A Moscow Survival Guide

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A Moscow Survival Guide . . .

(Student study group preparing course outline)

for students and short term residents.

Created for our students and guests by ANO Pericles, Moscow

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means other than by the written permission of the copyright holder. However, you are welcome to link to this page without seeking prior permission.

This Survival Guide was most recently edited April 2004. Please be aware that political, economic and bureaucratic changes in Russia occur daily. Although ANO Pericles strives to keep its information up to date, we do not warrant the accuracy of any information contained herein. None of the advice herein is intended to be legal advice, nor relied upon in lieu of contacting legal counsel. None of the firms mentioned or recommended herein are affiliated with ANO Pericles, and we do not warrant the quality or availability of their service on any particular matter.

To inform Pericles of changes or inaccuracies, or to obtain further information, please contact us at one of the addresses below.

ANO PERICLES PERICLES AMERICAN BUSINESS & LEGAL EDUCATION PROJECT TVERSKAYA ULITSA 10, # 319 MOSCOW, 125009 RUSSIA PHONE (7-095) 292-6463/5188 E-MAIL: [email protected] WWW.PERICLES.RU INTERNATIONAL MAIL: C/O GLOBAL POST, 666 5TH AVE SUITE 426, N.Y., N.Y. 10103-0001

Table of Contents

Introduction to a Successful Visit ...... 3 Preparing for Your Trip...... 4 Visas...... 5 Arranging Hotels...... 7 Things to Bring...... 8 Things NOT to Bring ...... 11 Money ...... 12 Arrival Formalities...... 16 Passport Control...... 16 Baggage Claim...... 18 Clearing Customs ...... 18 Leaving the Airport...... 19 Checking into a Hotel...... 21 Visa Registration ...... 22 Your Visit Itself ...... 22 Identification...... 22 Water--–Hot and Cold and Sometimes Drinkable...... 23 Apartment Hunting...... 24 Getting Around the City...... 27 Getting Outside the City...... 29 Finding Things...... 30 English Language Reading Materials ...... 31 Keeping in Touch ...... 33 --MAIL...... 33 –E-MAIL/WEB...... 33 –LONG DISTANCE...... 35 –LOCAL CALLS...... 35 --CELL PHONES...... 36 Food ...... 38 Bars...... 42 Health Clubs & Fitness Centers...... 44 Religion...... 45 Shopping...... 46 Dry Cleaning...... 48 Weather...... 49 Dispelling Some Common Mythology ...... 50 Crime and Safety...... 50 Disease and Medicine...... 51 Departure Formalities...... 53 Conclusion...... 53

Introduction to a Successful Visit

Visiting Russia for the first time can be both exhilarating and frustrating. By the time you have your invitation in hand and are ready to board the plane, practically everyone you know will have told you a story about the adventures of a past visitor to the country, and lots of people will have reminded you of Chechnya, mafiosi and other newspaper horror stories from recent history. Some people may have told you that Russians love Americans, and are warm, giving people, willing to welcome you into their homes with food and deep conversation. Others may have warned you about Russian women in high heals and too much lipstick, waiting to lure in men with foreign passports and fat wallets. Still others may have compared Russia compared to gang-land Chicago, where wheeling and dealing is a way of life, fortunes come and go like spare change, and danger lurks on every corner. You have probably read about the wild night clubs and casinos that work all night, and about lines outside grocery stores and failed banks. More recently, you have probably seen articles about miraculous economic recovery and the optimistic outlook for business. So in short, by now you probably don’t know what to expect.

The truth is that the opinion you come away with depends on you--your expectations-- and the people you happen to meet. Whether you find Russian people to be hardcore capitalists, resentful nationalists, bureaucratic communists, or folks who watch The Godfather as an instructional manual, depends on with whom you choose to associate. If you try, you can find all those types of people here, but, more often, you will find people who don’t fit any of these stereotypes. On the main streets of downtown Moscow you can shop at Escada, while 10 minutes into the suburbs people still buy their staples from street traders in makeshift kiosks. Russians are both hungry for Western ideas, and jaded from the influx of them. Communist or bureaucratic attitudes will complicate some things you will try to do or explain, and not others. Some business people are “under the roof” of shady organizations, and many more are not.

Some Westerners find it easy to adjust to Russia’s complexities, and others throw up their hands in frustration at dealing with a cultural, political and economic system that only native Russians can truly seem to manage.

So how do you become one of those with a successful visit and happy remembrances?

First, don’t take as gospel everything you have heard about Russia from casual visitors to the country. Instead be ready to experience the country on its own terms.

Second, don’t try to export your cultural attitudes from home, but be prepared to accept--with patience and a sense of humor--the inevitably foreign, Russian way of doing things.

Third, don’t insulate yourself in the glass bubble of Americans abroad (“I didn’t like it when I first got there but I was OK once I found McDonalds.”), but try to meet and assimilate with Russian people, on their own terms.

Above all, remember to respect Russia and the Russian people for what they are, and not to be critical of what they are not.

Russia has experienced tremendous change in the last 15 years. Initially, discovering that “Lenin is dead” was to many Russians like discovering that “God is dead” would be to an American. The system they worked in for seventy years fell apart without even a war to blame. With it fell jobs, economics, stability and all the icons and beliefs of the old regime. People had trouble reestablishing a career and a sense of purpose. They were forced to replace old icons with new. Then, just as the economy was beginning to restabilize after several years of 1000% inflation, the currency was devalued, the banks failed, and they were told to start again. In Russia, if you ask someone if they were here during the coup, or during the financial crisis, they will have to respond “which ones?”

It’s beginning to normalize here now. We haven’t had a banking crisis in six years, and, the occasional political assassination aside, we haven’t had a coup in a decade. But before you sigh in frustration at an administrative muddle, look askance at a run down building, let slip an unkind remark about a surly pedestrian, or complain that your Russian friend is too pessimistic and cynical, be sure to think of our own experience. Remember how long it took the South to recover, physically and emotionally, from the Civil War? Given what the Russian people have been through in the past decade, would we have done as well in their position?

Preparing for Your Trip

Whenever you are spending a month or more abroad, careful preparation is important. When you are spending a month abroad in a country as different from the US as Russia, careful preparation is essential. With this in mind, we will try to tweak your thought processes on a few of those essentials.

4 Visas

Obtaining visas for Russia is getting more complicated even as we write. It should be planned well in advance. First, there are special regimes of resident versus non-resident status just as there are in the U.S. Assuming you are not planning on Russian residency any time soon, Russia offers you several main types of visas for temporary visitors: transit, tourist, private, student, work, humanitarian, and business. We recommend going for “business.” Transit visas are good for about three days. Tourist visas generally require you to stay in a hotel, and therefore are not very practical for long stays. Private visitor visas can be issued by people you know in Russia if you want to stay in their home, but they require your Russian host to spend some time in line to get the appropriate stamps to issue you a personal visa invitation. Student visas are reserved for long term (semester or more) students in Russian state run educational institutions. Work visas require an employer and a special permit from the Ministry of Labor. And humanitarian visas require specially designated inviting organizations. So in general, most visitors for more than a month get a “business visa,” which is kind of the catch-all category for short term students and anyone else who doesn’t fit neatly into the other categories mentioned above.

So for the rest of this section we will discuss just business visas.

To get a business visa you first need to check the Russian consulate web-site in the country of your citizenship and the country where you plan to apply. Due to reciprocal arrangements between countries, special restrictions and privileges apply depending on your passport. (For example, German citizens can only obtain Russian visas in Germany.) Second, you must have an invitation which is obtained by a Russian company. The Russian company has to be registered with and get the letter of invitation from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, or has to hire a specially registered agent to get the invite for it. Either way, it can take up to 45 days and require up to around $300 in payments. So you should not ask your Russian host company to do this lightly or at the last minute.

Once you get your invitation, or get word that your invitation has been sent directly to the appropriate Russian consulate, you must fill out a visa application form for the appropriate consulate. Nowadays, most major Russian consulates have web sites with copies of the form, but be aware that the form can differ slightly from consulate-to-consulate. In some cities, males of a certain age must fill out a supplemental form. But in other cities the supplemental information is required of everyone (technically making it somewhat no longer supplemental I suppose).

5 The application form is rather vague about the amount of information required, but generally very little information is just fine. For example, in the blank that asks the purpose of your visit, you need not explain “researching a book on the culinary habits of the Romanov dynasty and photographing appropriate historical sights.” The safest bet is to write whatever is written in your invitation, which will be some short, vague phrase like “business,” or “scientific cooperation.” Where the application asks for the people or organizations to be visited, you should always simply list the name of the Russian company that issued you the visa invitation. Where the application requests your itinerary, they are not concerned with the complete agenda of your round the world cruise. The city from which you are departing for Russia, and the cities that you plan to visit in Russia are sufficient. And when asking about your relatives in Russia, you need not mention that long lost second cousin twice removed.

Next, you take or send your visa application (and invitation if it was sent to you directly), to the nearest Russian consulate, along with one to three passport quality photographs (depending on the consulate), a photocopy of the information pages of your passport, (some consulates now require the original passports) and a certified check or money order for the appropriate amount of money (consulates in the U.S. do not take cash, but some European ones will). Prices vary depending on the length of the visa, the number of times you intend to leave and reenter the country, the speed at which you want your visa processed and the consulate from which you get your visa. If you want to keep the cost and bureaucracy down, limit the visa to one entry, keep it under three months and allow the consulate at least three weeks for processing. If you plan a weekend hop to the Baltic states midway into your visit, however, be sure that you have at least a double-entry visa if you plan to get back into Russia. Check with the consulate for the most up-to-date fees and requirements.

If you don’t want to deal with the Russian consulates directly, or if you want some assurance that you have prepared the application correctly and everything will go smoothly, a number of visa processing services can walk your visa application through a consulate for you. The average charge is $25-50 per visa. We have previously worked with American Visa, in Washington, D.C., and they have done a very good job.

A few additional notes:

Make sure you get the visa invitation and fill out the visa application for the full time you are staying, and, if possible, a few days before and after to account for unforseen delays. It can be more difficult to extend your visa than it would have been to get a longer visa in the first place.

If you are staying in Russia for more than three months, Russian law requires the results of an AIDS test before issuing you a visa. This law, however, is not applied in every country where you might get a visa, so you should check with the consulate where you plan to apply for your visa before rushing to your doctor and getting a needle stuck in your arm.

Beginning April 2003, Russian law started to require visitors to demonstrate that they have health insurance which is valid in Russia. Actually, health insurance has always been a line on the visa application, but most Russian consulates in Western European and American didn’t care about it. But given the legal change, the health insurance requirement may become more strictly enforced in the near future. Note, however, that many student or work- sponsored policies will cover you while abroad. If yours does, be sure to note on your visa application that you have health insurance valid in Russia. If yours doesn’t, you should get a traveler’s health policy. Many Russian consulates contain recommendations for health insurance companies on their web sites.

Arranging Hotels

Be aware that you may have difficulty booking a hotel for the night upon arrival. Web or telephone calls are not usually sufficient to make a reservation, as most don’t accept credit cards. All except the most expensive hotels traditionally expect you to book in advance by sending a letter or fax, or having your travel agent send a fax. Usually the fax must state that you guarantee payment and the reservations must be made at least 48 hours in advance.

While some hotels (notably small B&Bs in St. Petersburg) are beginning to respond to a market economy and accept web-reservations and walk-in guests, many still do not. Unless you know Russian quite well, you should therefore book in advance.

Also, don’t wait until the last minute before you leave the U.S. to call your travel agent and book a hotel in most Russian cities. Outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg, most U.S. travel agents do not have the connections to book Russian hotels. Thus, your agent may need time to contact a second agent who specializes in Russia. Moreover, although the number of hotels with good service and reasonable prices is increasing, outside Moscow and St. Pete there is often only one non-roach motel per city. Only specialized travel agents can help you find it.

A few travel agents in the U.S. specialize in Russian travel and can recommend hotels in many Russian cities. General Tours, in New York City, is the oldest travel agency that specializes in Russia. Check on the internet or with your nearest Aeroflot booking office for

other such agencies.

If you intend to stay in an apartment rather than in a hotel, we still recommend checking into a hotel for the first night or two and looking at your planned home-sweet-home in person before signing the lease. The quality of apartments varies in the extreme and you really should see what you are getting in person. In addition, Russian law requires that you register your residence with the visa authorities (process is discussed infra). This can require notarized documents and other annoying formalities. Having an initial registration in a hotel can be helpful while you and your landlord go through the process of registering your residence in the flat.

Before you leave home, you can always line up a few places to see upon arrival. One of the best ways to do this is to post a notice on www.expat.ru Especially at the beginning of the summer, you will find English-speaking people interested in sub-letting furnished apartments for the vacation season.

For more information see the Apartment Hunting section, infra.

Things to Bring

Replacing lost documents can be a nightmare in Russia. BE SURE TO BRING A PHOTOCOPY OF YOUR PLANE TICKET, VISA, AND THE PHOTO PAGE OF YOUR PASSPORT! We hope it goes without saying that you will keep them somewhere other than where you keep the originals of these documents.

Russia uses European style 220 volt electricity and a different hertz than in the U.S. The hertz difference makes clocks run quickly, so bring only battery-operated alarm clocks unless you want to wake up at 4am. Also if you plan to bring any other electrical appliances make sure you bring a transformer. Russian plugs have two thin, circular prongs, and are usually compatible with the prongs on your transformer without the need to add additional devises to convert the plug shape, however the plugs are usually set into the wall, therefore the transformer will probably not fit and you will need an extension. Transformers can be hard to find in Russia, but plug extensions can be bought in practically every street kiosk.

By all means bring your portable computer, but make sure it can be used on both 110 and 220 volts (most can). Operating an expensive laptop on a voltage transformer is a risk we wouldn’t recommend. If you want to use a modem, bring the phone cord. Most modern apartment phones have Western standard jacks; but if not you can buy an inexpensive phone plug adapter here.

Bring tissues in pocket size packs, and carry them around wherever you go--Russian public toilets don’t always provide toilet paper. A small bar of soap in a plastic travel container, or a small bottle of alcohol based hand sanitizer is useful for the same reason. You can, of course, buy tissue packs and soap here, (we no longer have shortages that dire) but you probably don’t want to bother looking for them here when your neighborhood drug store will do the trick back home.

If you have room in your suitcase, bring a towel. Russian hotel towels resemble dish towels rather than bath towels, so you might miss your big fluffy towel from home. If you have no suitcase space you can buy one here—but it won’t be cheap.

Consider bringing a small canvas bag or book-size backpack. Although, most Russian shops give you plastic bags these days, the bags they usually give are thin and not very durable. A canvas bag or backpack is not only more durable but it can double as carry-on luggage to take home those excess souvenirs.

English language tourist guides to Russia are largely unavailable within Russia--except at 50% markup in one or two specialized bookshops and the fancy Western hotels. If you want one, get it from your local bookstore before you come. Bring any medicines you regularly use, and any you think you might need. (Like hayfever medicine if you are so prone.) Medical supplies are much better in Moscow than they once were, but you may still have trouble finding medicine with English language labels. When you are sick is the last time you want to struggle with wondering whether the pictures on the marvelous looking Russian language concoction on the shelf means it cures sore throats or tooth aches. (Hint: If you do end up with Russian-labeled medicine, try transliterating the name into a Google search - you might find the English equivalent.)

Some prescription drugs are can be difficult to find here, while others are available without even a doctor’s blessing. But as you may not know which is which, and as a Russian pharmacist may look askance at an English language prescription, you should be sure you pack a big enough supply for your trip, and a few extra days’ supply for emergencies.

Remember, also, to bring along copies of the prescriptions for any drugs you take. This is not so much for finding a pharmacist who can read English, but to help you avoid any uncomfortable interviews at customs checkpoints or with the police.

Bring mosquito repellent if you are coming in the summer. While the bugs aren’t too bad in the cities of Moscow and St. Pete. these days, you will need it if you get outside the city centers. Those beautiful palaces in the woods around the cities don’t look so attractive if you are swatting and scratching every two seconds.

Food shopping in Moscow and St. Pete is now on a par with any big city in Europe, so you probably need not bring foodstuffs unless you just can’t live without your particular American brand name product. If you search a bit, you can probably find that jar of peanut butter you are craving; but if you really prefer Skippy over Jiff, you should pack a jar. Apart from that type of problem, grocery stores abound.

Diabetics and people with special diets are the exception to the suggestion not to bother bringing food. The Russian diet is heavily meat and fish based; so if you prefer your protein from vegetables, you may have to pack some dried ones, at least for a day or so until you can find a good vegetarian grocery. Most Russians have not yet heard about white death either, so any artificial sweeteners are only in well stocked groceries. Many shops carry diet sodas, but Equal can be hard to find. The idea that “caffeine helps” also limits the availability of decaf-coffee. Obviously if you are staying for a while you can’t carry all your food so we have listed a few vegetarian groceries in the shopping section, infra.

Enough on food -- now clothing. First and foremost for clothing, bring several changes of underwear. Russia is not a country flush with washing machines in the cheaper apartments. So you either spend more on rent, spend every night at the wash basin, or bring lots of undies. (Another solution to the washing problem is to find a friendly grandmother who feels sorry for you and wants to earn a little extra money. This works better for men than women. Russian sexual stereotypes make the average grandma think it is a crime for a poor man to have to do his own laundry; while granny is unlikely to be sympathetic to a young woman who doesn’t want to wash clothes.) Dry cleaners are fairly easy to find--but may balk at dry cleaning your underwear.

On the other hand, take the other clothing you were planning to bring and cut the list in half. In Russia, as in much of Europe, it is no sin to wear the same outfit two or even three days in a row (as long as you remembered your deodorant). In fact, if you change too often you might stand out among some Russians, who may only have two or three changes of clothes in their entire wardrobes.

Russian weather is as unpredictable as Russian politics (well, lets say as Russian politics before Putin). Do what the fashion mags say and “layer”. In the summer, make sure your wardrobe is appropriate for hot humid weather but also contains a sweater, coat and some cooler weather clothes. In the winter you can pretty much be assured of cold, but cold too varies, so bringing layers is still a good idea.

Bring comfortable walking shoes--Moscow is a city of subways, busses, and walks in between the two. St. Petersburg is the same, but more walking and less subways. Both can be both muddy and dusty on the same day, so we suggest closed toed shoes even at the height of the summer. In winter, of course, winter boots with good tread are a must.

Bring an umbrella, for the obvious reason.

Finally, bring a few cheap souvenirs of your home town. These are especially needed if you go outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Provincial Russians (as we Muscovites snobbishly call them) are big on exchanging little gifts after meetings.

Things NOT to Bring

The smartest thing you can do is leave all your expensive jewelry at home. A tourist in jewels. Hmmm. Why be a target?

As we stated in the last subsection, don’t bring too many clothes. Especially don’t plan on bringing multiple pairs of shorts to wear in the city all summer--it just isn’t done, especially in a business or college setting. These should be saved for weekends at the dacha. Minis are OK for business . . . uh, if you’re female.

Computer buffs, while packing your laptop, leave your surge protector behind and instead bring $30 to buy a 220 volt surge protector in Russia. Using a 110 volt surge protector plugged into a transformer is more likely to cause your computer to blow than using no surge protector at all.

No matter what you may have heard from that cousin who visited Russia in 1988, don’t bring old blue jeans expecting to sell or trade for valuable souvenirs. Those days are long gone, and the modern Russians will look at you with disdain as they brush past you to the Levis store across the street. For customs reasons, don’t bring in narcotics, any prescription drugs not accompanied by a prescription, any pornography (although it is now routinely sold in the country you still can’t freely import it) or more than two liters of alcohol or two boxes of cigarettes. (Bringing

vodka and cigarettes to Russia is as silly as bringing tea to China. Bringing your favorite bottle of scotch or tequilla is not so silly though--with the 100% customs duty on commercially imported alcohol it can cost you a Russian’s week salary.)

Also be aware that anyone bringing in large quantities of goods, office supplies or simply overweight bags, might have to pay customs duty on them. The weight limit is around 55kg to enter the country. This is about the same as the excess baggage limit on most US airlines. If customs weighs your bags you will pay for it. Customs sporadically charges travelers about $5 a kilo for incoming baggage that exceeds the airline free limits.

Money

Money has traditionally been a problem issue for people coming to Russia. It got better in 1997-98, and then became a problem again after the August 1998 crash. It has finally stabilized again, and if anything has begun to reverse. Thanks to the folks at Enron et. al., and a certain war in Iraq, the ruble is actually gaining against the dollar for the 1st time since the fall of Communism. As of now, April 2004, the ruble has been floating at around 28.5-28.55/$--up over 300% from this time five years ago, but down 10% from last year. Still though, don’t exchange all your money at one time or you may end up losing out if you have to change back what you don’t spend. We usually recommend exchanging only the amount that you plan to use for a few days.

Currency exchange booths are on every corner of the Moscow and St. Petersburg city centers. They are less readily available in the suburbs and in other towns.

Of course, to change currency you need currency in the first place, so lets talk about getting cash.

First, think plastic! Bring all your available automatic teller machine cards, your Master Cards, your AmEx cards, and your Visas. (Of course copy the card numbers and place your list somewhere safe in case of theft.) Why so many? The thing is that, although ATM machines and cash advance programs are available in most banks, outside the city centers, which cards and machines will be working at which times is a question for soothsayers. Today you might go to AlphaBank and get money from your Visa debit card just fine, but tomorrow that card will be refused and you can only get money from American Express. Don’t blame the Russians for this. U.S. banks have the annoying habit of temporarily turning off your cards if they see numerous debits from “third world” cash points.

Next, bring enough cash to cover a couple of days of expenses. Sometimes American visitors discover that one or two of their cards don’t work in Russia at all. So we highly recommend bringing at least enough cash to cover a few days of stay in case you can’t find machines that will give it to you right away.

Be sensible with your cash and plastic. Don’t carry large amounts of cash to the local nightclub. Carry some cards with you and leave others in your room. Don’t flash all your money at the currency exchange window when you only want to change $20. Don’t go to a currency exchange booth that has a bunch of tough looking guys in leather jackets hanging around outside.

Above all, don’t put your ATM card in a slot in the wall that you don’t recall being there when you passed by the day before! Every year there are a few fake ATM machines literally running around Moscow. These brilliant machines show up on the street, beg you to stick your card in, copy your ATM card information, silently record the pin number you punch in, and then spit your card back telling you they are out of cash. Meanwhile, they are cleaning out your account from Israel or Helsinki! To avoid this,

1. Try, as much as you can, to just use the same bank or ATM for all your transactions. This will make it easier for you to track down any fraud if something does happen.

2. Before you come, talk to your bank to get an internet banking password and check your account regularly.

3. Also before you come, ask your bank to disable overdraft protection on any ATM card associated with your checking and savings account. If ATM fraud cleans out your checking you don’t want them to get your savings too.

4. Finally, bring the NON-1-800 phone number of your bank so that you can notify them immediately of any problems. If your bank refuses to give you a non 1-800 number, then remind them that we are in the 22nd Century and that the world is bigger than just America. Your personal liability is limited to $50 if you notify the bank right away, but the 1-800 numbers on the back of your ATM cards don’t usually work internationally. The safest bet is to call your bank before coming to Russia to get a non-toll-free number that you can contact, or get a bank that allows you to notify them over the internet.

All these plastic card warnings might leave you thinking about bringing traveler’s checks. But plastic cards really are the best option. Travelers’ checks these can be problematic. There are only a few places in Moscow and St. Pete where you can cash them

and practically no places in other cities. Moreover, the places that do cash them charge a fee for the privilege.

Finally, if all else fails you can try to get money wired in. The RF banking system is much improved these days, and most of the larger banks are safe for wire transfers, although not all will deal with non-account holders. At the time this is being written, the following banks are the pretty reliable and easy to deal with:

Alpha Bank You can send or receive a Western Union money order through Alpha Bank locations, although the commission is around 15%. Alpha Bank also regularly gives dollar cash advances on your credit cards.

Alpha Bank locations include the Actor’s Gallery at Pushkin Square and on Stary Arbat.

AmEx / Deltabank American Express will give you cash on your AmEx card or cash your AmEx travelers checks. We are told that the easiest AmEx solution in Moscow is get an AmEx/Delta Frequent Flier Credit Card before you come. With that you get Delta Frequent Flier points, and can sign up (separately) for express cash services. You can also monitor your card usage by internet to make sure that no one but you is using it. There is usually a “First year free” special going on, so you can’t beat the price. In addition, not only can you take money out here but you can pay on your AmEx bill here as well. If you earn money in Russia, paying off your AmEx bill is a good way to avoid carrying home bunches of cash.

American Express is located at Usacheva Street 33, Bldg. 1, tel: 933- 8400.(Metro Sportivnaya)

Citibank Citibank, the ubiquitous American purveyors of credit cards and other retail banking services, is beginning to open branches in several central Moscow locations. The fees are much higher than Citibank in the US, but great thing is, most of the staff speaks English!

Citibank’s main location is at Gasheka Street 8/10, about 10 minutes walk from Mayakovskaya Metro Station, tel: 725-1000. They also have a brand new location on Tverskaya street, about 5 minutes walk from the Kremlin.

As mentioned above, these banks are some of the most reliable. Banking stability is a relative term though and we wouldn’t want to pit any of them against Wells Fargo. Even Citibank is a subsidiary of the American version, and so the parent could hang it out to dry if it wants.

Again, even if you intend to mainly operate through cash advances, you should at least, take a deep breath, ignore every American Express commercial you have ever seen, and stuff a money belt with emergency cash--at least a few new, crispy $20, $50 and $100 bills. Keep that money belt full enough to tide you through two or three days. Carrying cash is risky yes, but less risky than not having any cash on hand when your traveler’s check is oddly stared at, your electronic cards demagnetize themselves, and the teller laughs at your cash advance request.

Now, about that cash you bring--Russian currency exchanges can be picky about the U.S. dollars they accept. Avoid one dollar bills, as they are hard to exchange in Moscow. In 1988, the U.S. started putting a little vertical stripe inside dollars to prevent forgery. Russian banks believe that without this stripe the note is certainly forged. So make sure all your bills are 1988 or later and have this stripe. Next, look to make sure there are not too many marker pen markings on the bills. There are now forgery detecting pens on the international market for merchants to use to check dollar bills. These pens leave invisible marks if the bill is real, and show up if the bill is fake. If your bills have lots of ink marks on them, therefore, many Russian tellers will assume they are fake and refuse to take them. The same goes for rumpled bills–if they are too decrepit to check their authenticity in a machine, Russian tellers won’t accept them. So in sum, we like dollars new, clean and crispy here!

Also, try to bring in the new design of dollar bills, not the old ones, especially to give to grandma for your laundry or landlord for your rent. Every now and then Russia has a currency change, and when it did so a few years ago it recalled all the old large ruble notes and made people replace them with new ones within a week! You can imagine the chaos it caused and the mistrust it still causes in the currency system. Many Russians are scared that the U.S. will do the same thing and call in all the old bills on short notice. The banks know better, but the average citizen doesn’t. Thus, they don’t like the old design of bills.

Trivia fact for you--did you know that Russia is the largest user of U.S. hundred dollar bills outside the U.S. itself? If you are passing through Europe on your way here, though feel free to bring Euros rather than dollars. Uncle Sam is quickly losing ground to the Euro in the “hearts and minds” of the Russian people.

Arrival Formalities--Sheremetyevo

Your experience with Russian entry formalities will vary depending on how you enter the country. As the great majority of foreigners come by plane to Moscow, we will describe the procedure at Moscow’s infamous main international airport, Sherymetyevo II. Depending on your luck, your flight, and the time and day that you arrive, negotiating your way out of Sherymetyevo II can take 30 minutes to 2 hours. Hint: the airport is usually quicker and less crowded for morning arrivals.

Note that there is also a nearby Sheremetyevo I. Sheremetyevo one is where flights from Eastern Europe often arrive. And there are also a couple of other airports in the Moscow area that take foreign flights (Domodedovo and Bykovo).

If you are seriously expecting someone to meet you at the airport, be sure to accurately note which one!

Passport Control

As you exit your plane at Sherymetyevo II, the first thing you will see is an officer directing you which way to turn as you enter the airport. Very often this is the opposite direction of the sign that says “exit.” Don’t worry, just follow the crowd.

Next you will see the line for passport control. The length of this line varies depending on the size of the plane. Experienced Moscow visitors check to see if the plane is almost full, and, if it is, try to switch their seat for one near the front entrance before they land. This puts you as near to the front of the line as a tourist class passenger can reasonably get.

Welcome to your first experience with Russian crowds! The first thing you will probably notice is that people tend to crowd a lot closer together in Russia than in the U.S., and there is not the cavernous space and high ceilings that adorn Kennedy International. They have those little rope dividers between lines now, but they are new, and often ignored. The line is likely to be waiting in all available corners of a small entrance hall, and even up the steps that lead from the gates. People do not stand arms length from each other, but tend to bump and jostle a bit. And the ceiling is low, dark, and covered with imitation machine gun casings. In short, you are likely to feel a bit cramped.

The second thing you are likely to notice is that things are not very well marked and people do not seem to know what they are doing. Indeed, they don’t. Unless you are tall

you may have trouble seeing which passport control lines are marked for Russian citizens, which are marked for foreign citizens, and which for diplomatic passports. A good bet is to head straight for the middle lines, which are usually for foreign citizens. Another good bet is to follow an American who is tall or has been to Moscow several times before. Moscow’s American ex-pats love to guide first time arrivees around Sherymetyevo II--kind of the same syndrome that makes us recommend rootcanals at the painless dentist we just found--once we have discovered how to handle an unpleasant experience first hand, it makes us feel good to help someone else through it. Whatever you do, make sure you get in the correct line at passport control, otherwise a stubborn official could send you back to line up again.

Please note that passport inspectors at the airport are not entitled to ask you for a fee for no reason. In past years there have been occasional cases of passport officials asking for payments from gullible visitors. This is illegal, and if an inspector does this you should ask to see a supervisor. If the supervisor also insists, pay the fee but ask for a receipt.

A sporadically enforced rule is that you will need to present an migration card to the passport officials (in addition to your passport of course). You need to get this card on the plane, and should ask about it if they don’t give it to you. If it wasn’t given to you on the plane and the flight attendant didn’t tell you that the rule is not being enforced now, keep your eye out in the arrivals lounge. The migration card is easy to complete provided you have good eye sight. It is a bit like those old jokes about complaint forms “please fit your full complaint in this 2 inch space.” Be sure to read the instructions on the back of the form and memorize them. Brilliantly, the instructions are printed on the part of the form that passport control takes away from you. You keep the other part of the form and register it (see infra) and return to the passport control when you leave.

Finally, note that occasionally Russian firms are able to arrange for special pickup of their arrivees inside the customs area. You will see a glass partition a bit to the front and side of the foreign passport control lines. There, professional arrival hostesses stand with printed signs bearing their guests’ last names or the name of the sponsoring group. If you see your name, break out of the passport control line and go to the hostess. She will direct you to the front of one of the lines. You are expected to break into the front of the line she directs, because your host firm will have paid or pulled strings for this privilege. Although you may have to explain why they are letting you cut to the perplexed American who is suddenly standing in the line behind you; not to cut the line when asked is a sign that you don’t understand the complex concept of privilege in Russia (and it also annoys your hostess by wasting her time). If you ARE the perplexed American who is suddenly second in line, be patient and, uh, welcome to Russia.

Baggage Claim

Sherymetyevo II baggage claim is directly on the other side of the passport control booths--not hard to find.

Baggage carts are the last great shortage in Moscow. In practice you are most likely to find one if you pay a porter. If you need a paid baggage cart or a porter, you may need to change money at the currency exchange window inside the customs area. Once you have a few rubles, you will have to go to the baggage cart/porter line. Sometimes this is very quick and merely requires a small payment. But on larger flights the porters are busy and the carts often run out, so you may find yourself waiting until one of the porters returns with a huge line of carts. Occasionally you can find a guy standing around with a cart and the appropriate porterish look to him, and negotiate a porter unofficially. One hint, if you are traveling with a friend and are getting off a large flight, you might have one of you go and change money while the other joins the cart line--this way you are less likely to encounter an “out of carts” or “busy porter” delay.

An amazing fact about Sherymetyevo II baggage claim is that the baggage for your flight does not always come off the conveyer belt that is labeled for your flight. If you have been standing a long time without seeing your bags, and recognize people from your flight standing next to another belt, ignore the signs and do what your gut instinct tells you.

Clearing Customs

Customs is another line you will encounter at Sherymetyevo II. When you enter Russia if you have anything to declare, you will need to complete a customs declaration form. Most likely you will be handed this form on the airplane, but if not you should search for them in the baggage claim area. They are usually available in English.

As for what needs to be declared, well, pretty much everything: all money, jewelry, furs, electronic recording media, printed editions and a host of other things that hark back to a chillier era. Really customs is only concerned with valuable items, or items in bulk. If you fail to declare that single video tape you brought to show Mom’s home movies to your roommate, probably no one is going to care. And “printed editions” means valuable books, not your paperback spy novels, and not (although your professors might disagree) your textbooks.

Although it may be tempting to lie and go through the short green “nothing to declare” line at customs, you should be accurate and declare everything valuable that you bring in if

you intend to take it out again. Russia has an export customs check as well as an import customs check. So if you fail to declare your valuable sable coat on the way in, you may find yourself unable to take it out of the country without paying customs duties. We suggest that you declare all personal computers, video cameras, musical instruments and other such items, even though they are not listed on the form. No duties are charged on these items.

We suggest that you declare all the cash you bring into Russia and go through the red channel. The amount of money you can bring in without declaration is $1500. Two years ago, however, the government passed a regulation on short notice so that foreigners could not take out ANY cash unless they declared it on the way in and got a stamped customs form. A number of unhappy expats found themselves legally able to bring in a lot without declaration, but then not be able to take out what they brought in. So, the safest course is to declare everything. Although chances are that ridiculous rule is gone for good, we are still paranoid. To play it safe with the money go through the red “something to declare” channel.

If you go through the red line, the customs officer will usually just circle the declarations on your customs form, stamp the form, and return it to you. Seldom do they search your luggage further than a cursory x-ray. If you go through the green line, sometimes you will be checked and have your form duly stamped, but at most times you will not.

Always keep your customs declaration form if it is stamped and returned to you. You should return it to the customs official when you leave the country.

Warning: Due to budget cuts early this decade and a corresponding drop in the care taken for customs procedures, Moscow began to be known as a favorite stopover point for drug and weapons smugglers. Recent agreements between Bush and Putin, however, have caused Russia to tighten its checks for illegal narcotics and weapons. If you are suspected of smuggling you may be subject to careful searches. If they find something suspicious the searches get more invasive, and you do not have American constitutional rights to protect you. And if they actually find drugs or weapons you may find yourself awaiting trial in a run down jail without a fully functioning bail procedure. So simply do not bring illegal drugs or weapons to Russia. If you are taking prescription drugs, have a copy of the prescription handy for the customs officials. Otherwise you will be studying Russian law more intensively than you expected.

Leaving the Airport

After customs you will face one final line--through a crowd of anxious people waiting for their guests outside the customs area. Generally, guests walk slowly in a line pushing

their luggage carts through the crowd, while people on either side waive flowers or signs with the guest’s name. When an expected guest is spotted he/she is swiftly whisked out of the line. After the line, you will also see the less crowd-fond people waiting around the numerous round support columns that presumably hold up the airport roof.

Near the end of the line you will find “street taxi” drivers (private car owners who make some extra cash by driving) hawking rides into the city. This is an acceptably safe way to get to the city if you speak enough Russian to be able to assess the character of the driver, or if you are traveling with a companion. Be warned, however, that some of these drivers have been known to rob unsuspecting passengers. A trip from Sherymetyevo II to the center of town goes for $35-50. When bargaining for these taxi rides, beware of drivers who want you to go off into a corner to talk or who agree to drop their prices too quickly, have the driver bring his car to the front of the airport to pick you up, note the license number of the car, and never get into a car when the driver is accompanied by someone else.

A safer alternative to the street taxi are the taxi and chauffeured car services provided by Hertz, Intourtrans, Intourist, and a number of other service companies that line the edge of the arrivals area. These, however, will almost certainly cost at least $50. Sporadically they have mini-vans available that will transport several passengers to the city center at a cheaper rate per passenger. Once you have reached the city center, you will find street taxis that are much safer and cheaper than those at the airport.

A final option for budget-minded people without a lot of luggage is to walk outside the airport and past the parking lot to the county bus stop. The bus will take you to the Moscow metro line for the ruble equivalent of about a dollar. The metro will then take you to the city center for approximately 25 cents. There are also privately operated airport shuttles (IVESCO, MERCEDES mini-busses) that cost about $1 in rubles. They go to the same metro station as the city busses, but they run more often and are usually faster.

For more advice on street taxis, metros and busses, see the section on transportation.

A Word About Domodedovo

All the previous discussions were about Sheremetyevo II airport. But because Lufthanza recently signed an agreement with Domodedovo most of their flights will be coming in there. Domodedovo is a smaller and much more modern airport, that managed to shed the Soviet “frighten them while you can” attitude for a bit of Western color and friendliness. Although customs rules are the same everywhere, it just feels much more friendly as there is more space combined with less people. The great drawback is that it is

located quite a bit further from the city than is Sheremetyevo. A high speed train now runs from Domodedovo to Paveletsky train station—in the southern part of the city center. This is by far the best way to travel in, as taxis cost around $50-70. Be sure to change dollars into rubles at the airport so that you can take the train. We don’t know the price, but word on the street is that it is reasonable.

Checking into a Hotel

Your arrival ordeal isn’t exactly over upon leaving the airport. Checking into a Russian hotel can be an exercise in patience. If you arrive in a group, the hotel clerk likes to check in everyone’s passport and reservations before giving up access to even one room. So unless you are staying in one of the new Western hotels, get comfy in the lobby and expect to wait for a while.

Sometimes, the Russian hotels will not give you a key, but a card with a room number on it. This means that there is a system where either the front desk check for entering or departing guests or there is a “dezhurnaya” or floor lady on your floor of the hotel, and she keeps track of keys and the arrival and departure of guests. You go up to the floor lady or desk clerk, give her your card, and she will give you the key. You are expected to leave the key with her and retake your card every time you leave the hotel. This way she knows who is in and who is not.

Many U.S. visitors think the dezhurnaya system is a little intrusive on the privacy of your comings and goings; but we rather like it. It is safer than carrying around your key because, believe it or not, the dezhurnaya is pretty good at recognizing people. So a person who finds your lost card is unlikely to get your key. Also, the dezhurnaya knows when the room is free for cleaning, and she is there all night to help with little services like getting hot water for tea and finding you a clothes iron. Some will even offer to do your laundry for a fee.

Unfortunately, this nice “mom on the floor” system is fast disappearing in the Westernized cities of Moscow and St. Pete. You are sure to find it outside the major cities though.

Expect to have your passport taken when you check in to a hotel. They are registering it with the state visa authorities, and will return it to you in no later than a day or two. Don’t worry, this is standard practice and we have never heard of a passport being stolen by the hotel clerk. (Just in case, of course, you have that photocopy with you.). While the hotel has your passport, carry your hotel card to prove where you are living in case you are stopped by the police. 21

Visa Registration

Russian law requires that all visitors to Russia have their visas registered with the department of visa registration (OVIR) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs within two working days of arriving in the country or traveling from one Russian city to another. If you are staying in a hotel, they will do this for you, as mentioned above. Otherwise, your landlord and whichever Russian inviting organization is listed on your visa will have to work with you to register the visa. Some inviting organizations are better than others about this detail, so if you get your visa invitation through a Russian firm that makes its money by issuing such invitations, and you are not staying in a hotel, make sure the visa registration is included in the price.

If you are staying in a private apartment, registering your visa can be quite complicated. To get the registration you will first need a letter from your landlady, and from all adults who normally reside in that apartment, confirming that you have the right to live there. Then you have to get the approval of DEZ, which is the state run equivalent of the condo association.

Given all the hoops of registration, two days after arrival isn’t much time. Thus, we highly recommend starting your stay in a hotel and letting it get you your initial registration. Who knows, if you are lucky maybe the hotel will be willing to register you for your whole stay in the country.

What happens if you fail to register? In the past, Russian officials were very lax about enforcing the visa registration requirement. However, in this world terrorist era, bureaucrats have gotten tougher and more careful about the formalities for visiting foreigners. Often visitors who fail to register their visas are assessed heavy fines when they leave the country. Perhaps more notably, if you are unlucky enough to have a run-in with the police, being properly registered can be crucial. Police can detain you for several hours to check your registration status – and longer once they figure out that you screwed up.

Your Visit Itself

Identification

Under an arguably unconstitutional Russian police regulation, police are entitled to ask you for identification at any time. In Russia, identification by a student ID or driver’s license will not cut the mustard--ID means passport migration card and visa (with registration). 22

Some people recommend carrying around the originals of your passport and visa. Others think you are better off leaving them carefully hidden in your room or stashed with the hotel visa clerk, and carrying a copy of both documents. If you decide on the copy route, have the copy of your visa made here in Russia, after the visa is stamped by passport authorities and registered. For the best protection of all, have the copies notarized or stamped by your host organization. Also carry your migration card. Technically the migration card is a valid ID all by itself, although practically it contains no picture so most cops won’t take it alone. But this plus your stamped or notarized copies should get you safely past all but the most obnoxious cops. Please don’t take this passport carriage rule lightly. One sorry Pericles director with no ID on her spent three hours cooling her heels in jail while someone went to her home to fetch her passport. (She thought about challenging the identification regulation in the Constitutional Court, but after a nice long chat with a couple of petty thieves, a drug dealer and a prostitute, and after remembering that the Russian bail system wasn’t yet fully implemented, she decided against it.)

Water--–Hot and Cold and Sometimes Drinkable

Moscow water is generally considered safe to drink, although it might look a little brownish at times because of Moscow’s old piping system. Out of caution and experience however, many foreign visitors would rather have bottled water anyway. Fortunately, bottled water is widely available, in both foreign and Russian varieties.

If you are going outside Moscow, and especially if you are going to Saint Petersburg, you should only use bottled water. Saint Petersburg is known to have a microbe in its water that is deadly to the stomach of those not accustomed to it. In other cities the quality of the water varies.

Four years ago a number of students got a case of Peter’s Revenge on an overnight train trip going back to Moscow. Not pleasant.

Talking about other water besides the drinking kind, you should know that every summer your hot water is in danger of going out for a month or so! Long ago, The Every Other Thursday Afternoon Super Secret Supreme Soviet Committee passed a regulation requiring that, in order to promote togetherness and sharing among the Soviet people, the hot water for each neighborhood in turn will be turned off for three-four weeks each summer. The phenomenon starts in May and slowly travels around the city through the end of August, resulting in the strange sight of people appearing on their friends doorsteps with soap and towels in hand. 23

Well, OK, it may not be caused by the decree of any secret committee, but nonetheless it’s true that the hot water will go out! The Russian water system heats water centrally and pipes it hot to apartment buildings. Because of the long distance that hot water travels and the lack of computerized tracking when the system was first installed, the pipes need to be inspected and repaired each summer.

President Putin announced in 2001 that the system would be modernized and city dwellers should no longer have to do without their hot baths. Once he actually implements this, we will know he is truly in control of Russia. In the mean time, however, people deal with the water in different ways. Instead of showering with a friend, some people just boil water in pots and kettles. Many others buy private hot water heaters, which vary from large tank systems that sell for hundreds of dollars, through VCR-sized boxes that fit on the wall and heat water electrically ($50-100), down to NON-UL approved electric coils which you carefully balance in your bathwater and stand watching in rubber shoes as the water heats (about $5). The latter are about as safe as dropping your curling iron in the tub.

Finally, the most luxurious hot water solution is the famous Russian Banyas, or public baths. In these places, you and your colleagues can pay fees ranging from 300-3000 rubles for the privilege of relaxing in hot water, swimming in cold water, and beating each other senseless with birch branches. A good bit of socializing and drinking can also be part of the experience. Unless you are one of those people whose bodies really should not be seen naked by unsuspecting friends, think about giving it a try. (Most places have separate men’s and women’s halls, unless your party rents a private room.)

Apartment Hunting

As mentioned supra, if you intend to stay in an apartment rather than a hotel, we recommend checking into a hotel for the first night or two and looking at your planned home- sweet-home in person before signing the lease. The quality of apartments varies in the extreme. Some places look as though they haven’t been renovated (or cleaned) since Khrushchev left office. To avoid that, listen for the realtor’s term of art “Evro-remont.” Ostensibly, this means that the apartment was completely reconstructed after the fall of communism, and European materials were used. More commonly, this means that someone lacquered the floors, slapped a coat of paint over the wallpaper, and replaced the Soviet-era kitchen cabinets and toilet with something manufactured in Poland or Turkey.

Be aware that even “Euro-remont” does not mean there is necessarily a washing machine, air conditioning, or a good quality telephone line. Nor does it mean that there is a year-round source of hot water (see the previous sub-section.) Be sure to ask the realtor or 24

potential landlord about these things if you care.

You also need to take a good look at the building for safety and cleanliness. Unlike American cities, there are few slum addresses or dangerous neighborhoods in Russian cities because widely varying socio-economic groups tend to be spread throughout every neighborhood and every building. This fact is good because it means you can live in any district you want, but it’s bad for booking apartments via internet because you can find yourself in a great location but in an awful building.

Buildings vary widely in the amount of care that the residents take to keep up the communal areas and building safety. An old Soviet expression states “communal property is nobody’s property.” So often nobody takes care of it. In the best buildings, the entrance has a friendly grandma or even a uniformed guard sitting in the lobby keeping an eye on things. It may still seem a little down at heal--a bit of crumbling paint or worn steps--but at least it will be clean and safe. More middle-class buildings will have coded locks on the entrances. (These locks work well until some poor soul with a bad memory decides to scratch the code into the brickwork outside the door.) Watch out for buildings with no locks at all. It’s not that it is so dangerous, but that the local drunks may tend to mistake the entrance way for the nearest public toilet. Try to take a look at the building at night before you move in. Some entrance ways are unlit. In a country with very little tort law, DEZ (the district housing committee) may think it more prudent to keep down electricity costs than to worry about a couple minor suits from people who break their necks tripping in a pothole or falling down the stairs. In short, it is the rare and expensive building that will have an entrance way that wouldn’t make your mother hyperventilate; but you can at least check for basic safety and cleanliness standards.

Take time to have a good chat with the landlord/lady. Western traditions that surround apartment rentals have not completely developed here yet. For example, many landlords do not understand that you might want them to move some of their stuff out before you move in, and a few might not even understand the importance of moving themselves out! It’s not uncommon for a landlady to stop in for a cup of tea and have a little check on the place if she happens to be in the neighborhood. This can even happen when you aren’t home. On the other hand, this lack of landlord/tenant traditions mean that many won’t think to ask for a security deposit, won’t prohibit pets, and won’t have any restrictions on your painting the walls yellow or putting a few hooks up here and there.

Beware the requirement (discussed previously) to register your residence with the visa authorities. You will need a signed letter from your landlord and all adults with the right to live in the flat, as well as the approval of DEZ in order to register your visa. There were a number of rumored scams in the early 1990s where tricksters would rent apartments, get themselves registered there, and then use the still existing Soviet right-to-housing laws to 25

assert the right to rent-free permanent occupancy. For this reason, as well as for the undesirability of reporting the rent to the tax authorities, some landlords will refuse to help you register or to sign any kind of written agreement. (This is another good reason to register in a hotel when you first arrive–sometimes a friendly smile and a small fee may convince the hotel to register you there for the length of your trip.) For the same reason, landlords who want to rent to foreigners sometimes object to their own compatriots. So if you have a Russian significant other (or are hoping to get one during your stay) you should warn the landlord before agreeing to move in.

Apartment prices vary by size, location, proximity to public transport, and state of repair. They are usually rented furnished, unless noted otherwise. (Note: if an apartment is listed as “1 room,” it literally means “1 room” and not “1 bedroom.” But practically all apartments have separate kitchens.) Unrenovated apartments in the suburbs, about 15- minutes walk from a metro, can go for about $400 per month. One or two room, ostensible Evro-remont apartments in the suburbs, or un-renovated apartments in the center of town, usually start above $600 and go to around $1200 or more. Real Evro-remont apartments in the center, or apartments with three or more rooms, will usually be above the thousand dollar range, and can easily go up to $5000 or more per month. Unless you are bringing your family or are particularly picky, though, you should be able to find reasonable accommodations for between $500 and $1500 a month.

Next, how do you find these places? If you arrive in the early summer, it’s not that hard, as many Russians like to move to their dachas for the summer and are not adverse to earning a bit of extra cash subletting. As mentioned above, you can seek people like this out by making a posting on www.expat.ru. which is a web site where expats and English speaking Russians exchange news and list things that they have for sale. Everyone on the list has an email address and speaks English, so you can correspond directly with them from home and arrange to look at the available flats upon arrival.

Another solution is to contact a real estate agency. There are many quite good English- speaking agents in the city who will help you find places for a fee of 2 to 1 month’s rent– usually depending on the term of the rental. Some of the English-speaking agencies that are more likely to deal in short term, mid-priced apartments are: Evans Realty (one month minimum) 232-6703 [email protected], www.evans.ru; Beatrix, (ask for Sonya Abugova, who speaks English) 926-4488, [email protected], www.beatrix.ru Noviy Gorod, (ask for Lev, who speaks English) 741-0507, www.newcity.ru, [email protected] Penny Lane Realty (three months minimum) 232-0099, www.realtor.ru and Blackwood, 915-4000, [email protected], www.blackwood.ru . 26

Pullford Agency, 232-3158, www.relocationapartments.com;

Some of these agencies also rent “serviced apartments” which charge by the night or by the week, usually include maid service and sometimes airport transporation, and are kind of a price step between a regular apartment and a hotel. Evans is one reliable agency that provides such apartments. Another place that advertises services apartments is a web resource center called Russia Info Center http://www.russia-ic.com/eng

If you want to start your search after you get here, there are some magazines, like Iz Ruk v Ruki (Hand to Hand) where people advertise, in Russian of course. Unfortunately for the budget-minded most of the magazine ads are themselves placed by agencies. Another one is Arenda, which advertises direct rentals with no realtor ads, but can be hard to find on the news-stands. Ads found in the English-language papers are also a good place to look, although they are usually geared to people without a tight budget, and usually direct you to the realty agencies listed above.

If you are interested in homestays or roommate shares, you might have success by gluing fliers near university campuses. Placing an ad in English, offering to exchange English practice and cash for a spot on the living room sofa, is a cheap housing solution that sometimes works for students. In previous years, some of our students have also recommended www.assistb.org (turn on your speakers, the site gives you a great rendition of “Moscow Nights” while it loads). “They were super cheap, about $200/month. So if you have someone who's not too picky and really cheap this might do it.” However, it seems some of our students were a bit more picky than this organization’s standard. Russia Info Center, mentioned above, also advertises homestays.

Getting Around the City

Moscow boasts of the world’s greatest public transportation system, and it is probably right. The subway or “metro” has multiple lines radiating across the city, and a circle line that connects them all. Metro trains run approximately two to six minutes apart, from about 5:30 in the morning till about 1:00 in the morning, however the number of trains that run changes, and sometimes a train will stop carrying its passengers. So if you see everyone getting off all of a sudden, don’t panic, it usually means that the train has stopped running for the day. Follow the crowd and get on the next one.

Metro lines are named, numbered and color coded. So, although the shear size of the system can be daunting, the metro is fairly easy to use (although every long-term visitor can name one favorite station that they always get lost in). Be sure to check the exact metro closing time at your particular station if you are planning to stay out late.

Busses, trolleys and trams run about every ten or fifteen minutes in the daytime, down to about once in a half hour at night. They might stop running at various times, so also be sure to check the schedule, which (if you are lucky) will be posted on the walls of each bus stop.

To ride the metro you purchase little paper tickets which currently cost 10 rubles a ride (about 35 cents). The ticket will take you anywhere the metro goes. They are purchased at a booth inside the metro station for groups of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 or more rides. You can also purchase a one month pass (which deceptively only gives you 70 rides in the month). You insert the ticket in a slot in a row of pass- through points and walk through. It looks like there is nothing to stop you from walking through, but if you don’t pay a nasty bar shoots out at about crotch level to prevent you from passing and perhaps damage your family plans!

To ride the bus, trolley or tram you purchase tickets good for all three types of transport. They are available in the metro ticket booths for 10 rubles a ticket, or you can purchase them from the bus driver for 15 rubles. The bus might have a conductor or might have an honor system—you get on the bus, and then insert your ticket into a little punch machine and punch it. Once in a while an inspector will get on board and ask to see your ticket. If you don’t have it you are fined 100 rubles. Although the fine is minimal, the tickets are also a minimal price, so please purchase them and support the Moscow transportation system.

If you want, you can purchase one monthly pass for all types of Moscow transportation. These cost about 500 rubles or the equivalent of $16, so they are not a great savings in cost, but it can be very useful not to have to worry about buying tokens and tickets all the time.

When out of Moscow, cities may or may not have metros, but all have bus, trolley and tram systems that work much the same way. Unfortunately you cannot use your tickets from one city in another city and will have to purchase new ones.

Getting around by “taxi” can be a real experience. First, there are very few official taxis just driving around Moscow--especially not outside the city center. Second, almost any private car driver is willing to work as a “gypsy cab” and stop to give you a ride if you want. In the daytime, riding in the gypsy cab is probably safe enough–there have been very few hitchhiker horror stories in Russia. Use your common sense however. Don’t get into the car if you don’t like the look of the driver, if the door handle is broken off so you could not exit easily, or if there is someone else in the car. Don’t get into the front seat with the driver--sit behind him instead. Don’t take unofficial taxis at night unless it is an emergency or you are accompanied by a friend. If it is an emergency, have someone go with you to hail the taxi, 28

and conspicuously write down the license number of the driver. This should deter all but the most determined muggers. Also arrange to call back your friend after you get home to let him/her know you are safe.

Gypsy cabs will charge between 70 and 200 rubles for most trips. Official taxis cost a good bit more. Sometimes the taxi driver will bargain the cost of a ride with you in advance, and sometimes not. If not, in official cabs you just get in and have to be ready to pay whatever he asks–which can be high. Contrarily, if a gypsy cab driver doesn’t ask in advance, it usually means he will accept any fair amount you are willing to give him. At the time of this writing, the fair price in Moscow for a ride of 5 to about 15 minutes was 70-100 rubles, longer rides go up to about 150-250, especially at night or if the driver is stuck in traffic for a while.

If you have the foresight to know where you are going at least a half-hour in advance, there are many taxi services where you can order a car by the phone. Two that we like are Taxi Blues, a large service with multiple phone numbers 128-9477/5957/7763, 214-6409, or 212-4703; 232-Taksi, at the easy to remember number-232-1111; and Taxi Dly Vas (Taxi for you) 941-10-31. All work 24 hours. The prices are not very high. They average of about 200 rubles for any trip less than 30 minutes and 3- 4 rubles each minute after.

A ride to an airport is considerably more expensive than standard tax prices. This is in part because the “taxi mafia” might hassle your driver for a kickback, and he understandably wants to be compensated for the risk. Expect to pay around $25-30 for both gypsy and official cabs. If you are leaving for the airport at an odd time, be sure to call and reserve a cab the night before.

Getting Outside the City

Overnight train travel is both the last great bargain and the last great travel adventure in Russia. For prices still a good bit cheaper than you will ever see elsewhere in Europe, you can rent yourself and a friend a first class sleeper compartment to practically any city in Russia. Or, go cheaper at four to a compartment with bunk beds. Whichever way you go, bringing a picnic dinner, plenty of vodka and wine, and a guitar is great addition to the party. If you are lucky you will make lots of interesting friends from the next compartments, get more than a little tipsy, and learn some Russian folk songs to impress your friends when you get back home.

As with everything in the new Russia, however, we have to warn you. Russian train travel is no longer as safe as it used to be, and tourists are potential targets. We would advise

29 you against traveling alone. Taking a group of people, and preferably one of them a Russian speaker, is by far the safest solution. Leave your valuables back home and take only what you need for the excursion. The seats of bunks lift up to provide secure storage--if you keep your possessions under you the thief has to lift you up to get your things. Also be careful who you are associating with on the train--if they don’t look like the kind of people you would want to be friends with back home they probably aren’t the kind of people you would want to be friends with here.

The train compartments these days are usually equipped with special locks that stop the compartment handles from being turned with a key inserted from the outside. Be sure to put your lock on before retiring for the night. If you don’t have one of those locks, try inserting a cork into the lock on the inside (see, there is a legitimate reason for bringing a bottle of wine). You can also try securing a belt or cord lock between the door handle and the coat hooks inside the compartment. Finally, we suggest putting towels or clothing near the bottom of the compartment door so that anyone coming in will trip and wake you. Of course, the ultimate solution to avoid being robbed in your sleep is to stay up singing all night.

Plane travel is not anywhere near as pleasant as the train in Russia. Aeroflot, and the numerous babyflots that it has become, are still ready to teach you the meaning of the word bureaucracy. Come very early for your flight--about two hours early is best. Don’t expect them to willingly grant you things like special meal requests or even non-smoking seats. Just sigh and be lucky that you got a seat at all. (Don’t forget your passport--you can’t get on even a domestic flight without it.)

The one exception to the local airline disaster is Transaero (Moscow booking office-- 241-7676, 241-4800). They charge a bit more, but last time they actually had an American made plane, served us California wine, and departed and arrived on time.

Finding Things

Maps are readily available in bookstores, in kiosks and from individual vendors in various underpasses and metro areas of Moscow. Although you can occasionally find a map with the English alphabet, we would highly recommend getting one with the Russian alphabet and taking a day or two to learn the sounds of the letters. Reading a map in English does you little good when faced with a Russian street sign.

Comprehensive telephone books are generally unavailable in Moscow, although you can get a number of various “yellow page” directories. They all operate on a voluntary submission basis, and some charge for listings, so none are really complete. The English

30 language ones are more geared to the needs of the Western visitor, so we will only discuss these.

Probably the best phone book is the Moscow Business Telephone Guide, which is distributed free once a month at various shops, hotels and restaurants around Moscow. Precisely because it is good and free, it is often hard to get copies--if you see some around, grab them up for all your friends. Although the main listings are in Russian, there is an English index.

One guide published fully in English is “Where in Moscow.” This publication is also fairly good, but, because it is only issued once a year, some of the numbers may be outdated. “Where in Moscow” is more than a phone book, it also contains maps and guides to tourist locations. There is also a “Where in Saint Petersburg.” Both of these are more readily available in the U.S. than in Russia; so you might take a look in your local bookshop.

“Traveler’s Yellow Pages” is like “Where in Moscow,” in that it combines the phone book function with some other handy information for visitors, and it also sells more in the U.S. than in Russia. It also has problems with bits of outdated information. Of the two, “Where in Moscow” is better for its maps, while “Traveler’s Yellow Pages” has more phone numbers.

An unusual telephone guide on the market is Maximov’s Companion. This is quite comprehensive, is geared to business persons and scholars rather than tourists, and contains useful lists of all higher government officials and their phone numbers. It is available in Moscow hotels but we don’t know about in the U.S. The drawback: it is quite expensive.

For tourist guides of Russia, take your choice of those available in your local bookstore. Largely the difference is just a matter of whose writing and organizational style you like the most. The only thing to beware about is the publication date. Things change fast here. Anything older than 2000 should be donated to an antiquities museum.

English Language Reading Materials

Moscow has five main English language newspapers and Saint Petersburg has one. Other cities get a smattering of English language news from papers brought in from the capital.

31 The main daily Moscow paper, which is really a pretty good publication, is the Moscow Times (www.themoscowtimes.com). The Moscow Times (as well as the Saint Petersburg Times) is owned by Independent Media.

The Moscow Tribune is almost a carbon copy of the Times, but comes out only twice a week and is harder to find. All of these papers have Western editors.

The weekly Moscow News is the oldest English language paper. It is owned and run by Russians, and was originally designed for publicizing Soviet news abroad. Some of the articles are difficult to read due to awkward English, but the paper is worth picking up because it often carries in-depth interviews with interesting political figures. The Chief Editor, Sergei Roy, is a well known political commentator who definitely does not tow the Party line.

The Exile (www.exile.ru; tel/fax 151-4670/88) is a Western rag that targets the youth crowd. Once you get past the sensational journalism and sexploitation covers, you will find one of the best reviews of the Moscow club scene. Because of the popularity of the paper among students, it can be hard to find in the summertime. One should look for it in several bars around Moscow.

Finally, the Russia Journal is a weekly that tries to be more intellectual and cover issues in greater depth than the Moscow Times. It seems to be succeeding, although it is still harder to find than the Times. It has a very good entertainment and business section.

There are a few other papers designed for visiting business people and other special interest groups; but these five papers are the only ones to have made a serious mark for the articles.

As far as magazines go, there are a number of tourist mags published in English that can be really handy for finding places to go and things to see. GO! Magazine is about nightlife in the city, includes all interesting places in Moscow, popular cafes, bars, restaurants and Moscow’s best clubs. You can find it at “Kofemania” coffeeshops and other similar places. “Where Moscow” and “Where St. Petersburg” magazines (as opposed to “Where in Moscow” and “Where in St. Petersburg” tourist books) are the same type of thing as GO!, but perhaps a bit more for the older crowd. They are usually found in hotels and restaurants.

Moscow’s Western hotels usually sport book stands with a few more business oriented English language magazines. Some are published about Russia and aimed at foreign business persons. The best known are “Russia Review” and “Business in Central Europe.” Russia Review tends to have the best interviews. Business in Central Europe gives the

32 regional business prospective. Western publications like the Economist and Business Week are usually also available in the better hotels.

Besides newspapers and magazines there are several bookshops that carry English language books: Shakespeare & Company (951-9360; near Novokuznetskaya Metro) is an English language bookshop run by a professor from San Diego State University. It carries off the beaten path type books, holds coffee evenings and literary events and also has a large used book selection. Anglisskaya Bookshop (18 Kuznetski Most; 928-2021) is a more traditional type of shop--a branch of the British Shwemmers chain. And Anglia British Bookshop (299-5416, 11/6 Staropenenovski Per) is another British chain. English language novels are also available in special sections of the largest Russian language bookshops: Dom Knigi, on Novie Arbat Street; Moskovski Dom Knigo, on Tverskaya; and BiblioGlobus near metro Lubyanka.

Keeping in Touch

-MAIL

The Russian mail system is rather poor, but improving. We were absolutely thrilled to see a letter arrive from Virginia in only two weeks last month! Mail arrives about 80% of the time, so, for anything important, experienced Muscovites rely on fax and electronic mail.

Another option is to rent a box with a foreign mailing address. Two or three services in town offer a mailing address in a Western city to which your friends can send post, and from which their service will forward your mail on to Moscow in a bulk express mail package, and will drop it into your box at their addresses in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The most popular of these are International Post (114-4584) and U.S. Global Post (135- 1172). Both of these also have addresses in the US and in Western Europe to which people can send you mail. Boxes cost an average of $30 per month for about 4 pounds of mail. Both of these also have services that allow you to send letters through them without having a box (for about $0.50 a letter). Foreign mailing address services are actually not much faster than two weeks for a letter, but you might stand a higher chance of receiving it.

–E-MAIL/WEB

By all means plan to communicate by email from Moscow. You can access all the standard web-based mail providers such as Yahoo and Hotmail from here quite easily. Accessing your U.S. proprietary internet provider from Russia could be more difficult. America OnLine closed down its Russian access numbers because of too many hackers

33 jumping in with fraudulent purchases. CompuServe closed also. So, your only option may be to dial long distance if you want to access those U.S. e-mail addresses. Hint: before you travel set up a free web-based account and forward your regular email there.

If you have an office or educational email, be sure to write down the web-site from which you can access them outside the office/school. It can be really annoying to know that you left the outside access website safely stored in the internet explorer “favorites” file on your desktop computer back home!

Internet access, while still more expensive and slower than in the US, is getting much cheaper and much more easily available in Russia. If you bring your laptop, you can buy ISP service in the form of plastic cards that sell for between $5 and $10 for a limited number of hours. (Average price is about $1.20 an hour.) The cards are available in computer stores and kiosks all over Moscow and St. Pete, and are the most convenient way to buy on-line time. Quality of card-based providers varies from very good to rotten. Cityline and MTU- Inform are both good providers. We highly recommend the card system if you will only be in Russia for a couple of months. Beware, however, card instructions generally require a bit of Russian ability to figure out.

If you want more hours of access than a card provides, prices for an Internet service provider account range from about $20 to $80 a month, depending on where you go. Some providers have more services and even allow you to access your account from abroad, while the cheaper ones have strictly Russian access. One service with English language interface is Russia-On-Line (363-2111). Other popular providers are Cityline (232-0289), Relcom and MTU-INTEL (753-8282).

Internet Cafes have become fairly popular in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. You may find one just looking for the signs, but the biggest one in Moscow is Time-On-Line, located in the underground shopping mall at Manezh Square, in front of the Kremlin. It is open 24-hours. After the shopping mall closes for the night you can enter through the shopping center entrance nearest the metro, by telling the guard the super secret password: “TimeOnLine.” Also we can advise “Netcity” located in Kamergersky pereulok. They have some separate cabinets where smoking is allowed.

One warning about e-mail. Telephone lines in Russia can be very poor. 28,000 baud is about the maximum rate you will consistently get. If you get many disconnected calls, try slowing down your modem–and make sure you have error correction turned on. The internet cafes, of course, have dedicated access and so are faster than the phone lines. Also, WI-FI is beginning to come to Moscow. If you have a WI-FI enabled laptop you can access the internet by purchasing time at some of the restaurants and cafes. Kofemania cafes are WI-FI

34 enabled, as are the Starlight Diner restaurants, the public areas of all Marriott Hotels, and the Time-On-Line internet café mentioned above. The cost averages about $10 an hour.

–LONG DISTANCE

Ah yes--the telephones! The difficulty of getting phone lines to dial out of the country is directly proportional to the number of Western businesses in your neighborhood. International lines are limited, and if you are staying in the center of town you may have to redial a few times to get through. To dial long distance, press “8" and wait for a second dial tone. Then, to dial internationally, press “10" plus the country code (US is 1, GB is 44, France is 33), then the area code and number. So, to dial San Diego, California, for example, you would dial “8 (wait for tone)-10-1-619-_ _ _ - _ _ _ _.”

If you can’t get through with the Russian state-run international phone service, or if your apartment or hotel room does not have the long distance enabled, you can try using your Western calling cards. The access number will be printed on information given to you by the company.

If you don’t have a calling card you can call collect on a couple of systems. AT&T has local access numbers that make international calling a lot easier (974-1426; 755-5042; 155- 5042). AT&T has an answer machine system in English. A private Russian long distance company is Aerocom, from which you can make both collect calls and Aerocom card calls to the U.S. Their number is (424-7202/7117, 938-5046). They speak Russian but when you reach them just ask for “Aerocom Call USA” or “Aerocom Card” and they will connect you to the US collect or on several different phone card systems. You get a discount if you use their proprietary card system.

If you don’t have a phone credit card and don’t yet have the kind of relationship that lets you hit your significant other with a huge collect bill, you can buy prepaid phone cards from any number of Russian companies. You can purchase phone cards in the same places as internet cards.

–LOCAL CALLS

The local phone system is not much better than the international. If you get a busy signal or pure silence, simply call again. It takes several tries before you can really rest assured that your party, and not just the circuit, is not responding.

Telephone calls from pay phones are another adventure. Since the fall of Communism the domestic pay-phone system has privatized itself to the point of annoyance. There are

35 several competing proprietary pay-phone systems in Moscow, and none of the phones work with coins, nor with cards from another system. The most popular is a modern metered phone card system run by the city (MGTS), for which you can find a machine everywhere (metro, bus stations, etc). With MGTS cards, however, you can only make local calls. (We also have an old plastic token system (MGTS), which is sometimes still found in locations on the outskirts of the city.) At railway stations and post offices you may use an alternative system (MMS) to call anywhere in or outside Russia, limited only by the value of the card. In many bars, hotels and restaurants you may find a third system -- “Access,” a private phone card system, which can be used for in-Moscow and for international calls, but not for intercity calls. Hint: Even if you plan to use payphones a lot, don’t buy an expensive card! The next place you try to make a call will probably use a different system.

Pay-phone calls are quite cheap–about a penny a minute. MGTS cards cost around 60 and 200 rubles, and give you 20 to 100 minutes of calls. MGTS types of pay-phone access can be purchased in the ticket booths in the metro stations. MMS cards can be bought in the ticket booths in the railway stations and at post offices. Access cards can be purchased only at the restaurants and shops that sport the phones.

--CELL PHONES

One of the better ways to stay in touch locally is to forget the pay-phones altogether and use a cellular—“mobilniy telefon” as they are known here. Cell phones can be used in Russia if they have a GSM 900/1800 system. However, the US phones run on a 1900 system. So, if you have a tri-band phone then it will work here, but if you do not then you may have to settle for buying a phone when you get here. In addition, you may have to pay roaming charges unless you buy a different chip and have it installed. While cell phones aren’t nearly as cheap as in the U.S., they are now cheap enough to make it worthwhile getting one.

Cell phones (with the exception of one new system called Skylink) are not locked into to the service provider like they often are in the U.S. So you buy your phone first, and then select your service and get a SIM card to put in your phone. That’s handy because you can just switch providers if you change cities or change your mind. Both are usually on sale in the same places.

You can buy a new (not modern) phone starting from $50 and a used one even cheaper. Ones with fancy colors and features, and that are not fashion stigmas cost at least $100 though. Beware of some of the really cheap phones that turn out to be unreliable, or have a keyboard in Chinese!

36 The biggest cell phone distributor in Moscow is called Evroset. There is a huge Evroset store on Tverskaya Street, not far from the Kremlin, and smaller outlets dotted all around Moscow. Another big and reputable dealer is Svyaznoy. You can also find independent kiosks that sell cells all over the city. Just look for big signs with the sign “Salon Svyazhi” (communications salon), or the logos of the major phone service providers. Finally, general electronics shops also have cell phone sections.

Sim-cards go for $5 and up. The monthly payments could vary from free to $100, with calls varying from about a penny to 10 cents a minute. Stay away from plans marked “executive” or “global” unless you want to pay an arm and a leg. There are three main operators: Beeline, MTS and Megaphone (and several smaller operators that we won’t discuss). A key point is the billing system: all require you to pay cash (or card) in advance, but some will keep your account going a while if you run into a negative balance, and others will rudely cut you off in mid-sentence! Beeline is relatively good and inexpensive, and will credit your account, but does not have quite as wide a coverage as MTS when you get into smaller towns. MTS has slightly higher rates, but better coverage. This system is the best choice if you are going to travel in Russia. With the exception of corporate users, they won’t credit your account though. Additionally, users dislike MTS billing practices as a debit sometimes won’t appear for a long period–you blissfully chat away thinking you have a lot of money on your account; then they suddenly process all your calls and disconnect you without warning.

Megaphone is popularly considered the cheapest of the three main phone systems, but it’s nonsense to try to use Megaphone outside Moscow, and they are notorious for giving false busy signals on their phone exchanges. However, they offer free unlimited incoming calls from all numbers and competitive prices for outgoing. They also have a system called GSM-Lite, without a monthly service charge, which is handy if you are planning to travel back to Moscow a few times during the year and want to keep the same phone number.

If you get a cell phone here, you should think carefully about what kind of number you want. The cheapest, and most popular option for individuals, is to get a “federal number” which requires your callers to dial “8" (the long distance number–equivalent to dialing 1 in the US) plus a special three digit area code, usually beginning with “9.” This requires the persons calling you to pay a small long distance charge, but saves you a lot of money over having a Moscow based cell number. The federal numbers have another drawback though, and that is the fact that the “8" or the area code is sometimes busy. Thus, federal numbers are inappropriate to use for business.

37 Food

As mentioned in the section on “What to Bring,” the Russian diet is heavily meat and fish based, and they combine this base with lots of starch. Russian food can be delicious, but is designed to pad the bones for those heavy winter months. In other words, expect to gain a few pounds if you stick to a Russian diet.

If you go out for Russian cuisine you will find that the largest part of the menu is made up of “zakuski” (appetizers). The tradition here is to order multiple appetizers and a small main course. You can even skip the main course without even getting a sideways glance from the waiter.

If you are at a Russian dinner party, you will find that the zakuski are interspersed on the table with multiple bottles of vodka. Throughout the meal people will make elaborate toasts. Hint #1: pour small glasses for yourself, you are expected to drink it all down. Hint #2: eat lots of bread. Hint #3: NEVER try to out drink a Russian.

If you get tired of Russian food there are plenty of foreign restaurants in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Pizza parlors, Chinese places and those really exotic American restaurants are springing up all over. They tend to be at least twice as expensive as you would expect from their counterparts in the U.S., so check the prices before you sit down. Hint: The Bizness-Lunch has hit Moscow with a vengence. You can save a lot of money if you eat out for lunch instead of for dinner.

The best deal on Chinese is the lunch special at the Junk Boat (203-9420), behind the Mkhat Theater on Tverskoy Blvd., five minutes from Pushkin Square. Chinese lunch is 235 rubles and 350 rubles for Japanese lunch from 12:00 until 4:00pm weekdays. The food is greasier than you would get in the US, but about the best Chinese in town. Prices are higher in the evening. Kitaisky Kvartal (Chinese Block) is another really nice place. You will be surprised with the low prices, big portions and excellent service. Lunch costs about 195 rubles. The number is 207-62-52, it works 24 hours and located at 12 Prospect Mira.

Tibetan Kitchen (933-2422) also has a great lunch special for about $10, if you don’t mind your food mixed with a bit of Dalai Lama sloganing.

For Mexican, try Azteca (972-0511) across the street from metro Novoslobodskaya. The prices look high, especially if you are used to the cheap Mexican available in California or Texas, but the portions are large and the food is good. La Cantina (292-53-88) on Tverskaya Street not far from the Kremlin, is also good despite pretty high prices. Finally,

38 we can recommend Santa Fe (256-1487), a big place, popular with expats, located near the World Trade Center.

Indian food is really tasty in Moscow, although a bit expensive. Try Maharajah (921-9844/7758) on Ulitsa Pokrovka 2/1, just off Ulitsa Maroseyka, across the street from the Byelorussian embassy. Another good one is Barbar on Leninskij Prospekt. And Tandoor, on Tverskaya Street close to Mayakovskaya Metro, has an Indian and Chinese kitchen.

For American food, we can suggest American Bar and Grill (located near Mayakovskaya metro stop (251-7999). Starlite Diner is another popular place. There are two: one is near Mayakovskaya metro, hidden in a garden behind the satire theater (290- 9638), another is at Oktyabraskaya Square (959-8919). It has a real American diner, shipped whole from Colorado, and it serves imported Starbucks coffee. T.G.I. Fridays has an outlet located right next to Pushkin Square (200-3921; 737-8384). Hard-Rock Café (244-89-70) was opened on 44 Staryi Arbat – 3 floors of live music, drunk people and American food. Doug & Marty’s Boarhouse (917-0150) also serves American food and live music across the ring road from Kurskaya Railway station. More upscale is Uncle Guilley’s (933- 5521)located in the former home of a pre-revolutionary gourmet (Stoleshnikov pereulok, d.6). Oh yeah, and don’t forget one of the thirty or so McDonald’s in town. (These days it’s declasse to collect McD’s placemats in cyrillic, but we won’t tell.) Also, for you chicken fans, a Russian counterpart to KFC is Rostiks—with outlets all over the city.

There are many pizza places in town. Patio (298-2520) is popular with Americans because of its reasonable prices and good salad bar. It specializes in Italian style, thin crust pizza. There are three or four around Moscow. The one across from the Pushkin Museum really does have a patio (hence the name of the chain) with a great view. Fast food pizza is available from Sbarro’s, found on the ground floor of Manege Square shopping mall, on Tverskaya about two blocks toward the Kremlin from Pushkin Square, and at a bunch of other places around town. Watch out though, this fast food style pizza can outprice all the other pizza chains in town. For American style pizzas that deliver there are two: Jack’s (956- 6196) and Domino’s (788-0894). Jacks is more upscale and tasty. Lots of businesses order Jack’s pizzas and sandwiches for lunch meetings. Dominos is, well, Dominos.

Sushi bars are last year’s big fashion trend in Moscow and there are still hundreds hanging on. We have tried, and liked, Yapona Mama, near the old Circus on Tsvetnoy Blvd, Planeta Sushi at Mayakovskaya Square, and Yakitoria, with outlets all over town. Benikhana’s is the latest addition to the Japanese food crowd in Moscow. In case you don’t know it, it’s a teppaniaki chain with high prices, personal chefs who throw knives around in front of your face, and crowds of foreign businessmen eating there.

39 This year Moscow is also making itself quite a name for “Fusion” cuisine. The high fashion statement the food makes also makes it the most expensive. Some fashionable fusion restaurants are Vanill (202-3341) on Ostozhenka Street near Kropotkinskaya metro and Uley (797-4333), which looks like something right out of La-La Land; and the stylish and popular Vogue Café (7/9 Kuznetsky Most, 923-1701), which manages to fuse modern food plus old Soviet food together. Again, they ain’t cheap. Another one that some call the hippest place in town is called Seer (Cheese) (16/2 Sadovaya Samotechnaya, 209-7770, 209-7247). Expect to spend your entire year’s budget, and then some. Since it’s out of our budget we haven’t tried it, but oddly enough some people call it fusion cuisine and some people call it Italian!

Bucking the meat-based diet tradition, there are even popular vegetarian restaurants in Moscow now. One is called Juggernaut, at 11 Kuznetski Most (928-3580). The salad bar is very good, as are the ceremonial teas and ice cream deserts. Prices are reasonable, and there is an attached vegetarian grocery and head shop. Also a new vegetarian café, Avocado (923- 29-58) opened on Chistoprudny Boulevard –pretty cheap but not very tasty.

For Russian food, there is a whole chain of “Yolki-Palki” (literally translated “Fiddle- Sticks”) restaurants in Moscow now. They are done in the old Russian tradition (with the exception of a weird one on Pushkin square that serves Mongolian barbeque). Cafe Margarita (299-6534) on Patriarch’s Pond is a must for those who are fans of the novel Master & Margarita. Prices are average. On the opposite end of the price spectrum you can try the Writer’s Club Restaurant, another setting from the Master & Margarita, that is quite possibly the classiest place in town. The Pushkin CafJ, opened in a glamorous three story mansion near Pushkinskaya, is also worth a try if you don’t have a budget. Ruskoe Bistro is the Russian version of McDonalds. They serve mainly “piroshki”-- mini-pies that you eat as a main course. They are edible, but after a while it gets old.

Be sure to visit restaurant Club Petrovich (923-0082), where you can try a Soviet cousin - "the best" dishes from the former Soviet Republics. There is a club system (everyone knows everyone through someone – everybody is very friendly unless you are not polite). However, you can get there without a club card from 10 am until 4 pm, this time you can effectively spend eating a roast suluguny (Georgian cheese) and Solyanka (meat soup) and trying to locate a club member, who will invite you on Saturday's party (getting there, you will understand who these strange Russians are).

Georgian food is an often reasonably priced treat. It is a bit spicier than Russian food, and most Americans seem to like it. Try the baklazhani (eggplant), green lobio (refried beans) and shashlik (shish kebab). The cheapest for eats in town are the Mama Zoyas (5 minutes walk from metro Kropotkinskaya (201-7743) and another located near metro Frunzinskaya (242-8550) ) and Guria (ten minutes walk from metro Park Kulturi 246-0378).

40 They are a bit hard to find; but ask any American who has been in Moscow a year or more-- they will take you there. Mama Zoya’s is probably the better of the two. A few of more pricey but good Georgian hotspots are Glenitsvale (202-0445 12/1 Ostozhenka Street) which boasts two halls, one normal and one VIP; Rioni, at 27 Krasina Street (254-9194, 254-9664) small with a romantic atmosphere, but about $25-30 per person.

Uzbek food is a more expensive and more Middle-Eastern version of the Georgian stuff. Try Beloye Solntse Pustnyi (White Sun of the Desert) (209-7525/6015) complete with Belly dancers and a huge salad bar (but no Afghani terrorists here). Bring your credit cards, it’s a bit pricy. There is also Shesh-Besh, which is a kind of generic middle eastern chain found in several Moscow locations.

Actually, there is almost a rule in Moscow—if it has two names that rhyme, it is one of several chains of theme restaurants that are a few steps above fast food: Yolki-Palki (Russian or Mongolian), Kish-Mish (Middle-Eastern) Shesh-Besh (Middle-Eastern), Moo- Moo (theme of early cow), Shuri-Muri (similar barnyard theme), Shashlik-Mashlik (shish- ke-bab). All of them are mid range prices and consistent quality—good places to drop in if you are wandering the town and suddenly want to sit down for a bite to eat.

For Ukrainian and Jewish cuisine with a neat theme try Shinok (255-0204/0888). Food is expensive but portions are large. Make reservations and ask for a table near grandma and the horse (they will know what you mean).

Finally, for light fare, Moscow boasts numerous good cafes and coffee houses. If you like simple food, you are fan of sandwiches, fruit cocktails and “glintvine” the best place for you in Moscow is Ludi kak Ludi café (People like People). It’s a small cosy place in a 1 minute walk from “Kitai-gorod” station. There are only 6 tables, the place is always crowded but prices are very pleasant and service is perfect. Foreigners usually like it a lot. Don’ t forget to make a reservation (921-1201). Book Café (200 03 56) is a good idea if you have no budget. It is a really stylish and fashionable place. There are three rooms decorated in hi-tech style: the yellow room is the best for lunch and daytime meetings, blue one is for your dates and orange is always good. The cuisine is fusion but the main thing is that there are books, of course, - they have a plenty of stylish photograph albums. If you happened to meet a pretty girl and you want to make an impression on her we advise you two good cafés: Sad (Garden, 239 90 09) and Aldebaran (953 62 68). Both paces are not far from Tretiakovskaya Metro station. Aldebaran has higher prices, good service and delicious deserts. Sad is an open-air café, romantic and cozy, much cheaper than Aldebaran. Coffee houses are generally chains available in several locations around Moscow. All are of similar price and quality, but we will recommend Kofemania (Wi-Fi internet access), Chocoladnitsa (great hot chocolate),

41 and, our favorite (because it is right downstairs from our office), “the Bean” or CoffeeBean chain.

FYI: there is a free restaurant rating service (788-0600, 956-8866, 956-6688), they speak English, know every place in Moscow (at least the address and telephone) and can reserve in most of them.

By the way, the appropriate tip in a Russian restaurant is about 10%.

Another hint: Russians eat the same type of food for breakfast as you would expect for lunch and dinner. If you can’t handle a sandwich at 8am, you might want to avoid hotel breakfasts and buy some cereal and milk at a grocery store.

Bars

Well, we could go on for days here, but truth is that the popular bars are changing so fast that we might send you to the wrong place anyway. And just a note for all who are coming: though we know there are rumors about a club called Hungry Duck, do not go. There is no reason unless you want to fight and see transvestite shows. This place, once the premiere club in Europe, is now the club that nobody wants to go to. And if you go then make sure you do not tell anybody because their response to you will probably not be one of approval. Sorry should have come here 3-4 years ago, but there are a lot of clubs that can give you more and below is a list.

If you want crazy and wild, forget the Duck and check out Papa John’s (22 Myasnitskaya tel: 755-9554 hours: 18:00-morning.) Papa John’s is supposed to be even crazier than the Hungry Duck was in its hay-day, so if you have a light stomach and are not ready to see anything then do not go. But if you are interested in a little adventure then check this club out.

Another club to go to is Rock Vegas (Ulitsa Pyatnitskaya 29/8 tel: 959-5333). This club tends to to be a favorite for the Australian expats but they usually play live rock music and dance music. Last time there the cover band was playing ACDC and Rolling Stones. There are a lot of Russian women there but beware of the Russian girls that prey on the clubs where mostly expats hang out.

Real McCoy is the big expat place now. Located at Barrikadnaya and it is free to get in though face control can sometimes be difficult to get past. Small but fun.

42 Club Propaganda (Bolshoi Zalatoustinksy Pereulok 7, tel: 924-5732 or 923-3494, hours: 12:00-6:00) is the most highly recommended. Propaganda is a club that plays strictly house and funk music. It is too loud to talk but it is a good place if you like to dance. It gets very crowded on the weekends and chances are you will have to wait if you show up after 23:00. Worth going to--the crowd is fairly young. By the way, they have the best Cezar salad in Moscow, you must try it!

If you want to relax and listen to live Blues/Jazz music try B.B. King (Sadovaya- Samotechnaya 4/2 tel:299-8206 hours: 12:00 to 2:00) or Forte (no phone but located right down the street from Pushkin Square McDonalds). Both have a relaxed atmosphere and good crowd, good place to start the night.

Voodoo Lounge (Sredny Tishinsky Pereulok 5/7 tel: 253-2323). This club has a young crowd and high expat factor. Good place, like most of these clubs mentioned, to meet people. It gets crowded after 23:30. Drinks are reasonable and the dance floor is fairly big for Moscow standards.

Bunker (200-1506 Tverskaya Ulitsa12 ctr. 2) This bar/club has a small dance floor where they usually play live music and then afterwards dance music. It is a good place to go to unwind and relax. Even though the music gets rather loud there are places to go to sit down and talk. This place is popular among the mid-20's crowd and we must say it gets pretty busy. One final note, the owners of this bar have opened up, what they claim as the largest club in Europe. It is called B2 (209-99-09/18), it is located not far from Mayakovskya Metro station-ulitsa Bolshaya Sadovaya.

If you want ethnic, Latino and house, go to the Karma Bar (924 5633) on Kuznetski Most. Notwithstanding its popularity, it is big enough to give a good chance that you can dance instead of being squeezed in a crowd. Also, there is food and "hubbly bubbly" (you know what we mean).

If you cannot live without sports for a month, then you can go to Sport Bar located on the Novy Arbat. Entrance is free and they show sports on several televisions. Another option is Metelitsa (also on Noviy Arbat). It is 200 rubles to get in, and they have about 10 TV’s set up with special sporting events piped in by satellite. For special events when they expect to draw a big crowd it costs 400 rubles to get in. Alternatively it is 600 rubles per person to reserve a table—which must be reserved in person and paid in advance.

Finally, (and these hints come from our night secretary who is trying to tell us that we don’t pay her enough) here are some places worth to visit if you are looking for new impressions, if you never saw the real Russian drunks or if you are short of money:

The best place for such goals called Pirogi (pie) (921-58-27, 229-34-53). One of their pubs is located on Bolshaya Dmitrovka street and another one is on Nikolskaya street. Be ready to see a lot of poor artists, students and jobless people who can do well only one thing- drink vodka! Everything in “Pirogi” is extremely cheap (50 rubles for the beer, 30 rubles for vodka!) but quality is a little bit poor. You will never forget this place!

Another good place to communicate with Russian marginal elements is Apshu –the modern version of “Pirogi” but with much better service and food. Good live music in the evenings. And Gogol Bar (514-09-71) on Stoleshnikov Pereulok, is pretty the same, but was opened just a few months ago. It plays old Soviet songs from old Soviet movies in combination with Russian cuisine and cheap alcohol. Located in the centre of Moscow, it’s easy to find.

Of course this is not a complete listing of bars. Nothing beats the experience like exploring a new place yourself. If you feel adventurous then pick up the Exile newspaper (mentioned in the newspaper section) and just go to any club that sounds interesting. Please be aware that some places are more dangerous to go to than others because some places have patrons that do not like foreigners, and some places have a high mafiosi factor or high prostitute factor. (e.g., Night Flight).

Oh yes, enter Casinos at your own risk - at least at your wallet’s own risk. Moscow casinos are not the same as the places Mom and Dad spent their weekend Los Vegas vacation. The gamblers often take their business very seriously and the stakes can be high. The cover charges are sometimes high too--just to make sure you are serious.

Health Clubs & Fitness Centers

Now that we have told you about the good places to eat, drink, and relax, it would probably be a good time to tell you how to lose that weight that you will probably gain. Not to scare anyone here but if the first time that you eat a hot dog off the street doesn’t help you to lose weight then you are going to have to find alternate means and those will be health clubs and fitness centers. So for those of you who want to pump iron, lose a couple of pounds, or simply have a membership card to a fancy place so that you can use it to try to meet people, then here is a list of some well-noted fitness centers.

Gold’s Gym (Leningradskii Prospekt 31, bldg. 30 tel: 931-9616). Yes people Gold’s Gym is here and for the price to use it we truly believe that all the equipment is actually made of gold. Though this is an expensive and elite club, if you are already a member somewhere

44 else in the world then you can use your membership, for free, in Russia for two weeks, “or longer, if you sneak in and they do not catch you.” Other than that, you would have to sign up for a one year membership at a cost of $1,500 or more.

Planet Fitness (Malaya Dmitrovka Ulitsa 6 tel: 299-7353). This place is still a bit expensive but for what you get it seems to be worth it. Quality facilities with all the features of a Gold’s Gym but at a cheaper price. The last time we checked, about a year ago, the cost for membership was about $300 for something like 3 months. We are not sure whether you can sign up for a month or six week membership but you can call and if someone is nice enough to talk with you then you might be able to find the answer out.

The last place is rather cheap. This gym is located at the Diplomatic Academy and although we do not have an address it is located inside the Diplomatic Academy which is right across the street from Park Kulturi Metro station. You can’t miss it. The Academy is located next to the Moskva River and it is an off-green building. The cost was about $4.00 per day last time we checked, which is fairly priced for what you get. Be a bit careful though. This is the type of place where you might run into people who want to firmly discuss Bush’s middle-East policies with you.

If you want to stay healthy but don’t want to spend club fees, you can always go jogging. It used to be the sure sign that someone was a foreigner if they were caught in sweat pants jogging down a sidewalk early in the mornings. But this isn’t so true any more because fitness is beginning to catch on here. Many people go jogging along the embankment below the lookout near Moscow State University. It’s known for rollerblading too. Another place is Park Pobedy (Victory Park). In the center of the city, some people run round the Kremlin grounds and the Boulevard Ring, but this have the disadvantage of lots of traffic crossings, so is better on a weekend. Being the city that it is, Moscow also has a branch of the Hash House Harriers, a running, drinking and socializing club that meets on Sunday afternoons at 4:00 in the foyer of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (next to Metro Mayakovskaya).

Religion

The state religion in Russia is Russian Orthodox and, other than that, finding different churches is about as easy as finding a needle in a hay stack. However, we have found some, so here is a short list.

If you are Anglican then there is a church near the Kremlin. St. Andrew’s Church (Voznesensky Pereulok 8 tel: 245-3837) is between the Tverskaya and Arbat metro stations.

45 The church welcomes Christians of all denominations and their services are at 10:00 am on Sundays.

For Jewish people there is a Synagogue, Moscow Choral Synagogue located at Bolshoi Spasoglinishchevsky Pereulok 10. (tel: 923-6749). This Synagogue is at metro Kitai Gorod,. There is also a synagogue on Bolshaia Bronaya, not far from the Pushkinskaya McDonald’s (which is not Kosher). We are sorry, but we don’t know when services are held.

If you are Catholic then you can find services held at St. Ludovic’s Catholic Church (Ulitsa Malaya Lubyanka tel: 925-2034). Their services are in English at 8:00 am on Sundays. After that services are held in French, Russian and Polish.

Lutherans may go to the Lutheran Church of Peter and Paul (Starosadsky Pereulok tel: 924-5820). Unfortunately, services here are held only in German and Russian. They are 10:30 and 12:30, respectively, on Sundays.

For Muslims there is a mosque, Main Mosque, located at Vypolzov Pereulok (tel: 281-3866). This is near Metro Prospekt Mira, which is on the orange line and the brown circle line.

Finally, if you would like to try something different then you can check out any of the numerous Orthodox churches located all around the city. This is a dominantly Orthodox society, with unbelievable services. So even if you are not Russian Orthodox it is probably worth going to a couple of services just for experience sake. Women should wear head scarves, and all should expect to stand during the long services.

Shopping

It is no longer a problem to figure out where to shop in Russia. The problem most visitors have is figuring out HOW to shop. Some Russian stores (especially outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg) still have a three line system. You see what you want behind the counter and, if you want, ask the salesperson to show it to you (a little pointing and charades should get your point across if you don’t speak a word). If you want it you nod your head; memorize the price, or get the salesperson to write it down for you; go to a separate cashier and pay; then go back to give the saleswoman the receipt and have her wrap it up for you. It’s actually a fun system because you get much more personal contact with people than in the U.S. self-serve system. Expect shopping to take some time however.

You have some fun and wonderful options in Moscow for food shopping:

First, there are several farmers markets and flea markets in every Russian city, and you are almost certain to run into at least one of them. Here, the shopping system is the bargaining system--pretend you are shopping in Mexico and you will do fine. These are great places for fresh vegetables, fruits, sausages and farm cheeses. The major farmers markets are more closely regulated than they look. So don’t be too frightened about the sanitation–but then again don’t buy anything that looks spoiled. Watch the scales while the clerk is weighing your food.

If you prefer your food in the more packaged form, there are multiple groceries around Moscow, and even some supermarkets. There are about 8 stores of the Turkish “Ramstore” chain scattered around Moscow. Look for a weird green kangeroo logo (no, we don’t know what that has to do with Turkey either.) Prices are quite reasonable. Metro Supermarkets are huge cash and carry places. You will save money on your groceries, but if you don’t have a car you will probably spend your savings in carrying them home. Oddly, the stores are located nowhere near subway stations. Closer into the city (and for that matter all over) you will find the slightly more upscale Seventh Continent chain. For metro-ride convenience, try the location inside the Atrium shopping center at the Kurskaya train station. There is also a Seventh Continent at the end of Stary Arbat Street, near Smolenskaya metro. If you don’t find what you want there, cross the street to the very ritzy Stockman’s Department Store, where you will find a gourmet grocery shop in the basement.

Vegetarians can try the following shops that were recommended to us:

Areks Trading Bolshoi Ordinka 49, block 2, 931-9907 (Metro Tretyakovskaya)

Inter-Soya Iriny Levchenko Str. 6 943-6228 (Metro Oktiabraskoye Pole)

Cartel Plus Kotelnitchisky Per. 5-7 573-5221 (Metro Taganskaya-Circle Line exit)

Juggernaut Ul. Kuznetsky Most, 11 928 -3580 (Metro Kuznetsky Most)

Enough food. Moving to electronics, you can find three big stores that are more or less the equivalent of Circuit City if you want to replace your camera or buy a surge protector,

47 diskettes or video film. These are Teknosila, Partiya, and M-Video, each with several locations around the city. But more likely you will get a kick out of looking around Moscow’s huge exhibition center V.D.N.H. (also called V.V.Ts.) This is like a state fair where you can find deals on everything from electronics to vitamins, and ride the ferris wheel while you are at it. It’s a great place to look for rotary fans and cheap portable water heaters.

Next, while we would never recommend violating anyone’s copyright, music fans and computer fans should check out the occasional weekend CD markets (for the cultural experience only of course). There has been a huge crackdown on piracy this year, but still some places can be found for those in the know. Everything you always wanted and a few gifts for friends back home at prices of about $3-$5 a CD. Don’t expect a warranty though. Ask a music fan to take you there, you will never find them without a guide.

For serious souvenir hunting, nothing beats Ismailovo market, located at metro station Ismailovski Park, on weekends. Bring plenty of cash (safely stashed, as pickpockets abound), and comfortable walking shoes, and plan to spend most of the day.

Also there is a reason to go into Suviniry Shop on Petrovka Street. It’s a bit hard to find and there’s no phone, but you turn left to the second arch in a row of buildings after Stoleshnikov if you are coming from the center, then follow the sign with a big matrushka doll through the maze of alleyways. This little shop is one of the places where the people who sell souvenirs on the Arbat Street go to buy them!

Dry Cleaning

The best places to get your laundry/dry cleaning done are Kalifornia Cleaners and Diana Cleaners, both of which have outlets all around the city. If you have $20 or more in laundry, they will pick up and deliver. They are a bit expensive, but they are the safest and most reliable of the dry cleaners in Moscow. In addition to Kalifornia Cleaners, we have found one place in Moscow where you can do laundry yourself. The place is called “Fabrika Number 25 Srochnoy Ximchistki I Stirki Belya.” Unfortunately we can not vouch for it, but it was the only one that we could find. Anyway, they are located at metro Leniniskij Prospekt, Ulitsa Vavilova 11 (tel: 135-2083/5014).

Weather

Moscow weather is an experience in itself. Winter begins sometime around the end of October as the first snows set in and things begin to get cold. It ends sometime around March, when the snows melt and uncover all the trash that got dropped and quickly covered over the winter. Late February and early March are some of the least attractive times to visit Moscow! Surprisingly, visiting at the height of winter isn’t too bad at all. Ostensibly due to increases in the numbers of cars, global warming has settled its major impact here, and temperatures in the heart of the city, while still below freezing and quite snowy, usually will no longer defeat an LL.Bean winter coat. The central heating system in Moscow is also very good (advantage of living in an oil and gas rich country), and houses are well winterized. So don’t be scared–we think Chicago winters are much worse and British houses are much colder. Plus, in Russia you can warm up with a little vodka.

But, Moscow is a city of extremes. After the cold winter, you might be suddenly slapped with a hot and muggy summer. Sometimes we slide through with beautiful summer weather, but almost as often we have two or three weeks–usually in June/July–of South Florida fun. It’s worse, though, than Florida, because air conditioning is practically non- existent. Most Moscovites simply go to their dachas if the hot weather settles in the city. If you can’t talk a Russian into taking you along, you might consider buying a fan–try V.D.N.H. (See shopping section).

The best time to visit is August. Among other things, the city is practically deserted, as this is vacation month. Like Paris, the locals head for the country. There are less traffic jams, more room to dance in the clubs, etc. The weather is also not bad in September- October and in April-May.

Rain happens. But not in the extreme, unless you think the Southern California rain level is normal.

In St. Petersburg the weather, like a lot of other things, is similar to Moscow but a bit less extreme. Summers can be positively pleasant. Winter temperatures are not particularly low, but feel lower because the city is close to water.

Outside these two major cities, of course, it’s impossible to describe the weather because Russia ranges from Siberia to the Crimea, and all parts in between.

The final phenomenon you need to know about, if your visit will extend through the early summer, is the latest item on George Bush’s list of Weapons of Mass Destruction:

49 Pookh. This white fluffy stuff is generated by thousands of poplar trees that were planted in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other major Russian cities after Comrade Stalin’s orders to beautify the places. (Poplars grow quickly, and when Stalin said “do” quick was important.) Pookh appears in early June and blankets the whole place. Why is it a WMD candidate? Well, if you are prone to allergies, this stuff can wipe you out. Be sure to bring appropriate allergy medicine. But Pookh is also a dual use weapon. You light this stuff and you have an effect better than napalm. Every now and then throughout Pookh season, expect to see gangs of 10-year-old terrorists in training lighting Pookh and watching the fun. (OK, we’ll admit it, we sometimes light it too when no one is watching!)

Be careful of the pronunciation of pookh. Slightly off on the “kh” sound and you may have told someone that you are going to light a fart.

Dispelling Some Common Mythology

Crime and Safety

Moscow is neither extremely safe nor extremely dangerous. If you take the same precautions you would in New York or other world capitals, you will probably be fine. Don’t carry around large amounts of cash except in a money belt you wear under your clothes; and don’t show your money belt in public. Be especially careful about your belongings in airports, train stations, casinos, night clubs, street fairs and other crowded areas. Avoid drunks and suspicious looking characters such as gypsies. Don’t walk alone on empty streets after dark.

This being said, one factor makes Moscow slightly more dangerous than other cities. Foreigners are known to be people with money who are unlikely to stick around in Russia throughout the duration of a criminal trial. Thus we make attractive targets for crime.

How do you avoid being a target?--blend in with the Russian community. Leave your Rolex watch, Armani suit and gold jewelry at home. While the “New Russian Businessmen” like to flash these items, frankly a sports jacket and tie for men, and a skirt and blouse for women will get you through a meeting with practically anyone lower than Putin (though his ties won’t win him any GQ awards either). Avoid speaking loudly in English and acting obnoxiously touristy. Gestures such as whipping out your handy camcorder in public markets or pointing and gesturing wildly at a police escorted government car are sure to make you stand out in the crowd. In areas where it is impossible to avoid looking touristy--such as

50 when taking a guided tour of the Kremlin cathedrals--just be careful. Avoid hanging out or doing business with characters who take little regard for the law themselves. If you hang out with Russian mafiosi, you should expect your life to be as dangerous as those of Russian mafiosi.

Mace is legal,but we aren’t sure whether, after 9-11, it can be carried in your luggage. Anyway, you should carry something of this kind only if you feel more comfortable doing so than not. If you are one of those people as likely to spray yourself in the face as to spray an attacker, try devices that make lots of noise instead.

Guns, except for hunting rifles, are not legally available without a special license, and you should, at all costs, avoid the temptation of purchasing military surplus weapons on the black market.

If you are the victim of a crime, call 02 (the equivalent of 911) from the nearest public phone. If you want immediate help say “Pomogite, menya agrabila!” (Help, I’m being mugged) and give the address. The police should come sooner or later. If you do not speak Russian do not hesitate to use an English Crisis Line which is free, confidential, and operates 24 hours a day. You should call a paging operator at 244-3449 or 931-9682, give the code “CRISIS” and then leave your phone number. A counselor should call you back within five minutes. If you need an ambulance call 03 and say “Ya ranin mne nuzhna pomash! (I have been hit and need help). Ambulances, unfortunately, may be a bit slow. (They may have to first drop off the passenger or two they picked up while acting as a gypsy cab to make a little extra cash.)

You do not need to put money in the phone booth to make emergency calls (01 -- fire, 02 – militsia, 03 – ambulance, 04 – gas leaks). But after you call the police, use a telephone card or token and call your office or program director.

If you buy a cell phone and a SIM card with a local telecom operator, they will usually provide you with a list of emergency services that you can contact from your mobile phone (some calls are free) to arrange for all necessary services in accordance with your explanations of the situation (i.e. if you are in a traffic accident, they will call the traffic police and ambulance, etc.).

Take heart however. The news media is full of stories of shootings and violence in Russia designed to bring in readers and scare the heck out of visitors. Think of it this way: in New York those stories wouldn’t make front page news. Disease and Medicine

51 Russia is not the bottom of the barrel in terms of disease control. Until the demise of the communist era, the Soviet Union had a very efficient system of vaccination and disease prevention. Unfortunately, as state control of the population decreased, so did the ability of the state to insist upon preventative medicine. Then the Russian rumor mill went to work. (The Russian rumor mill, you will soon find, is incredible! Years of Party line official news, and probably a bit of the Russian soul, result in the phenomenon that rumors, no matter how outrageous, spread like wildfire.) People stopped vaccinating their kids because of fear of AIDS and rumors that certain vaccinations caused cancer or caused hair to fall out. Thus, we are now beginning to see a recurrence of diseases that were all but eradicated. Remember, however, you have probably been vaccinated for most things you might catch here. If you get sick, it is most likely the regular flu and not diphtheria, malaria, SARs or even Bird Flu. Check with your doctor and follow the advice about what shots you should have before traveling.

In Moscow there are several Western medical clinics whose staff all speak English. Most popular are the American Medical Center (933-7700); the European Medical Center (933-6655) located at Spiridonievsky per., 5 bldg 1; and the Russian-American Family Medicine Center (250-0646), located in downtown Moscow at 2nd Tverskoy Yamskoy Per., bldg. 10. All are about equal in quality, depending on who you speak to. Of the three, American Medical Center is by far the most expensive.

For dental care you can try the European Medical Center listed above, or Seven Day Adventists Dental Clinic, near metro Akademicheskaya, 126-7554, 126-7906.

Remember, unless you purchased a traveler’s policy, your insurance will work on reimbursement only. Russian clinics wouldn’t recognize a Blue Cross card if you hit them with it. So don’t go out without your credit card.

Finally you might want to think about buying emergency evacuation insurance. Most US health insurance does not cover the cost of an emergency flight home.

52 Departure Formalities

When leaving the country, be sure to arrive at the airport at least two hours before your flight. Russia has an export customs procedure that, depending on your luck, could involve crowded lines and a bit of a delay.

Don’t throw away the customs form or migration card you filled out on arrival. Upon departure you must fill out a second customs declaration form, which, if you declared something on your way in, is sometimes compared to your incoming form. They are checking to see what you have bought or earned in Russia, and thus what might be dutiable. Most routine souvenirs need not be declared on exit; however declarable items include gallery quality paintings, antiques, caviar, gold, precious stones, military uniforms and fur coats. Russian law is vague about the line between a non-declarable souvenir and a declarable work of art. Therefore, customs officials can, if they want, treat almost every item as dutiable. They tend, however, not to be too careful in checking unless their x-ray of your belongings indicates that you bought an unusually large number of souvenirs. The moral, if you must smuggle home a Repin, only take one. Also, keep the receipts so you can defeat any customs officer’s high assessment of your painting’s dutiable value. (Military uniforms and antiques cannot be exported at all without special licenses, so don’t buy them. Russian law classifies as antique anything over 25 years old.)

Don’t worry too much however, most foreign visitors pass through export customs without question. These days the customs officers seldom even ask for the forms.

Conclusion

We hope this guide has been helpful in giving you a brief introduction to your trip to Russia. We wish you every success in your classes or other endeavors. Please contact us if you have any suggestions for changes or updates to this guide.

Sincerely, Your authors, Marian Dent (original 1997 edition and subsequent edits) Daniel Repko (bar& restaurant review) Maria Tyurnikova (2004 bar and restaurant updates)