minister of transport of Crimea Olexandr Ovdienko wrote on 25 January in a Telegram post.

He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree on the introduction of an “increased level of response” in Crimea and the Russian Krasnodar Krai and noted that “special services are conducting anti-terrorist measures”.

Ovdienko did not give a reason for the measures, nor did he give dates of their start and end. Other Russian officials and the media did not provide any details.

Queues of cars began to accumulate at the entrance to Crimea in the middle of the day on 26 January and lasted until 6 am the next day, Moscow time, according to the Krymskiy Most Telegram channel.

In Telegram chats, Russian travellers wrote about waiting in lines in front of the bridge for six hours or more.

On the afternoon of 27 January, there were no queues, according to eyewitnesses, but “total passport control” continued.

Russia built the bridge to the occupied peninsula, with which it had no land connection, in 2018. Since 2022, the Ukrainian armed forces and special services have attacked the bridge several times, causing damage.

In November 2024, the commander of the 41st Brigade of Missile Ships and Boats of the Black Sea Fleet, Valeriy Trankovsky, was killed in occupied Sevastopol. Trankovsky’s car exploded while he was driving through the city, allegedly with explosives planted under it, which were detonated remotely.