Useful information
Immigration
Most foreign participants of ICIL7 require a visa to enter Russia. Visas are issued by Russian consulates abroad; the invitation does not serve as a valid entry clearance to Russia. Please take care of your visa matters as soon as possible, if you haven’t done so already. If you have a tourist visa, it is best not to mention the conference to the border officials; if you are ever asked about the purpose of your visit, "tourism" is a perfectly valid answer and should cause no questions. On your plane or train when approaching Russia, you will be given a migration card (migratsionnaya karta, миграционная карта); if you are not given one, please be sure to ask for it. It is very important to fill in this form, show it at the border and keep it with you at all times. This document if required for registration purposes and will also be required when leaving Russia. All foreigners should be registered at their accommodation within three days of entering Russia. Hotels are obliged to do so by law, and will do it for you (but please do not hesitate to ask them if you have any doubts). If you are staying at a private apartment, registration is the responsibility of your host. It is a relatively simple procedure that can be done at any post office, but not everyone is aware of it, so please make all the necessary arrangements with your host in advance. Registration is occasionally checked by police, but more importantly, proof of registration is required when leaving Russia, so to avoid a hefty fine, please keep the document that you are provided with until exiting the country.
As usual, you are advised to carry your passport with you at all times, including your migration card and documents related to registration.
Transport
For general information on getting around Moscow, you can check out the relevant sections of guides such as WikiVoyage, where information is generally up to date.
Airport transfer
Moscow is currently served by four international airports, of which you are likely to arrive at three: Sheremetyevo (SVO), Domodedovo (DME) and Vnukovo (VKO). All three are connected to the city centre by Aeroexpress trains, which is the most convenient method of travel that we recommend, as it allows you to avoid heavy traffic that is typical of the main roads leading into Moscow. At all airports you will find signs showing you the way to the train station. Tickets can be bought at the airport at ticket machines (which accept all international credit cards) or at ticket booths. You can also pay directly at the exit gate if you have a PayPass/PayWave credit card. The cost of the ticket is 500 RUB. Tickets can also be bought online at a cheaper rate. Travel time depends on the airport and takes from 30 to 47 minutes.
Aeroexpress trains terminate at to one of the main central railway stations: Belorusskaya for SVO, Paveletskaya for DME, and Kievskaya for VKO. All these stations have connected metro stops, and you should be able to reach any of the hotels within 20 minutes of travel.
Airport transfer by bus is also available. Buses are cheaper than the Aeroexpress, but their drawbacks are that they do not bypass traffic and terminate at faraway metro stations, which makes travel to the centre rather difficult.
We do not generally recommend taking a taxi to the city centre, as heavy traffic, especially on weekdays and even on Saturday, can make the trip unpredictable. If you do decide to hire a taxi, never use the services of the drivers who approach you at the airport. These prey off unsuspecting tourists and they prices can be as high as 10 times the normal amount. Instead of this, you can choose one of two options:
- Use one of the taxi rental services (Uber, Gett, Yandex.Taxi), information on which can be found below. Please be aware, though, that most taxi drivers save money by parking outside the airport and only coming to the concourse to collect their passengers. Therefore, even when taking an Uber, you have to call the driver and tell them that you are outside and waiting for them — which can be a problem if you do not speak Russian! You can identify the car by its license plate, brand and colour, which are provided by the taxi app. Most taxi companies now have fixed prices for airport trips which range from about 750 to about 1500 RUB depending on time, car, destination, etc.
- Use the official airport taxi rental services (links: SVO, DME, VKO). You should only approach official booths, not individual drivers that offer to take you. Fares are somewhat higher, but it is more convenient as you do not need to negotiate in Russian and the taxi will be available directly at the airport.
Public transport
Moscow is served by an extensive network of public transport, of which the largest and most convenient is the metro. Metro lines connect most parts of the city; in the centre, their density is such that you hardly need any other means of transport. Metro stations are open from 5:30 AM till 1:00 AM, and trains circulate with intervals ranging from around 5 minutes during offpeak hours to around 2.5 minutes or less during the day.
The official plan of the metro can be downloaded here.
A convenient way to plan your metro trips is Yandex.Metro (also available as an Android/iPhone app), which can calculate the shortest trips between any two stations, also showing approximate travel time.
All metro announcements are now translated into English. All stations and metro cars have plans of the metro inside, and at some stations, interactive maps with integrated route planners are also available. A minor complication is that official announcements of line changes etc. refer to the names of the lines (in Russian) or their numbers (in English). While these are shown on all plans and navigation aides, no one in Moscow uses or even knows them; everyone refers to the lines by the colour instead ("red line", "blue line", etc.; the only exception is the Circle line, which is of brown color but is always referred to as кольцевая / Kolʼtsevaja, i.e. literally ‘ring (line)’). Please be aware of this when asking for directions.
A new addition to the transport system of Moscow is the Moscow Central Circle, which is an urban railroad (similar to S-Bahn or RER). Some stations have direct connections to the metro, but in most cases you have to walk between the two. This mode of transport is only useful if you are making long-distance trips around Moscow for commuting etc.; it should not be needed if you are staying in one of the central hotels. Please do not confuse it with the Circle line, which is an ordinary metro line!
Buses, trams and trolleybuses are generally less reliable than the metro due to unpredictable traffic. We recommend you to avoid them in the city centre because of ongoing construction work which makes traffic very slow. If you need to plan a bus trip, you can use the Yandex.Transport app (also available as a layer on Yandex.Maps), which shows transport circulation in real-time through GPS, and also displays approximate time till the next bus. You should enter buses, trams and trolleybuses through the front door, where you validate your ticket, and exit through the other doors.
Moscow now has unified tickets for all public transport. The most convenient way to travel is to use the Troika card, which is a transport card similar to London’s Oyster, Paris’ Navigo, etc. The card can be bought at any metro ticket booth for 50 RUB (the money will be returned to you if you decide to give it back). Afterwards you can put money on it either at ticket offices or at automated ticket machines. Both ticket offices and machines now accept banking cards. The price of a single trip using the Troika on any transport is 35 RUB. If you change from bus to metro or vice versa within 90 minutes, you will be charged only 54 RUB for the whole trip.
Troika can also be used to pay for other Moscow services such as bike sharing, Aeroexpress, etc.
You can also buy tickets for a fixed number of trips, but this is only cheaper if you buy a ticket for 60 trips; tickets for less cost as much or more than via the Troika. Day passes do not really pay off unless you do a lot of travel during the whole day, so we recommend avoiding them. If you happen to travel on a bus without having bought a ticket in advance, you can buy one from the driver, for a larger than average price.
(note that the tariffs on the English version of the Troika website are outdated)
Taxi
Taxi travel in Moscow is relatively affordable if you use one of the popular car rental services: Uber, Yandex.Taxi or Gett. These are installable as smartphone apps. You can enter your address or have it automatically determined via GPS; after entering the address of your destination, you will be presented with a price that is fixed and cannot be changed by the driver (unless the route changes significantly). When you order a taxi, you will be shown its approximate location, license plate, phone number of the driver etc. The driver has all information about your trip on their smartphone or tablet, and thus there is no need to communicate much or at all. Credit card payments are possible if you register your card in the app in advance. In this case money will be withdrawn from your account automatically. You should check whether there are any limitations on credit cards issued in your country, though.
There are also several English-speaking services available, but their fares are considerably higher than those of the ordinary companies.
Finance
The Russian national currency is the ruble (RUB, рубль, rublʼ). A ruble is divided into 100 kopeks (копейка, kopeyka). International currencies such as euro or US dollars are not accepted as a valid form of payment. Money can be exchanged at any bank; the most reliable is Sberbank, the national Russian savings bank which has numerous offices throughout the country. Other reputable banks include Alfa Bank, VTB24, Otkrytie, and Russian branches of international banks such as Citi, Raiffeisen, etc. Better rates are generally available in the city than in the airports. Alternatively, if you have a VISA or Mastercard card, you can simply withdraw rubles at any ATM of a major bank, although you will pay a commission and the exchange rate will be worse than with cash.
Moscow is very well-covered by international credit card systems. Most hotels, restaurants and major retail shops accept VISA and MasterCard, so if you have one of these cards, generally you do not need to carry a lot of cash with you, making it both safer and more convenient. Acceptance of JCB, UnionPay and American Express is, on the contrary, far from universal, as these systems are not widespread among Russians.
However, an important caveat is that in practice, some people have had trouble withdrawing money from or paying with foreign credit cards. At least in some cases this is due to some banks blocking «suspicious» transactions in Russia. Therefore, we recommend checking up with your bank first and letting them know that you are travelling to Russia and planning to use credit or debit cards there.
Varia
In recent years Russia has introduced a number of laws aimed against excessive drinking of alcohol and smoking. It is important to know about these laws in order to avoid hefty fines or misunderstandings.
As in many countries, the legal drinking age is 18, but you may always be asked for proof of identity. Failure to provide one usually leads to the shop refusing to sell you alcohol. Usually shops only accept passports as valid identity documents; traffic licenses etc. are sometimes not enough.
It is illegal to drink alcohol in public in Russia, i.e. outside of restaurants or private property. For example, if you buy a can of beer you cannot drink it on the spot, on the street, in a park etc.; you have to do it at home.
All sale of alcohol is illegal after 23:00 until 8:00, with the exception of bars and restaurants. Alcohol is still on display in supermarkets, but the shop personnel will refuse to sell it to you.
Smoking in Russia is prohibited within 50 meters from schools, universities, museums, libraries and various other public locations. It is also now prohibited inside restaurants, so you can only smoke on outside terraces.
Shops are prohibited from publicly displaying cigarette packs; instead, there are usually price lists posted at the cashier’s desk, and you have to ask the cashier directly for the brand that you would like. As with alcohol, you may be asked for documents proving that you are older than 18.
Tap water in Moscow is not generally considered good for drinking. The authorities claim otherwise, but most Muscovites do not drink it before passing it through a filter. While tap water is probably safe to drink in the technical sense, we recommend buying bottled water.
There are no free of charge public toilets in Moscow. Recently, the authorities have installed a certain amount of toilets in central Moscow, which cost 50 RUB. Unfortunately, there are no toilets in the Metro.