Organize your stay Russia
Money Russia
The unit of currency is the ruble (RUB, ₽), subdivided into 100 kopecks.
The denominations are 5,000, 2,000, 1,000, 500, 100, 50, 10 and 5 rubles for banknotes; 10, 5, 2 and 1 rubles and 50, 10, 5, 2 and 1 kopeck for coins. The 10 and 5 rouble banknotes are no longer printed but remain in circulation. 1, 5 and 10 kopeck coins are also very rare and almost useless
Euros can easily be changed into rubles, there is no need to have dollars in advance. You can change money in all cities and tourist places, in banks or in "obmen valiouty", a kind of counter displaying the rates with huge signs. You can also withdraw rubles from ATMs for a fee of about 3% (this also depends on your bank). Since September 2008 the rouble has been quite unstable and goes through phases of devaluation and fairly frequent revaluations. The prices are those of May 2020. 1 € = 83 RUB, 1 RUB = 0.012 €.
It is often more convenient to pay by card in Russia, where contactless payment is particularly widespread. Be careful, it only works with some foreign cards (it depends on the card), otherwise you will have to type the code. Otherwise, payment by phone (with Apple Pay in particular) is also extremely widespread and very convenient.
Budget & Tips Russia
Russia is a vast and diverse country, and standards of living are very different. Three types of cities can be distinguished: the two capitals of Moscow and St. Petersburg, regional capitals and tourist centres, and other cities in Russia. Moscow and St. Petersburg have the reputation of being expensive cities. In fact, accommodation is the most expensive. Transport is very cheap, restaurants a little cheaper than in France and museums reasonable. In the regional capitals, the price of accommodation is often driven up by business customers, but the cost of daily living is in line with local salaries: low.
A tight budget can manage for RUB 3,000 a day, which is RUB 1,300 for accommodation and breakfast always included, RUB 1,200 for lunch and dinner, the remaining RUB 500 for visits, transport and outings.
For an average budget, RUB 7 000 is needed: RUB 3 500 for a room in a medium-class hotel, RUB 2 500 for two meals and RUB 1 000 for visits and outings, and taxi.
Big budgets can go very high. Up to $250 (15,000 RUB) for a room in a palace, between 3,000 and 4,000 RUB for a meal in a very large restaurant. It's hard to fit in with the expensive lifestyle of the new Russians!
Passport and visas Russia
If you are a citizen of a member country of the European Union (as well as Switzerland and Canada), you will need a visa to travel to Russia, whatever the reason: tourism, business, study or humanitarian visa. The process seems complicated but it is actually a matter of following a few steps, in order and in advance: at least 1 month before departure.
Process for obtaining a tourist visa, valid for 30 days
Step 1: Check that all papers are in order. You will need a passport in good condition valid for at least 6 months after your return, a health/repatriation insurance for a minimum amount of 30 000 € (school insurance for young people, credit card insurance, or insurance that you buy online before departure), a valid and recent passport photo. For long-term visas (student visas in particular), a certificate attesting to HIV-negative status must also be provided.
Step 2: Obtain an invitation (also called an invitation voucher or invitation letter). The invitation can be sent to you by the person receiving you, or one of the hotels where you will be staying, if you request it in advance. Otherwise, the easiest way is to get it on the Internet, where several agencies will send it to you in a few minutes for a price ranging from 30 to 60 € depending on the visa. The price of a standard invitation (single entry) for a one-month tourist visa is between 30 and 45 €. The Go Russia agency has online and telephone support to answer all your questions. When you apply for a voucher, you must provide the following information: dates of stay and intended itinerary. You will not be required to follow this itinerary once you arrive in Russia, but this information is important for consular services and it is on this basis that your invitation will be generated. Visas can be single or double entry (to be able to leave and re-enter the country), but in the case of a tourist visa, double entry is not frequently granted. When you receive your invitation, you will actually receive two documents in your mailbox. Firstly, the proper voucher which is sent to you by a Russian agency with which the Internet agency where you applied for the visa works. Your itinerary will be indicated on it. Then, a "Tour confirmation" where, on the basis of your itinerary, the agency has generated a schedule: such a day transfer to city 2, such a day "free time", etc.: it is as if you have really established a tourist circuit with this agency, which is the official body that "invites" you. Of course, your relationship with this agency actually ends here, but this is the procedure for writing an invitation!
Step 3: Once you have these documents in your possession, you need to make your official visa application to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To do so, you need to go to the official website https://visa.kdmid.ru/ and fill in the form with the required information. The number of the invitation is the one indicated on your voucher, and the name of the inviting organization is the name of the Russian agency that arranged your itinerary, also indicated on the voucher. Once the form is completed, you will need to print it out and collect the paper version of the necessary documents (passport and photocopy of passport, original insurance certificate, voucher, itinerary, photo).
Step 4: You must then make an appointment with the Visa Assistance Services to submit your application and supporting documents. Because for a tourist visa you do not go to the Consulate: private companies are in charge of transmitting your file. In Paris, VHS France (https://vhs-france.com/, at 35 avenue de Friedland) and VFS Global (https://www.vfsglobal.com/Russia/France/, at 17 avenue George V) are the reference. The services of VFS are a little cheaper (70 € for a tourist visa) but you will have to wait in line because there is no appointment. At VHS you have to make an appointment and will pay about 110 €. Be careful, it's better to make an appointment in advance even if you haven't filled out your application yet, because there is not always a slot available immediately. Please note that these two boxes offer, for a fee, very useful additional services: filling in the visa application, or visa by mail for those who cannot go to the centres of Paris or Marseille.
Step 5: You will then have to wait about 3 weeks (4-20 working days for VFS, 7-21 working days for VHS) before receiving your visa. An express visa service is available at VFS for an extra 35 €. Do not plan to go outside the EU at this time as your passport is sent to the embassy for the visa to be affixed. When the service tells you (by SMS or email), you can go at the agreed time to pick up your passport which will contain the visa.
Step 6: Upon arrival on Russian territory, you will be given a migration card, a small paper receipt with your visa information on it. It is to be kept with you at all times, and you will be asked for it when you leave (and for registration, and if you encounter any problems).
For questions related to the registration of foreign citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation, please refer to the practical sheet "Getting Lodging"!
E-Visa. Russia has recently implemented an e-visa service for entry into 3 territories of the country: the Far East, the Kaliningrad region and St Petersburg and its region. The e-visas cover tourist visas, business visas and "humanitarian" visas (sport, culture, science and technology). The e-visa is valid for 30 days, but the duration of the visit should not exceed 8 days. It should be applied for between 20 and 4 days before departure on https://evisa.kdmid.ru. Processing times range from 48 to 72 hours. Please read paragraph 3 of the information text on the website carefully: you cannot enter with the e-visa at all border checkpoints. For example, it is impossible to enter Leningrad Oblast (St. Petersburg region) by train with an e-visa: you will have to go by plane, by road or... on foot!
Please note that while obtaining an electronic visa is relatively simple, it is not the same for entering Russia with it. At issue: information that has not been entered in the right way in the form and which will sometimes contradict the information indicated when purchasing the plane ticket, for example. You must fill in the necessary information as indicated on the Optical Reading Zone (the two lines at the bottom of page 2 of your passport) and disregard the visual zone. Under the heading "Surname", you should therefore not indicate your usual name (whether or not it is your married name). In the "First Name" section, include all given names indicated in the ZLO and if there are accents or special characters, refer to the ZLO for the spelling to be used. In the "Other Names" section, do not include anything, not even your maiden name, although "Maiden name" is suggested. Once in the territory of the Russian Federation with your e-visa, you will not be obliged to register, as registration must be done within 7 working days, so the 8 days of stay that the e-visa entitles you to are less than 7 working days. However, you will not be able to leave the territory for which the e-visa was issued (e.g. you cannot visit Moscow with an e-visa for St. Petersburg)
Visa exemptions are valid under certain conditions for 72 hours for cruise passengers disembarking in St. Petersburg (see the section "Arriving by boat", practical sheet "Getting around").
Health Russia
HIV epidemic. Until now the HIV epidemic in Russia has been considered concentrated, i.e. it has mainly affected only at-risk populations. However, due to the low number of public policies aimed at curbing it, it is about to be reclassified as a "generalized epidemic", i.e., the entire population is "at risk". In particular, heterosexual sex has become the second leading cause of transmission after injection drug use. Some areas (the Urals region and the city of Ekaterinburg, for example) are more affected than others. In general, knowledge about HIV (and its potential HIV status) is very limited in Russia, which significantly increases the risk of transmission. For the safety of their partners and themselves, visitors to Russia should be particularly careful if they have sex with Russian citizens.
Drinking water. In large cities, tap water is not safe to drink (e.g., Moscow and St. Petersburg): you will need to boil it before drinking it, or use a filter jug or commercially available bottles. In the provinces, you have to ask: water from Irkutsk or the Caucasus, for example, is quite drinkable!
Mandatory vaccination Russia
No vaccinations are required to return to Russia. However, for long-term visas (over three months), a certificate of HIV seronegativity is required. Several diseases are more prevalent in the Russian Federation than in Western Europe, including HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis. Cases of co-infection are frequent, especially among marginalized populations (prisoners, drug users, sex workers, migrant workers).
Time difference Russia
There is 2 hours ahead of French time in winter and 1 hour ahead of French time in summer, for the regions of European Russia. The Volga-Ural region is at UTC + 4 or + 5, Irkutsk at UTC + 8 (7 hours ahead of France, 5 hours ahead of Moscow), Vladivostok at UTC + 10 and finally Kamchatka at UTC + 12, just before the date change line.
Spoken languages Russia
Apart from the vernacular languages in the regions, Russian is spoken exclusively and uniformly in the country. English is only spoken by a minority of people and in hotels and restaurants. French is still spoken by some scholars, as well as German, in memory of the friendship with the GDR. But foreign languages in Russia have long suffered from almost non-existent education.
For the comfort of your trip, it is highly recommended that you learn Cyrillic before you leave. It is very close to the Latin alphabet: it is not so difficult and one afternoon is enough. Otherwise, you will be unable to read all the inscriptions, which are very rarely translated.
Communication Russia
Although telephone coverage is very good in Russia, roaming is still practiced within the country. If you plan to travel, you will need to buy a SIM card that works throughout the country, otherwise your calls will be overcharged once you leave the destination region. The three main operators are Beeline (Би-лайн), MTS (МТС) and Megafon (Мегафон), which are well represented throughout the country. There is also the chain Evroset' (Евросеть), an authorised reseller. For more information about buying a local SIM card, please refer to the 'Hello' section of the 'Everyday life' fact sheet!
You will also have no trouble finding a wifi connection in restaurants and cafés. In some public places such as train stations and airports it can be a bit more complicated. Sometimes you have to enter your phone number. You can also find wifi in some modern trains (Lastochka in particular). In long-distance trains, a connection is often offered but its quality depends on the LTE telephone network with which it works. If you have Internet on your phone, the connection will not be better with wifi. All hotels have free wifi, but it is often of poor quality because the signal is either too far away or too much used. It is always better to plan to have enough data on your phone to use it in connection sharing, if you travel with your computer.
Electricity and measurements Russia
No problem for electrical appliances, Russia uses the same standard as France. In some old buildings, there are still installations to Soviet standards (narrower sockets), but this is still rare. The system of measurement is metric as in France: goodbye to the verstes in Tolstoy's novels, we measure in meters and weigh in kilograms!
Luggage Russia
Clothing depends, of course, on the season. In summer, bring light clothes and a few sweaters to face the cool nights from August onwards. In late spring and early autumn a raincoat is essential. In the most northern regions, winter begins in mid-October and you should take coats and head coverings. Of course, take precautions in winter. Take along everything that is likely to keep you very warm and above all nothing fragile. Mud and dust will quickly make your favourite outfit unrecognisable. The most difficult question is that of shoes: the city is covered all winter long with "brown" snow that dirties shoes and trouser bottoms. The best thing to do is to have furry boots, which you can swap for more elegant shoes when you get to work or any other public place where you need them. In any case, tapochki (slippers) will be offered to you as soon as you enter private homes, and even on the train. Shoes are not allowed inside Russian houses! You will also be able to find suitable clothes on the spot a little cheaper than in France, do not hesitate to go around the markets of the city, the ideal place to find a pretty practical item that will make you the season and all this for a price defying any competition. Also think about the chouba, those big fur coats that you see everywhere as soon as the first snow falls. There are very ostentatious models in coloured mink but also more discreet alternatives, and in fake fur. It is the ideal way to spend the winter in pure Russian chic. Finally, in summer as in winter, think about your swimsuit. Russian baths and saunas are a blessing, especially in very cold weather.
