Will Russia be declared a terrorist state by the West?

Simon Calder answers your questions on future visits to the Kremlin, how to travel to Boston without breaking the bank, taxis and rules on liquids

Russia certainly meets the test as a country that has ‘repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism’ (AP)

Q I see that anyone who has visited Cuba since 2011 is not allowed to use the Esta scheme to visit the US – even though the country was only put on Washington’s “State Sponsor of Terrorism” list in 2021. If Russia is declared a terrorist state, do you think the same will apply, backdated also?

Neville H

A Your question is timely and important. Over the past two weeks I have been studying with mounting alarm the US authorities’ policy for anyone who happened to visit Cuba in the decade before it was declared a “State Sponsor of Terrorism”. You must pay £137 and attend an interview at the US embassy rather than spending 10 minutes and £18 applying online for an Esta. (So long is the post-Covid backlog for interviews, by the way, that the earliest appointment is in February 2023.)