Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Russian Border Zones and Closed Zones

Another reference thread

Russia has a wide variety of areas restricted to foreign citizens (and sometimes it own citizens too - not unlike Area 51 in the states). If you are planning trips to Russia, especially those off the beaten track, it would be useful to know where you can not go. Unfortunately the information is sparse and not all that transparent. Further, it generally only exists in printed word format (though I am told foreign embassies in Moscow have been given each a copy of maps of restricted areas, but no one shares this.

So I have taken it upon myself to collate all this information and put it together so it can be overlaid on Google Earth or Garmin Mapsource / Basecamp, or SAS Planet, or Locus Maps etc ... so in the planning (and indeed travelling) stages, you can be aware of where you are with respect to closed zones.

There are 3 key types of zones closed to foreigners:

1. Border Zones (can be freely transited when travelling directly to / from border crossings)
2. Foreign Persons exclusion zones (poorly marked, lightly policed - but in theory permit needed)
3. ZATO (Closed Cities - serious no-go zones - permission unlikely to be given)

In several cases these overlap. Often ZATOs have a larger Foreign Persons Exclusion Zone around them. Around Murmansk, the Foreign Persons Exclusion Zone includes 5 ZATOs.

Permission to travel through Border and Foreigner Exclusion zones is often or even usually granted (you do need to apply via an travel agent months in advance), but that depends on the nature of the closed zone and the genuineness of your reason for applying. If it is travel then you will want to specify a clear route and what you want to see there that justifies you entering the zone. Permission for foreigners to enter a ZATO is unlikely to be given, (they are closed cities even for Russians) but ZATOs are generally small and take up very little real estate so easy to avoid. While the fine print typically needs to be checked, travel through a Foreigner Exclusion Zone is sometimes automatically permitted on main roads. That is the case with SOME main roads in the North Ossetian exclusion zone which takes up the bulk of the province. It is also the case in Murmansk... where the main highway between Murmansk and the Norwegian border post is allowed to be used for transit, without a permit.

Re Border Zones: Sometimes as little as half a km or less wide in areas like the Baltic, they can also be close to 100km wide in areas such as Tuva. Thus having a good idea of exactly where it is can be pretty useful when exploring. You do not need permission to be in a border zone if you are on a PRIMARY ROAD travelling to or coming from a multilateral (open to all persons, as opposed to merely locals) border crossing (all the multilateral road border crossings for Russia are marked on the waypoints file). If you want to be in a border zone for any other reason, you will need permission.

DO NOT camp in a border zone. Simply get to and from the border post via the main road as quickly as possible. I would also choose not to stay in hotels in Border Zones just to be safe an to keep as low a profile as possible. DO NOT fly drones in a border zone or closed zone or near the boundaries of any.

None of this will be relevant for 98+% of moto travellers to Russia in the first place though it is worth noting a couple of exceptions that normal travellers will come across. The Trans Siberian highway near Svobodny in the far east goes through a ZATO linked to the new Russian space port at Vostochny / Tsiolkovsky (and I believe some strategic missile silos nearby), and the highway between Novosibirsk to Barnaul passes through a small ZATO linked to a Strategic Missile Forces base. In both of those cases it is explicitly stated that travel along the Federal Highway is of course permitted. But again, knowing where those closed zones are would be useful for knowing where you should not be wandering off the main road to make camp in the woods.

ZATOs tend to be far more strictly policed and well signposted, while foreign exclusion zones generally are weakly policed if at all and I have never seen any signpost related to them. One point of note is that hotels in foreigner exclusion zones will be most unlikely to let you stay as they will not be able to register your stay with the authorities, as they are obliged to do (unless of course you have a permit to be there). If you are not staying in a hotel in an exclusion zone and are just passing through, you are reasonably unlikely to have any issues - that doesn't mean you WONT get into trouble, just that the likelihood empirically seems to be very low - so low that I am unaware of anyone who has gotten into trouble being in such a zone. One example is just outside Moscow near Odintsovo is a large foreigner exclusion zone surrounding the ZATO of Vlasikha (a small strategic missile forces town). The foreigner exclusion zone takes in a huge swathe of prime real estate where many have their luxury dachas, and many Moscow expats will routinely be visiting. I have never heard of any Moscow expat having an issue there in 20 years. The town of Vlasikha itself is surrounded by barbed wire fences and has 2 security checkpoints to enter and exit showing your special FSB permits, but the wider exclusion zone is not even known to Moscow locals, and I have never even seen any signs, let alone checkpoints. That doesn't mean all exclusion zones will be so lax.

Over time restricted areas tend to shrink and there are about 7-8 fewer ZATOs than there were 20 years ago. Border zones are shrinking and narrowing with each update. The amount of restricted territory is shrinking and the amount of open territory is expanding - the country gets more open by the year, and I will look to incorporate any further updates in time into this thread.

Finally ... this information is just that, information. It is collected from various printed sources and transferred onto a map by hand. I am still incorporating the latest updates and will update the file in due course. I do not claim it is complete, or 100% accurate, nor do I accept any liability for the accuracy of the information in case you do get into trouble. :thumbup1:

Note: these will be updated from time to time. The FSB is in the process of converting the definition of border zone areas from the previous reliance on local administrative boundaries (themselves poorly defined) that had served since early in the soviet period 100 or so years ago, to a more modern and precise geo-position co-ordinate based system. They are doing this region by region. In general this is shrinking the border zones and leaving a lot more room for free travel. I will try to keep abreast of the updates as I get them and process them and convert them into digital map formats.

I have not included Kaliningrad region as it is a maze of restricted areas very challenging to plot.

Here are the Border and Closed Zones in GPX format map as at 27.Sep.2021. It isnt 100% up to date but I suspect it is now pretty close - and any amendments and updates are generally less restrictive, so you should be reasonably safe going by these. You will be able to convert the map to all sorts of formats via online tools.