http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43501734According to the Russian Federal Security Service, US tourist travel to Russia increased 26% in the 12 months of 2017. This upward trend began in 2015, a year after the conflict in Crimea began.
The number of tourists now exceeds pre-conflict levels, despite the US state department warning its citizens to reconsider travel to Russia "due to terrorism and harassment". There may also have been a slight increase in UK tourist travel to Russia.
I see the increased travel by US citizens as a good thing, but I have to wonder how much of this travel is politically motivated? Our government will never release the data (even though they are keeping a very close eye and gathering as much as they can) but I think that travel by alt-right, far right political activists is at least that of the business and entertainment tourists.
Our government keeps data on US citizens traveling to known terrorist hotbeds, so they will most certainly know how much of this tourism consists of militant training and other cooperation. That said, our government will not say or do anything about it. However, if US tourists visit a Socialist hotbed like Norway, the US government will certainly track their every move and inevitably tag those tourists as terrorist sympathizers bringing carved wooden spoons, IKEA furniture, and Viking horn hats in their obvious attempt to dilute the 'Murrican culture and corrupt our youth.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum