Dangers & annoyances

Travelling in Russia

1. Read the Fast Facts information about Russia. What would you add to the list of important facts?

Fast Facts about Russia

· Don't arrive without a visa

· What do they call a...

§ Russian doll - matryoshka

§ babushka scarf - pavlovoposadsky platok

§ fur hat with earflaps - ushanka

· Hurry up, hurry up

After the victory over Napoleon, impatient Russian soldiers in Paris cafés would bang their tables and shout ‘Bystro, bystro!’, meaning ‘Quickly, quickly!’ – that’s where the word 'bistro' came from.

· Area 16, 995, 800 sq km (twice the size of the continental USA)

· Population 141.4 million

· National chemist father of the periodic table, Dmitry Mendeleyev also standardised the formula for vodka at 40% alcohol to water

· LanguageRussian

· Head of State Dmitry Medvedev

· Phrases privyet (hi), do svidaniya (goodbye), spasiba (thanks), izvinitye (excuse me)

· Time zones 11

2. Match the famous tourist places in Russia with their description

3. Read the information from the American site about travelling in Russia. Do you agree with the information given? Does anything surprise you?

Visas

Everyone needs a visa to visit Russia and it’s likely to be your biggest single headache in organising a trip there – allow yourself at least a month before you travel to secure one. There are several types of visa, but for most travellers, a tourist visa (single or double entry and valid for a maximum of 30 days from the date of entry) will be sufficient and getting this should be relatively straightforward. If you plan on staying longer than a month, it’s advisable to apply for a business visa. Whatever visa you go for, the process has three stages – invitation, application and registration. Note that application and registration rules for trips to sensitive border regions, such as the Altai, Astrakhan, the Caucasus parts are slightly different. Also, there are a few regions and places in Russia that for security reasons you will not be granted a visa for.

Invitation

To obtain a visa, you first need an invitation. Hotels and hostels will usually issue anyone staying with them an invitation (or ‘visa support’) free or for a small fee (typically around €20 to €30). If you are not staying in a hotel or hostel, you will need to buy an invitation – costs typically range from €15 to €35 for a tourist visa, depending on whether you require a single or double entry type and how quickly you need the invitation, and €45 to €270 for the various types of business visa. This can be done through most travel agents, via specialist agencies and online.

Application

Invitation in hand, you can then apply for a visa at any Russian embassy. Costs vary – anything from US$50 to US$450 – depending on the type of visa applied for and how quickly you need it. Rather frustratingly, Russian embassies are practically laws unto themselves, each with different fees and slightly different application rules – avoid potential hassles by checking well in advance what these rules might be.

Registration

On arrival in Russia, you should fill out an immigration card – a long white form issued by passport control; these are often given out in advance on your flight. You surrender one half of the form immediately to the passport control, while the other you keep for the duration of your stay and give up only on exiting Russia. Take good care of this as you’ll need it for registration and could face problems while travelling in Russia – and certainly will on leaving – if you can’t produce it.

You must register your visa within three working days of arrival. (You’re not required to register for stays of less than three days.) If you’re staying at a hotel, the receptionist should be able to do this for you for free or for a small fee (typically around €20). Note that the very cheapest places sometimes will not oblige. Novosibirsk is notorious for forcing visitors into overpriced hotels to get that registration stamp, so it makes a bad arrival point. Once registered, you should receive a separate slip of paper confirming the dates you’ll be staying at that particular hotel. Keep this safe – that’s the document that any police who stop you will need to see.

If staying in a homestay or rental apartment, you’ll either need to pay a travel agency (anything from €20 to €70) to register your visa for you (most agencies will do this through a hotel) or make arrangements with the landlord or a friend to register you through the post office. Note, while registering at post offices in cities and large towns is likely to be straightforward, this procedure cannot be guaranteed in more remote places.

Every time you move city or town and stay for more than three days, it’s necessary to go through the registration process again. Keep all transport tickets (especially if you spend nights sleeping on trains) to prove to any over-zealous police officers exactly when you arrived in a new place.

Registration is a hassle but it’s worth doing for peace of mind since it’s not uncommon to encounter fine-hungry cops hoping to catch tourists too hurried or disorganised to be able to explain long gaps.

Money

The currency in Russia is the rouble, which is made up of 100 kopeks. Notes come in denominations of 5000, 1000, 500, 100, 50 and 10 roubles. You can use all major credit and debit cards (including Cirrus and Maestro) in ATMs and in good restaurants and hotels. Travellers cheques are possible to exchange, although at a price. Euro or US dollar cash is the best to bring, and in general should be in pristine condition – crumpled or old notes are often refused. Most major currencies can be exchanged at change booths all over any town in Russia. Look for the sign obmen valyut. You may be asked for your passport.

Dangers & annoyances

Travellers need to be very careful of pickpockets in Moscow and St Petersburg. Most foreigners stand out a mile in Russia and there’s an increased chance you’ll be targeted. Bear in mind that, while things have improved slowly, many police officers and other uniformed officials are on the take – some of them are not much better than the people they are employed to protect the public from. Never allow them to go through your wallet or pockets.

Never drink tap water in St Petersburg as it contains Giardia lamblia, a parasite that can cause horrific stomach cramps and nausea. Bottled water is available to purchase everywhere.

Sadly racist attacks have become a frequent reality in both Moscow and St Petersburg in recent years, particularly so in St Petersburg, where skinhead gangs have killed an unprecedented number of mainly Caucasian and Central Asians in the past few years. There now exists a climate of fear among ethnic minorities.

We still encourage nonwhite travellers to visit, but suggest exercising far more caution here than anywhere else in the region. Avoid the suburbs whenever possible and try not to go out after dark alone.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 467