Now the main problem when traveling around Russia has become the need for registration at the place of temporary stay, which is checked with great zeal by law enforcement officers and border guards. What is registration? A provision according to which everyone arriving in another region (if you are in your own country) or abroad (if you are a foreigner) must apply to the OVIR and within three days obtain a document certifying your residence in that locality at a specific address. If you travel between ten cities, you are formally required to apply to OVIR in each of them.
In essence, the system of total control over citizens moving around the country was introduced at the dawn of the Soviet regime and fully corresponded to the ideology of a totalitarian state. After the collapse of the USSR, the legislation of all former republics automatically inherited this provision. Therefore, in each of them they can ask for registration and demand a fine for its absence. A pleasant exception was the Baltic republics, which repealed Stalinist regulations at the turn of the century in 1999-2000, and Ukraine, where the institution of registration was effectively abolished by a truly democratic presidential decree "On Additional Measures to Implement the Human Right to Freedom of Movement and Free Choice of Place of Residence" dated 15.06.2001. When foreigners enter Ukraine, they are now offered to fill out a migration card, which serves as registration for up to 90 days.
In other republics of the former USSR, primarily in Russia, the registration provision is in fact a source of easy money for law enforcement officers who, using their official position, extort bribes from visitors. And if until recently it was possible to "run into" a police check on this article only in the capital, now the situation has changed radically. As a result of the introduction of the new administrative code in July 2002, the fine for violating the regime of stay on the territory of the Russian Federation by foreigners is 500-1,000 rubles, i.e., 85-170 hryvnias. Inspired by such large figures, Russian police officers began to show unprecedented activity: checks can now be expected in all major cities, on highways at traffic police posts, and even on long-distance trains. The new law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation," which came into force simultaneously with the administrative code, states that the latter must register upon arrival on Russian territory within three days. I emphasize, not upon arrival in any city, but upon arrival on the territory of Russia. Thus, following the letter of the law and without delving into the essence of registration rules, if you bought a ticket for the Kiev - Vladivostok train, which travels for a week through Russian territory, you already need to have registration on the fourth day of the trip. How to get it on a train will hardly concern transport police officers, and they will try to "squeeze" a fine out of you.
Since the beginning of this year, Russia has introduced migration cards, which, unlike the Ukrainian ones, not only do not register a tourist at the border, but on the contrary, allow money to be extorted from him when leaving the country. How? On the back of the card, which is given to you at the border checkpoint, there is an inscription "Marks of registration at the place of temporary stay." It is assumed that in each city you visited, they should put a stamp there. When leaving Russia, border guards, in addition to passports, began to require the card issued upon entry. If there is no registration stamp in it, they will try to fine you under the threat of being put off the train.
If such difficulties arise, wouldn't it be easier to actually register, as the law requires? Alas, it often turns out that it is not easier. As an example, I will cite the requirements set out to me personally, a citizen of Ukraine, in the OVIR of the city of Yakutsk in August of last year, already after the introduction of the new law. To obtain registration, you need:
1) provide an application and the passport of the tenant or homeowner;
2) present documents for the apartment (warrant, standard contract) or house (house book);
3) provide a certificate of an AIDS test;
4) get a fluorogram at any polyclinic;
5) obtain a medical insurance policy from an insurance company;
6) register at the migration department of the Republic of Sakha.
Citizens are received there from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on working days; such a three-hour work schedule creates huge queues. On top of everything else, they demanded that I pay 400 rubles (about 70 hryvnias) for registration.
Note that, knowing the slowness of our officials, fulfilling these requirements will take about five days. But everything needs to be done in three... Moreover, after completing the procedures, you will finally get the right to legally stay in only one city in the country, and if you want to visit five cities? Again an AIDS test, again a fluorogram...
Now let's consider the situation when you are an independent tourist and travel on foot (say, on a hiking trip), by kayak, or by bicycle. Where should you register then? Let's carefully read the "Rules for Registration and Removal of Citizens from Registration Records at the Place of Stay and at the Place of Residence within the Russian Federation," approved by Government Resolution No. 713 of July 17, 1995, with amendments of April 23, 1996, February 14, 1997, March 16, 2000, and August 14, 2002.
"A place of stay is a place where a citizen temporarily resides - a hotel, sanatorium, rest home, boarding house, campsite, hospital, tourist base, or other similar institution, as well as a residential dwelling that is not the citizen's place of residence."
He who knows the law is armed. Registration is required only for those who intend to live in a dwelling for more than three days. If you stay somewhere (except border zones and other “closed” entities where special registration rules apply) for one, two, three days, you do not need to register. It is illegal for police officers to impose fines for lack of registration during these periods, and even more so during transit travel by car or train.
Independent tourists are not subject to registration rules at all. For example, the rules speak of residence in a dwelling, and a tent is not one. The collection of “fines” by police officers without issuing receipts, which is now common practice in Russia, is nothing other than a bribe received under aggravating circumstances: in the performance of official duties and with extortion (say, threatening to detain you until your train departs). Such actions, under Part 3 of Article 290, are punishable by imprisonment for 7 to 12 years.
What to do if you are detained? First of all, try to explain to the police officers that they are, to put it mildly, wrong. If that does not work, you can refer to a lack of money and refuse to give a bribe. If you still have to give it, try to do so in front of witnesses (the more, the better). Then boldly write a statement to the prosecutor's office at the place of the incident, indicating all the circumstances of the case and all witnesses. Only in this way can police arbitrariness be stopped.
As an example of possible actions of the Russian police, I will cite an incident that happened to me directly on the Moscow - Chelyabinsk train. A police patrol passing through the train quickly identified all the foreigners there (the train attendants help with this, who before boarding the carriage look through passengers' documents and mark non-Russian passports), including me. I was invited for a confidential conversation in a separate compartment. Before boarding the train, I had been in Moscow on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, as evidenced by the entry stamp in my migration card; accordingly, I did not need registration there (registration is required within three days, excluding weekends and holidays). However, the police officers said that if the period of stay exceeds three calendar days, then I already needed registration. In doing so, they showed complete ignorance of their own Russian laws. Let us note that it is physically impossible to process documents in two working days. The patrol was knowledgeable in only one matter - the amount of the fine.
Having conducted a personal search without witnesses, which in itself is a violation, they found all my money spread out in my pockets and offered me to pay 500 rubles. After my refusal, they demanded that I present a customs declaration for the $10 I was carrying. When I assured the police officers that for such amounts an oral declaration at the border is sufficient, I heard in response: “You are too smart, you are about to get a smack in the head.” As a result, I never gave them any money, but I had to talk for two and a half hours.
During this time, the patrol committed the following violations: a search of clothing and belongings without witnesses, checking documents without showing their service IDs and without oral introduction, taking away my passport, which is property of Ukraine, “until clarification,” extortion of a bribe (in the end they offered me 200 rubles, although the official fine starts at 500 rubles). I must note that I was the only one so intransigent, while the passengers from the Caucasus traveling nearby paid the “fines” meekly.
Thus, when traveling to Russia, I can give the following recommendations: carefully study the laws regarding the status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation and registration in particular;
always keep with you your foreign passport, migration card, travel documents, hotel receipts, route lists of hiking trips;
be cautious at train stations of large cities, where police officers pay increased attention to visitors;
do not appear on the streets in a state of intoxication, because it is easy to take money from a drunk person under any pretext and even without one;
when leaving Russia, be prepared for a tough conversation with border guards and possible ejection from the train if you do not want to give a bribe and insist on your own.
If you have suffered material damage due to illegal actions of the police, file a civil lawsuit in court demanding compensation for losses and moral damages. Of course, this is an option only for people of principle; litigation will take a lot of time. However, this is the only way to put in their place the bribe-takers in police uniforms who view visitors from Ukraine and other CIS republics as a source of personal enrichment.