We have just updated our Russian visa guide, which now includes all the relevant information for 2009 season. You can find it on WayToRussia.Net > Russian Visa page.



Some important changes:



1) Russian consulates only give visas to citizens or residents of the country where you apply. So, for example, if you are from the US and want to apply in Finland, you have to have a residence permit that allows you to stay in Finland/EU for longer than 90 days. Of course, all EU citizens can stay at any other EU country, so they won't have this problem.

However, if you're doing Trans-Siberian and want to travel from China to Russia, you won't be able to get a Russian visa in China unless you have a residence permit there. So get your visa beforehand!



2) Visa registration is very easy to make now. If you're staying in a hotel they do it for you, if you're staying at an apartment or friends, your landlord should just go to any post office or a local police office with a copy of your passport, fill out a special form, send it off to migration authorities, and keep the tear-off coupon, which you should carry with you while you're in Russia. When you leave Russia, you should give the tear-off coupon back to the landlord, who should send it back to migration authorities to inform them you left the country. Therefore, the border control doesn't check registrations anymore, they just need you to have the boarding card.



More info on our WayToRussia.Net / Russian Visa page.

If you want to be transported back to the Russian 80s and learn something about the founders of hip-hop (who were actually Russian babushkas and dedushkas 100 years ago), then read our new article at http://blogs.waytorussia.net/item/70.

By a special order from our government and the Kremlin, we have put together a few reasons why you should visit our beautiful country ASAP:


1) It's a very extreme country. The biggest, the deepest, the weirdest, the most eccentric, the least poor of the poorest, and the smartest of the smartest...





2) It's changing fast, so if you still want a taste of the strange mix created by the Communism experiments, book your trip now, as places go fast!





3) Soon there will be no fresh water, no gas, and no oil in the world. Unless anybody will bother to invent some substitutes, Russia will be the only provider of all three. So at least you should learn the language.





4) Russia is a bit like China, but less frightening. Russians are a bit like Arabs, but from the north.



5) We've got nuclear weapons too.



6) Vodka and caviar, yessss...



7) Oh yes, stereotypes... Russian women are beautiful and Russian men are courteous. That doesn't stop both from being considered vulgar sometimes, but that's a part of the unique national character.






8) Moscow club life is legendary. Stock up on D&G and Prada before you go though, the pills will be provided at the entrance.






9) Russia is the place where you can find completely wild areas. But if you want still a bit of comfort go to Baikal Lake. You can freely camp on the shore or stay in a B&B. There's lots of villages around, so you can always stock up on the food and fresh fish if you need. It's beautiful and unforgettable....







10) Russian people are really friendly, so if you feel lonely it's the best therapy. Just don't be turned off by the looks: Russians are not very keen on eye contact, but once you get to know them, they'll do everything for you.






Need more reasons? Send us some...

To keep things nice and simple, here's a few statements. To see the whole "official" story, please, see Our Team section of our website.


1) WayToRussia.Net is the most comprehensive guide to Russia on the internet;


2) Vodka rules, but only if it's Russky Standard or Imperia. Forget the word "Stoli" - it's outdated;


3) We are the most popular independent guide to Russia with 1.5 Mln readers every year;


4) Wish I was 25 in 1993, when they sold out all the remainings of Soviet industry for nothing;


5) If you ever wanted a Russian visa, we can help you make one without a fuss. You won't need to book a hotel or be tied up with a tour or a schedule. Just fill out the form on our site and travel to Russia for as long as you want and wherever you want. And.. yes.. it's 100% legal in case you were wondering...


6) We are not a travel agency. We maintain a listing and rating system for service providers. Our quality managers manually check ALL the requests placed on our site for these providers, and in case a problem arises, resolve it in favor of the customers. It's like getting a free insurance -- especially useful when dealing with such uncertain country as Russia.


7) Our position on the market and our diversification allows us to be quite pushy with service providers and advertisers. Basically, if they do something wrong, they are threatened to be excluded from the listings. Because they won't want to lose a part of their business just like that, they will do everything to resolve the issue in your favor ASAP.


8) We think that you can discover the country better by meeting the locals, not by going into Kremlin with a huge bunch of groupies.

So our information is geared towards individual travelers who want to experience the country through meeting people, going to interesting places, and enjoying the culture.


9) Dostoevsky may be cool, but you should also read Pelevin, Tolstaya and Sorokin to get the taste of the modern Russia.


10) Don't wear your trekking gear in Moscow -- you may not pass face control at a local grocery store.


11) Sorry about the Russian gas stuff, we truly strongly disagree with the policy of our country on this one, but that's the only way :-)


12) Find some time and go camping in Baikal lake wilderness -- you will definitely enjoy it better than spending 4 days without a stop on Trans-Siberian train and it's on the way anyway.

There was a tradition in the Soviet Union to paint the walls of houses with some propaganda-like images. Usually these images depicted glorious events, such as revolutions, demonstrations or huge construction sites, like this one here from Barnaul (Siberia):

Having served their purpose in the past, they are still an attractive sight to a passer-by. But what happens when state-sponsored graffiti artists let their inner vision out in the modern Russia?

Even though the means of expression are somewhat similar, their art is in no way Banksy style. Instead of being subversive or, as in the past, glorifying the current regime, these artists actually create a parallel reality where there is a place for a naked boy in the middle of the city (depicting future), a huge fist (depicting "good"), and peasants with abnormal carrots (depicting fertility, I guess).

In order to see all this, you need to go no further than a few hundred kilometers from Moscow. There, in a small Russian provincial city called Borovsk (Kaluga region) a local artist Ovchinnikov, former engineer, is making the place beautiful with his frescoes and plastering them with his wife's poems.

This particular one says: "The future is a naked boy, turning the key in a lock, And the earth is flying, like a ball, holding the centruries..."

There's another one:

It says: "The good should have fists(?!)"

And this one says "Attaboy our cucumber!" and the poem at the bottom ends with "... continuing good traditions are our dear gardeners, whose hands have grown in the earth!"

Looks strange? There's much more... Just check out Artemy Levedev's photo report of the city, scroll down to see more stuff...

The assumed well-meaning of this work is very bizarre especially in contrast to the run-down landscape around. And it's even stranger to imagine that some people might take these "depictions of normality" quite seriously...
Graffiti displaying cliche moral values, pseudo philosophical thoughts, and happy peasants with huge carrots... What could be more important for a small town in the middle of nowhere?

Central Asia might seem unstable these days, with the semi-regular occurrence of a revolution or the violent suppression of an uprising. But gone are the days when you could take a capital city with a ragtag army of soldiers and mercenaries. In 1921, however, Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg, known as the Bloody Baron, did just that when he captured Ulan Bataar in one of the strangest incidents of the Russian Civil War.


Von Sternberg was originally sent by the provisional government to help control the Russian Far East after the February 1917 Revolution. After the Bolsheviks took power in October, the Baron, while ostensibly a White Army general, played all sides. With funding from the Japanese, he did his best to hinder the operations of the Whites while fighting the Reds and still finding the time for brutal oppression of the local population.

But as the Red Army closed in on him, he took his 1700-odd man army south. The Baron had long held a fascination with eastern culture and Buddhism and headed to Mongolia in pursuit of a dream of uniting all the Far Eastern nations. At the time Mongolia was occupied by the Chinese. After making a couple of unsuccessful assaults on Ulaan Bataar the Bloody Baron used the art of deception against the Chinese in a maneuver that would make Sun Tzu proud. By surrounding the city and burning a huge number of camp fires he created the illusion of commanding a large army. The Chinese withdrew and the Bloody Baron entered the city and installed himself as dictator.

What ensued was a reign of terror with von Sternberg realizing his true propensity for pillaging and bloodletting. Apparently the Baron believed that if he murdered people they would be reborn as higher beings. He also seemed to think he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. Of course, it couldn't last and six months after taking power von Sternberg was defeated by a Red Army force. Then, after some similar, short-lived shenanigans in Buryatia, he was finally captured and executed in Novisibirsk.

In spite of his atrocities von Sternberg is often seen as a liberator by Mongolians and was declared a Mahakala incarnation by the 13th Dalai Lama. His incredible story has for some reason mostly gone untold. However, producer Alexander Proshkin did announce plans to make a film about the Bloody Baron in the near future.

Working from home gives you a lot of time to stare out your window, so you want to have a good view. Mine isn't too bad - I can see a couple of 19th Century church towers where upbeat bell melodies are played in the mornings - always a nice way to start the day. I can make out a few of the buildings on Tverskaya and one of the seven sisters stands in the distance. One day I might check a map and work out which one it is. But the view is largely blocked on either side by apartment buildings leaving only a small space that allows a long-distance view. And a small, dingy courtyard below my window is the only place where I can see other people. Luckily, though, this is Moscow and interesting events are provided regardless. In the past six months I have witnessed two fires and the aftermath of a rape and murder from the confines of my room.

The first fire (pictured above) was only a block away. I was impressed and somewhat surprised by the speed and efficiency with which the firefighters handled it. I was even more impressed that they have since started demolishing the building, opening up a view of the beautiful church tower behind. The second fire was a good distance away, but close enough to see the flames. Added interest came from the helicopters they brought in to drop water on it. But undoubtedly the most shocking incident was the rape and murder of a homeless woman in the courtyard below my window.

Now this happened in a central, highly-policed area of the city - it's really not something you would expect. I noticed it several hours after it must have happened when I saw a group of men standing around outside with the courtyard illuminated by a car's headlights. I didn't pay much attention at first since they were all in plain clothes, but when I looked again I noticed a woman's body on the ground among them. Her pants had been pulled down and she was missing a shoe. The plain-clothes police were taking some notes and smoking, throwing their cigarette butts around the crime scene. When they had finished a paramedic came up and checked the woman's pulse - after she had been lying half-naked in the snow for at least three hours. I guess he had to make sure...

Which brings me to my Moscow corpse count. My first sighting was on my first visit to Moscow a few years ago. Some poor boy had fallen out of the sixth storey window of the dormitory. His body lay there for a few hours, just outside the main entrance, until the ambulance arrived. They inspected him, covered him up, then left again. Much like the babushka at the produkty who will give you your food but won't take your money, it seems there is a division of labour among the ambulance employees as well. One lot comes to cover the body, another one comes to take it away. Soon afterwards there was the car crash on a busy steet. Taking a taxi home late at night I saw a smashed up car with the driver's door open and the female driver sprawled on the street next to it. There was no other car around. Presumably the other party had made a quick escape.

There were several other incidents, which bring the tally to six altogether. By far the most disturbing was the man lying in the busy underpass beneath Tverskaya who had been stabbed in the temple with a screwdriver no more than a few minutes before I went down. Someone was taking his pulse but he was already very white and almost certainly dead. Even stranger is the attitude of the other passers-by to these events. Usually they walk past with only a glancing interest.

But with all that said, and in spite of all the terrible stories I read in the news, I still maintain that Moscow is a safe place. It seems to me that it's very unlikely for the average person to be a victim of a random act of violence here. Nevertheless, corpse sightings are a part of any mid to long-term visit to Moscow.

Was this entry a bit too morbid? I recall writing about uplifting church bells at some point...