I would also like to add our experiences in entering the country at Passport Control at the airports.
Before both of our visits, i had done extensive research into entering the country...particularly the passport checkpoint experience. Because of the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, the Russian Govt have to be very thorough as to whom they are letting into Russia, and this is especially true for foreigners from "countries with unfriendly governments". I had watched numerous You Tube videos from "westerners who live in Russia" and travel frequently abroad and upon returning to Russia, even they are always declined immediate entry at passport control and detained for questioning anywhere from 30 mins up to 6 hours ..depending how busy the airport is.
It is just a fact that Russia is trying to protect its people and nation.
All of these You Tubers who live in Russia "ALL" have said that the questioning process is done by professional officers in a polite and courteous manner. They will ask why are you here, whats the purpose of your visit, where are you staying etc, and all have said just to answer them honestly , show them hotel reservations, departure flight bookings if they ask for them, they might even ask to see your phone, and the interview process will go smooth.
Knowing this going into Russia.....
On my first visit 2025.
Arrived at St. Petersburg at Pulkovo Airport on Jan 2nd on a Thursday morning at 6.00 am on a flight from Turkey (2 hour layover) we had just spent 15 days in Greece. ( I had expained to my wife before our trip back home about the possibility that we might be detained for a while and to expect that we might be held back to be interviewed at the airport. My wife can be very nervous type of person at times, although she understood of the scenario she didnt really want to know about it.)
When we lined up at the passport control booths, my wife went first and i was waiting next in line behind her. After about 10 -15 mins (yes... they thoroughly check every detail of your passport) the lady officer stamped her passport. I walked up next to the same booth, again she scrutinized over my passport and me and another 10-15 mins later she stamped my passport. My wife waiting on the otherside was a bit surprised how smoothly it went and that how we were both expecting to be held back. Now i must say at his stage we were the only flight that had arrived at that time of morning and the airport seemed very quiet and only a handfull of passport booths were open.
On departing Russia that year at passport control our fingerprints were taken electronically and facial recognition biometrics was taken as well.
Our second visit Jan 2026....(This was not a smooth Passport experience)
Arrived at Moscow at Sheremetyevo Airport on Jan 24th on a Saturday afternoon at 3.00 pm. Straight from Australia (4hour layover in Doha).
The airport was packed with passengers arriving.
My wife and i line up together, because its busy they open up more passport booths and we both were shifted to a new queue. We are now lining up in the middle of 2 booths in front of us.. which are back to back, so my wife moves closer to the left booth and im right behind her, then my wife gets called up to the booth on the left, and i step up so i can go next after her, this is when a passport officer told me off and said i cannot stand there and i had to line up over to the right one, i did not want to argue with him so proceeded to the right booth, now i had no visual contact with my wife, when i it was my turn the male officer looked at my passport for quite some time...which was a brand new passport all empty pages except for my id page and my russian visa page(as my old one was expiring in 3 months had to get a new one), He asked me where i had come from (told him from Australia with a 4 hour layover in Doha) , what was my purpose for visiting(told him tourism), then after more scrutinizing of my blank passport he told me to go back past the queue and he held onto my passport.
At this stage im not concerned for me but i am for my wife, as i did not see her when i went back, which indicated to me that she was stamped through and was waiting on the otherside waiting for me to be passed . This where you should have a plan for this scenario, we didnt talk about this situation for this trip coz we thought we might jinx it....... ha ha. Later i will explain what we or anybody reading should do if this occurs at passport control.
So i am back to where i was waiting along with other passengers who were also held back for questioning. Now at this stage a officer with a bunch of passports in his hand starts to read out names, so you have to listen carefully as the airport is full of people and the whole place is pretty noisy, I hear my name being called out along with others and we are told to follow him to another waiting area with a whole heap of others who are also waiting. So i am in a sitting area, and i estimated that there was about 150- 200 people waiting to be seen. So about every 15 mins a officer with about 4 passports in his hands comes out and reads the names of these to be interviewed in seperate rooms. At this stage i am thinking that i could be here to midnight. At this stage i was not the slightest concerned for myself because i understood the process that they have to do......but i was very concerned for my wife as i knew she would be worried sick about me. After 2 hours of not having my named called out, an officer comes out with about 20-30 passports in his hand ( at this stage there are still about 100-150 people waiting) In that big bunch of passports of names being read out , mine was read toward the end).
We were told to follw him back to the booths where we were given a new booth to line up, wait for our name to be called and the officer stamped our passports. So i was not even interviewed after all of that. My guess is they probably do online checks, passenger name record (PNR) analysis, and database checks for criminal or Interpol records, checking social media accounts, etc, cannot be certain about that, but was so grateful it wasnt any longer. My wife still waiting on the other side hadnt moved far from the booths exit for 2 hours. Then we proceed downstairs to grab our checked luggage, it took nearly 20 mins to locate them as they had been taken off the carousels and left with hundreds of others on the floor next to the carousels.
I confidently thought that our passport control experience would go as smoothly as our first visit.
My new passport has a different passport number than to the one i used last year, as for my wife she used same passport for both visits.
In hindsight when the passport officer told me to move to the booth over to the right i should have stood my ground and gestured to him that i am with my wife and am going through behind her.
Also i had no way of contacing my wife by phone to tell her what was going on as our sims are blocked for the first 24 hours in Russia, and you cannot connect to airport wifi as you need a Russian phone number to access.
So if i was to go through this scenario again, before walking up to passport control again...
1, Husband/wife/boyfriend /girlfiend /couples ...stick together and go through same booth/officer that way they can see you are together, my officer saw me by just myself...single male from western country , empty passport pages. Probably best chance of passing if you go through together.
- Discuss what you will do if one or both seperated at passport control. I should have told my wife that in what eventuated she should have just gone down to luggage area, collected our bags and sat somwhere and just waited, as where she was waiting there were no chairs, she stood for 2 hours
I must admit that after that ordeal , the first 30 -45 mins afterwards finding our luggage, going outside to catch a taxi, did put a small sour start to our trip, (more because we lost 2 hours) but once we were in our hotel we quiclky put it in the back of our minds and even later during our trip and even now have a bit of a laugh about it.
My wife was not really keen to go to Russia when i first suggessted we visit last year as she had only known certain views about Russia in the movies and of what they say on the news here in the west(propaganda BS). We both have greek backround heritage and are both of the orthodox faith. Well after last years visit she was hooked, especially seeing all those magnificent churches/cathedrals, and just noticing the civilised manner of the people there. After being in Greece last year my wife and both say to everybody that we "Always felt safe" in Russia even when walking down some not so busy streets at night. That was not the case back in Greece, or even here back home in Australia. You "Just feel safe" no matter where you are when over there.
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So We have been twice to Russia, first time we were expecting to be pulled aside, it didnt happen, second time didnt even think about it and it happened to me. Would it change my mind to not go again...NO definately not.
Besides we have only seen Russia both times in winter, time to plan a trip to see in summertime (no snow next timeš
I can honestly say that my wife and I are so proud to say that we have visited Russia, and are so grateful that we found this website (Thanks Irena) and that you can see the fantastic times we had by viewing the videos i have made of our both trips there on my facebook page.
There is about 12 short videos from both trips on my facebook profile page. Everybody who did not know anything about Russia and seen my videos was shocked at how amazing our trip looked.
https://www.facebook.com/nick.vangopoulos?ref=profile
So in summary, sorry for the long post , but the passport experience was more "annoying " than scary to be honest, you just have to plan for it happening.
Hope this helps.
Cheers Nick.
