General Info

[Jonathan Pine]

1. Download app "Rutaxi" onto your phones. You can simply type the address you need to be picked up and dropped off and the app will show you the price right away. The taxis will usually arrive within a few minutes. The prices are much much cheaper than haggling with the cab drivers.

Some advantages with the app: Eliminate the need to speak with dispatchers on the phone. The app works nationwide! It's a Godsend.

So next time when some mafia cab drivers quote you an outrageous price, you can tell them go fuck themselves.

2. Download app "2 GIS". This will show you which bus or minibus or trams to take. Also works nationwide.

A trick of mine is to ask the pretty girls on the bus for directions. First in English to show that I'm a foreigner new to their cities, to disarm them. Than switch to Russian to continue the conversation because the nice girls usually bloody well don't speak English.

This ice breaking trick works, but only outside of Moscow. Far away from Moscow.

3. Learn the language. It will raise batting average 10 folds.

[Uphigh]

There has been discussion of this here on the forum and elsewhere on the net. I think there is decent info out there, however I just got the visa and thought I would try to put all the info in one place for people.

I could see no advantage to getting the business visa as opposed to the tourist visa, so I got the tourist visa.

Documents ETC. That you need to prepare.

Invitation. For those not familiar, there are tons of companies that offer this over the web. You just go to their website, enter in some info and they email you the invitation in 24 hours or less.

The Visa application. You fill it in and save it to the Russian embassy website, but you also print off a hard copy of it to submit along with your other materials.

A photograph. Passport-sized is the size, or in any case works.

Your passport obviously.

The fee.

If you do not live in a city with a Russian embassy or consulate, then you can use a visa assistance company (it might be the case that you have to if you aren't taking the documents to the embassy / consulate yourself, not sure). Google ILS Russian visa. I got the impression that one has to use this company, again could be wrong. They have a few of their own documents (eg. Service agreement with them), and their own fees.

Some thing that confused me, and what the answer was in the end.

For the invitation, just get a 30 day single entry one (even though the scope of your visa will be much broader than this). Fill in your date of entry and put a date of departure 30 days later, eg. Enter on April 2 exit on May 1. This is confusing because you may not have any trips planned yet, and when you do they will likely be different dates and maybe for longer, but anyway this is how you can fill it out. The 30 day single entry invitation is the cheapest, but in any case no option that I saw actually matches the timing and multiple entry aspect that your visa will ultimately have.

The visa application will ask you where you are staying. If you don't have a trip planned yet, then as I understand it is OK to put your best guess for where you will be staying and it is not required that you actually stay there when you do finally plan and go on a trip.

The visa application will ask for all the countries you have visited in the last 10 years including date of entry. I did my best as to date of entry. There were a couple where I was guessing a bit, but was close I think.

Despite numerous references to a cover letter on the net, I was told I did not need one and did not supply one.

On the visa application, for entry into Russia, put your actual entry date of course. For departure date, put three years later, eg. You enter August 2, 2016 put August 1, 2019 as your departure date.

What you get.

You will get a 3 year multi-entry tourist visa valid from the day you specified as your day of entry to a date three years from then. It will also state that the maximum duration of stay is 6 months. However, according to my research you can leave for just one day and return immediately again for another 6 months. So, the really remarkable thing about this visa is that it seems to allow essentially continuous stay (so a huge improvement over the 90 in /90 out rule, and the general situation of not being able to stay very long in a country unless working or studying). One thing to keep in mind though is tax residency. As I understand it, if you stay 183 days or more in Russia in any 12 month period you are a tax resident of Russia under Russian law, but the ministry of finance only takes this approach if you stay 183 days in a calendar year. Anyway, something to keep in mind.

[Putologist]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/a...ou/559233.html

Quite sobering. One more proof that the golden&wild 90ies are definitively over and it might not come back. At least not in our lifetime.

[Suka Shalava]

I need to go the tourist visa route. I see the Russian embassy recommends applying for a 3 year multi-entry visa. But the required documentation is potentially onerous. Anybody apply recently and did they really require all that much?

We had a lengthy debate here a couple of years ago about whether it was actually the consulate that was requiring some of the items, or if it was just the agency processing the applications.

Those on the side of the debate that disputed that it wasn't really the consulate that ever required these documents, but instead it was just the processing agency, never offered an answer to the main question. Why?

If it wasn't really the consulate that was requiring the letter from your bank confirming your balance was minimum $10,000, plus a copy of your mortgage or deed or your property tax bill to prove you own your home, plus a letter from your employer confirming that you work and what your job title is, then what is the real reason why the agency that processes your application wants all of that? Why would a visa processing agency stipulate those are all requirements for a 3 year tourist visa, if the consulate doesn't require ANY of those?

Nobody here ever offered an explanation for that, but several insisted those requirements were created by the processing agency. If they are not required by the consulate, would the processing agency add those without having ANY reason?

Another unanswered question was why are these items required for a 3 year multi-entry tourist visa, but not for a single entry tourist visa?

As far as producing these items, there's absolutely nothing onerous to contend with. Printing a property tax bill takes one computer click, and my bank and my employer were perfectly happy to provide letters. Go for it.

[Member #4732]

Thinking of returning to SPB after an absence of several years. When I was there previously I was on business visa. This time I would need to go the tourist visa route. I see the Russian embassy recommends applying for a 3 year multi-entry visa. But the required documentation is potentially onerous. Anybody apply recently and did they really require all that much?

In particular, I was thinking of renting an apt via airbnb.com , but what does that mean for the visa application criteria of demonstrating a hotel reservation? Does the airbnb proprietor provide a letter of confirmation or can I just provide my airbnb confirmation or something like that?

[Jon32]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/a...ou/559233.html

Greek economic troubles and Syrian migrant crisis receiving broad coverage.

"Who wants to go to Europe anyway, with all the chaos that's going on there?

I think that sums up what a lot of people think of europe right now. It's a fucking disaster, every day front page news about refugees, migrants, crisis, economy.

In my opinion, it's only going to get worse. There's a huge culture clash between who's coming and who's already here.

You either need to stop it completely (not going to happen) or just wait it out. Waiting it out is going to take generations for everyone to mix properly.

[Cucumber]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/a...ou/559233.html

[LoopTackle]

Hello Jonners,

IF you read this. Be aware of that your PM space have overflowed, so you can't receive any more PM from fellows like me and others here at the forum.

(I did post this in the most applicable folder in the Russian part of the Forum, where you seems to most active in.).

Please clear, thanks.

[LoopTackle]

Hello Jonners,

IF you read this. Be aware of that your PM space have overflowed, so you can't receive any more PM from fellows like me and others here at the forum.

(I did post this in the most applicable folder in the Russian part of the Forum, where you seems to most active in.).

[Suka Shalava]

The combination of Crimean students and Donbass refugee students coming to Russian Universities, plus the forecast of slower economic growth, could result in more students' interest in having a sponsor to support their efforts to get their University degrees. Its been mentioned that the current situation will mean that there could be less opportunities for free tuition.

[KeepItBurnin]

Any website with real photos?

Hi guys. Any website I can fully trust? I've been in Budapest last summer and spent 200 euros on 2 fake girls. That was a pity. Until I found a good website where I got today satisfaction there. Anything in Moscow and St Petersburg? Will be there in a week.

[YummyPL]

I think we can all agree that P4 P is a supply and demand based business. There seems to be a certain amount of "scrambling" going on as girls try ti protect themselves from the recent drop in the ruble. In particular, those to rely on foreigners for their business are going to be particularly sensitive to adjusting their ruble rates relative to the Euro or the Dollar. However, from what I have heard recently, WG's who service Russian guys have not touched their rates much at all. First rule of sales, "Know your Customer".

Also, supply should be rising so that should also have a bearing on what rate a girl can pull.

[Putologist]

However, from what I have heard recently, WG's who service Russian guys have not touched their rates much at all. First rule of sales, "Know your Customer".

One more reason to learn the Russian language.

[Jake993]

I was just thinking about this recently, with the Roubles drop hookers in Russia should work out a lot cheaper, have many girls raised their rates since the drop? Looking on Dosug the prices seem fairly reasonable now.

I think we can all agree that P4 P is a supply and demand based business. There seems to be a certain amount of "scrambling" going on as girls try ti protect themselves from the recent drop in the ruble. In particular, those to rely on foreigners for their business are going to be particularly sensitive to adjusting their ruble rates relative to the Euro or the Dollar. However, from what I have heard recently, WG's who service Russian guys have not touched their rates much at all. First rule of sales, "Know your Customer".

[Jerboa]

Russian Prostitutes Hike Rates Over Slumping Ruble Media.

The Moscow TimesDec. 04 2014 20:37 Last edited 20:37.

In the Urals, sex workers have raised prices by between 50 and 100 percent.

Getting laid in Russia just became more expensive.

The crime of buying sexual services is becoming more expensive in Russia as prostitutes increase their rates to offset the free-falling ruble, regional media reported.

An escort agency in the northern port of Murmansk has raised prices by 30 to 40 percent, news website Flashnord.com reported.

The pre-crisis price was 3,000 to 7,000 rubles ($55 to $130 at Thursday's rate) per two hours of "spending time with an agency employee," Flashnord said Tuesday.

The price will likely be pegged to the dollar in the future, the website said. Though prostitution is illegal in Russia, the report gave the name of the alleged brothel, Madlen.

A representative of another "escort salon" named World of Sex in Murmansk was cited as saying that the enterprise "is trying to keep prices as they were, but life's getting more expensive, and girls can't work at a loss. ".

In the Urals, sex workers have raised prices by between 50 and 100 percent, Uralpolit. Ru said Wednesday, citing unnamed clients of prostitutes.

In addition to the falling ruble, the sex tariff inflation may have been boosted by an influx of sex workers fleeing war-torn Ukraine, the website said. The new competition is forcing local sex workers to hike their rates in order to pay their bills, the report said.

The ruble has lost almost 40 percent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year due to an economic downturn.

Sex workers make up about 1 million of Russia's 142 million population, Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said last year.

Prostitution is punishable with a fine of up to 2,000 rubles ($37) in Russia. Pimps face up to a decade behind bars.

I was just thinking about this recently, with the Roubles drop hookers in Russia should work out a lot cheaper, have many girls raised their rates since the drop? Looking on Dosug the prices seem fairly reasonable now.