Busted in Russia

My most recent trip to Russia, that ended earlier this week, was memorable to say the least. It appears that giving a presentation to some in the tourism industry around Vladimir was a violation of my tourist visa. According to the interpretation of the Immigration Authorities that 2 hour talk was considered a business activity and thus verboten. However the consequences were greater than I expected and I got a first-hand experience with the Russian judicial system.

The presentation was on Monday, and around noon or Tues a big new car with heavily tinted rear windows arrives at American Home. A uniformed officer emerges looking for me whom he quickly finds. He explains to AH staff that they are taking me to their offices for questioning about a visa violation. There was no deterring him from this mission so off we go, the driver, officer, interpreter they provided me and Oxana from the AH. After arriving I am read my rights as such they are and then "interviewed" by the officer with Oxana interpreting and the entire episode recorded on a video camera. After making my statement and signing in various places I'm introduced to a Russian lawyer from the American Home who is to oversee my visit to the head of the Vladimir Regional FMS Office! At this point I was getting a lot more concerned about the situation but what could I do?

So off we go to meet the head official and determine my fate, the officer, their interpreter, the lawyer, Oxana and I. He was a rather stern looking fellow probably in his 50s. He looks over the paperwork and I get a bunch more questions but right about this time I see he has a copy of the handouts from the workshop. Where did they come from I wondered as we certainly did not bring a copy with us. It turns out one of the workshop participants had reported me. Talk about receiving a bad evaluation? Oh well. Having seen they he had the handouts I knew our arguments that we were just having a somewhat informal meeting was never going to fly. We don't know who this person is or what their motive was but the outcome was clear.

The ruling is then handed down, guilty of violating rule bla bla bla. As a result I was to be fined 5,000 rubles (about $160) and ordered out of the country in 72 hours subject to deportation if I was not gone by that time. The latter was no big deal as I was leaving the next morning anyway but could have been had I planned to stay longer. I was given my paperwork, the charges against me and the punishment ordered but there was one last thing to be done. I was fingerprinted. This was not just an index finger or two but the entirety of every finger along with my palms. Then we were done at last. I guess it could have been worse. They said it wouldn't prevent me from getting another visa at a later date but we'll see about that.

American Home paid the fine that afternoon so I would be able to show it was done if questioned at passport control when leaving. There was no problem departing the next day and I was very thankful to get on that plane and takeoff. Would I go back as a result of this? Of course, but not without a better understanding of the rules and a business visa.

If the Russian government is intending to discourage tourism they couldn't do a better job of it. Getting my visa this year was very costly as it had to be rushed ($330), we had to have our temperature taken before deplaning in Moscow to be sure we weren't importing some swine flu and then this foolishness on top of that. Oh yes, the weather was largely miserable when I was there, cold and rainy.