Russian Crossing
 

Hi,

On our way from NL to Malaysia we, as probably everyone else, hoped for the opening of Azerbaijan borders in vain. As back-up we crossed through Russia from Georgia to Kazakhstan with our motorcycles and wrote a small log. Maybe it is of help for anyone riding the same route.

Date: 3/7 - 7/7 2023
2 Motorcycles

Visa [application early May]: We heard a lot of stories that applications got rejected when not applying from the country of residence. We were already on the road and took our chances. We obtained our Tourist visa in Thessaloniki, Greece. The person working at the visa center was in direct contact with the Russian consulate and we think this helped us with the application. We had to wait 10 working days and paid 118.5 EURO per visa. It was a Single Entry Tourist Visa valid for just the duration that we indicated, so with your planning add a couple of days for contingency. We already reserved all the hotels just in case, but this wasn’t necessary. We got our invitation letter from one of the many offering websites.

Border crossing Georgia - Russia [Early July]:
0600u: arrival border Georgia
0705u: crossing Georgian border
0730u: Gate 1 Russia, with a smiling border patrol. Here we received document 1, our entry/exit document. Filled it in, and gave it to the guard at passport control.
0745u: Passport control, we drafted a small document in Russian with our names, itinerary and our intended hotels along the way, to convey our intentions.
0820u: Waiting for new shift for Vehicle Inspection starting at 09u
0920u: Vehicle inspection approved without any form of inspection. Here we received document 2, the vehicle inspection doc.
0928u: We were sent to a booth where we had to fill in document 3: temporary import document. Ask for an English version, they have it. The document is also for temporary import into Kazakhstan. So on the document we added our exit date as the exit date of Kazakhstan.
1030u: temporary import documents approved.
1049u: door exit gate but Martine her passport had no stamp so she had to go back to gate 2
1110u: Martine redid step passport control, then receiving the correct stamp.
1120u: Final Exit gate for handover inspection form [document 2]. And so we rode out with Document 1, and Document 3. Document 1 you hand in when exiting russia. Document 3 when exiting the union (in our case Kazakhstan).
1150u: Insurance and Simcard 2km from border. Insurance: 2200 rb per moto. Sim Card 5 euro but only 2 gb. There is insurance directly after border crossing but not for moto. 2km down the road there are multiple booths to get insurance.

All border guards were friendly and we got a lot of help with filling in the vehicle inspection form.

Crossing through Russia:
Our route: Vladikavkaz (D1) - Grozny (D2) - Kochubei (D3) - Astrakhan (D4) - Border (D5).
Roads are pretty good so it could be covered in much less time, but we had reserved hotels already so we kept to this itinerary.

We haven’t encountered any issues with police stopping us. We drove during the day mostly. Perhaps we are just lucky as we have heard from a lot of people they were stopped frequently. At most of the check-points they even waved us to just keep going and not stop at all, while all other cars were stopped. There is one check-point at the border of Dagestan where I had to show my passport and could go ahead.

We tried to keep a low profile but nevertheless had quite a lot of encounters with locals but all of them were friendly and we haven’t had any issues.

Russia - Kazakhstan border
Be advised: At 15km of the Russia-Kazakhstan border is a pontoon bridge, which costs 140 rb (1.4 euro) for two motorcycles. We thought it was free and already spent all our left-over cash on food and petrol. We had some luck and by a magical intervention we were allowed to cross.

We arrived at the border at 12.00-ish mid day. We skipped the waiting line to 5 cars before the border as the Russian guards don’t approve of getting all the way to the front. Border crossing itself was nothing too special. On Kazakhstan side we obtained only the insurance at the border for 2000 rb for two motorcycles for 14 days. Best negotiation is showing the insurance guy an empty wallet except for the roubles you have left to pay. He probably says no. Leave the office, take some time to pack your stuff and he will come out and tell you the price is OK.

Pretty much an accurate description. I had gone through russia on the similar trajectory twice this year and helped a friend to get 3 year multi-entry visa in Tbilisi, Georgia. No issues applying for a visa in a country different from citizenship.

It is very difficult to get olde good transit visa, but multi-entry tourist visa? No problem. Just have a tour agency (which in Tbilisi is located in the same building as consullate), fill out paperwork with route, hotel reservations and mandatory 90-day russian health insurance purchase.

Pretty much the same experience which we had this summer.
I think we did the same route in Russia.

We also did not get stopped in Chechenya, people and even police were always friendly.
One question:
How could you arrange and book hotels in Russia in advance?

I left my bike in Mongolia and going back 2024 through Russia

We did the bookings via Zenhotels website. We only booked hotels where we could pay at the hotels when check-in. So no advanced payments.