Russian Roulette at Moscow Airport

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It was not my intention to add any further blogs from this trip, but a couple of unfortunate experiences with Russian immigration at Moscow Airport on the way home have prompted me to document the events in the hope that it may assist other travellers entering Moscow in the future. The main gripe was our treatment at the hands of the Russian immigration people at Domodedovo (Moscow) Airport, despite our carrying out visa instructions exactly as advised by the visa representative at the Russia Embassy in Sydney.

Just by way of background, we had booked a total 4 weeks overseas holiday, comprising 2 weeks in Russia on a cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg, and 2 weeks in Hungary and Croatia, but because our air tickets were from Sydney to Moscow return, we had to fly back to Moscow at the completion of our trip in order to fly home. Given there was a 10 hour gap between the incoming and outgoing flights, we booked (and paid for) an overnight stay at the Aerotel Domodedovo, which is located just beside the airport.

When we applied for our Russian Visas way back in July, we applied for Entry/re-entry Visas. The embassy representative advised that provided the return transit stop was less than 24 hours, we would not require a re-entry visa, so proceeded to issue us with just a single entry visa to cover only the 2 week period we were on the cruise. I remember querying this with him at the time, advising we wished to stay in a hotel overnight on our return to Moscow, but he reiterated that he would not issue us with re-entry visas since we would not be in Moscow that time around for longer than 24 hours. I would have to say that the attitude of the Visa representative at that time was not one aimed at encouraging tourism to Russia!

Anyway, on arrival at Domodedovo Airport at 12.40am off a flight from Vienna, our problems started. On arrival at immigration after the flight, we were 6th in line for one of the 3 booths available, but around 30 people were in fact served before us by pushing in front of us, letting friends in etc, and also if there was any problem, the officer would disappear for up to 10 minutes at a time. Basically, every time the officer stamped the passport of the person at the booth, there would be a stampede of people pushing past each other to be next up to the booth. As such, it took us almost an hour and a half to get through, despite our early arrival. This almost exactly replicated my experience on my last visit to Moscow in 2000, when there were only 2 booths for over 100 visitors, and it was like a bloodbath every time they were ready to call up the next person. In fairness, on the way in on this trip, they had 4 booths for fewer than 50 visitors, so it was not too bad, as was noted with some surprise in my earlier Moscow blog. However, as a person who has visited around 80 different countries, I’d put Russian immigration efficiency and friendliness in the lowest 5 percentile (yes, even below the US!).

But that was not the worst of it! Once we finally got to one of the booths, we were refused clearance to proceed through immigration to collect our suitcases from the carousel and go to our booked hotel. We were taken aside and held until 3.45am, with a minimum of feedback or friendliness, despite the fact that we did not raise our voices with immigration personnel at any time. Every question and request was met with a blunt “nyet” and it wasn’t until a junior ticketing clerk, who had reasonably good English and a helpful frame of mind, came on the scene that we made any progress at all. Anyway, the upshot was that they finally returned us to the airport transit area and refused to allow us to collect our suitcases, which contained all our clothes, toiletries, some medications etc. So the net result to us was:

1. Loss of AUD250 pre-paid accommodation at the airport hotel;
2. An exceedingly uncomfortable and stressful 10 hours in the airport with no sleep;
3. Arrival home in Sydney on Wednesday night, in the same clothes we had started with on Monday morning;
4. The embarrassment of almost being treated as a criminal for this period in detention by immigration authorities.

I have written to the Russian Consul-General in Sydney protesting our treatment, but have yet to get any response.

Just to put things into perspective, the Russian cruise itself was wonderful and gave us a very positive perception of the friendliness and hospitality of the Russian people. All of this was ruined by this one unfortunate experience on the way home.

We will not be returning to Russia.

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Comments

[Jill Fitzhenry]

.............just when you thought it was safe
I have so enjoyed being a part of your journey. Such a great trip, terrific pics and a commentary that really made it interesting, taking me to places and people whose lifestyles were so different to my own. I really felt for you and Joan in this last entry as the whole thing was so unnecessary and caused distress, discomfort and distrust of a system screwed up. Great to have you home safely. As DQ passed on, in protest, Vodka will never pass my lips again. regards Jill