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MrSpice
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 14 Jul 2003
Posts: 3431
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 Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Stanislav wrote: | OK, by the summer they'll most likely become more tan-tolerant  .
Generally, if they can see appropriate documents, it has a magic effect, unless you get in trouble with real criminals in uniforms.
Surprisingly, I was stopped this morning once again, this time at "Dostoyevskaya", right where i'm opening our new office in a couple of months, so now I'm sure I won't be missing the checks!
Today the reason was that I had "strange-looking eyes", which they guessed could be a result of drug abuse. OK, I showed my passport and said "strange eyes? I just think quite a lot." This fortunately wasn't qualified as a crime (we're not back in the USSR), so I could continue my way. |
What are the documents that you have? Are you a russian citizen with "propiska"? Is it a Russian passport? |
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Stanislav
Frequent Guest
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 25
Location: St. Petersburg
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| Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:04 am Post subject: |
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What are the documents that you have? Are you a russian citizen with "propiska"?
Yes, I am. And it doesn't prevent me from being regularly stopped by the police. But as I have already mentioned, I work with quite a lot of foreigners who come for Russian courses, and being rresponsible for them I have deal with this issues, among other things. The documents required are usually a passport with a visa, and a registration. Many companies in St. Pete provide these registrations at very low prices. In fact, we always recommend our clients to carry just copies of these documents, leaving the original papers in a safe place. Copies are usually OK with the police. Of course it's recommended to stay calm, just show the papers, if they have questions - it's sometimes good to call a Russian who knows what to say. Our students sometimes call me or someone from our administration, and usually the problem is solved without arrest or a bribe, unless one of the two (the policeman or the "suspect") is drunk.
Any way, I really believe visa and registration laws for westerners are stupid, and will definitely vote against if I'm asked one day, for now I'll just wish everyone luck, and think of more ways to help those who need it. |
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MrSpice
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 14 Jul 2003
Posts: 3431
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| Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:09 am Post subject: |
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| Stanislav wrote: | What are the documents that you have? Are you a russian citizen with "propiska"?
Yes, I am. And it doesn't prevent me from being regularly stopped by the police. But as I have already mentioned, I work with quite a lot of foreigners who come for Russian courses, and being rresponsible for them I have deal with this issues, among other things. The documents required are usually a passport with a visa, and a registration. Many companies in St. Pete provide these registrations at very low prices. In fact, we always recommend our clients to carry just copies of these documents, leaving the original papers in a safe place. Copies are usually OK with the police. |
I am originally from Russia myself and speak Russian well. But I am a US citizen. When I was in St Petersburg last June, I was never stopped. What concerned me was that I have to carry the original documents with me all the time. I bought a inside pocket - the one that goes under one's pants and is not visible where I was carrying my passport with visa and registration. Legally and oficially, people need to carry the originals, right? What if they say that copies are not good enough? Will they just fine me and let me go? How does it get resolved. |
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Stanislav
Frequent Guest
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 25
Location: St. Petersburg
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| Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| If the police don't like the copies, people usually say "OK, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid of pickpockets (the police should know there are some). I was advised by my Russian friend (teacher, colleague) to carry the copies. That's when they sometimes make a call to our stuff. of course it's good to have a real stamp on the copy to make it look more official (we always put ours). What happens then is usually that they just let the person go, even without asking to pay anything. |
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Camrade
VIP
Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 516
Location: Санкт-Петербург
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| Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| militia in subways rarely stop foreigners |
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Miami
WayToRussified
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 340
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| Camrade wrote: | | militia in subways rarely stop foreigners |
Once a militia person stopped me and started to rough me up. I became agitated and had to give him a judo-chop and knocked him out. I stole his weapon and sold it on the black market, then I used the money to buy some vodka!  |
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Miami
WayToRussified
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 340
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| Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:29 am Post subject: |
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Just joking!   |
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swp4lfe
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 94
Location: Philadelphia PA
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| Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:16 am Post subject: |
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Last year when i was visiting Moscow for the first time my girlfriend was showing me around the city, going to different museums and different places. Well as a tourist i liked to take pictures of the churches and the funny cyrillic letters Wellllllll we went to go to the Pushkin Art Museum but they would not let us in because it was "childrens night" (it was night before Russian X-MAS) so we turned around and i took a picture of the lights going down the street. So we walk a little bit and some Russian Milita man comes running towards me and my girlfriend and starts speaking russian and about 5 minutes of my girl and the police man were talking, she translated to me and told me that he wanted us to "follow him" And she asked him what if we do not follow him, and he said they will find us because they have cameras watching all over. So we followed this army man a couple of streets over and rings this gates bell and 5 more russian army men are in outside around a fire and we are waiting there wondering are they going to kill us or what not. So after 15 minutes of shitting myself (i dont understand Russian so i dont know what the hell is going on) some Commando Army man takes us in this small bunker which was about 6 feet high and it had a small table, 2 chairs, a portable heater, small bed and this huge book that looked like the first bible ever written. And he took all my passport information, all my girlfriends information and all the information about the camera and deleted all my pictures on the camera  Then he let us go without not paying him anything and giving us no trouble but as we are leaving he says to me in english "enjoy your stay in moscow" and then the bastard smiles and closes the gate on us.
And the reason we got stopped in the first place was because the picture of there was a building on the other side of the Russian Government building i forget what its called but it was the Russian FBI building. And they thought i was a spy 
So now i just tell the militia to fuck off if they give me problems. Most of them dont understand english so i dont care about them. Also Moscow makes me very angry, the people staring at me all the time, always in a rush, always looking miserable. Makes me want to fight when im there. But I Love my girlfriend and i will marry her and return to Russia as is. This is a 100% true story and all i can do now is laugh about it. Heres my first picture after it happened.
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