WATCH: SA economist Dawie Roodt ‘trapped’ in Russia with family – not allowed to leave

South African economist Dawie Roodt and his wife and two young daughters are trapped in Russia and it is believed that it could take them anywhere between a few hours or about six months before they can return back home to South Africa.

Roodt was speaking to Nuuspod about his ordeal to leave the country after a short visit.

Roodt who is married to a Russian citizen said his wife and two little daughters who have South African and Russian citizenship did not travel to Russia because of the war.

He said they had to take about three flights to get to Sochi where they attended a family function

“I am married to a Russian girl and there was a wedding in the family and we decided that this is an opportunity to visit the country and also pay a visit to the children’s grandmother.”

Roodt said they enjoyed the wedding and were ready to leave the country when the problems started.

“We flew from Sochi to Moscow and were getting ready to board the flight from Moscow to Dubai when we were stopped and told by an official at the last minute that Russian citizens with South African passports cannot travel out of the country. They said we must get our daughters Russian passports. We told them we don’t have Russian passports for them.”

“So, we got off the plane and in the middle of the night my wife and I and our two children are sitting at the airport without a cent because my credit cards for some strange reason were not working, there was no place to stay and we are sitting at the airport with all our luggage,” said Roodt.

Roodt said fortunately they still had their Russian sim cards which his wife used to call family in Russia and arranged for some money to be brought to them.

“The family brought us one hundred thousand Roubles (R20,000) and we checked into a dilapidated guest house. The kids were in tears and a state and very tired. The following day we moved to my wife cousins house and that’s where we are currently staying.”

Roodt said they are now waiting for a Russian official to contact the family and tell them where to apply for Russian passports for their two daughters so that they can leave the country.

Roodt added that officials told them that while they were allowed to depart the country, the “children were not going anywhere soon.”

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