<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by epi231:
The fact that one must know his itinerary in advance, in particular at which hotels he will be staying each day of the trip AND make those hotel bookings AND include confirmations of those bookings with the application, is already way too cumbersome. Compare that to backpacking through Europe or making spur-of-the-moment travel plans. (This is all assuming US citizenship of course.)
Alex</font>
Alex,
True, compared to going to Europe for a backpacking vacation, Russian entry system is proving to be more difficult to deal with. However, I am sure you will agree with me that one cannot compare a country that has been so isolated behind the Iron curtain for many years and European NATO allies in terms of the ease of traveling there for an American citizen. All things considered, it could be much worse, and by the way, if you are a European citizen (that is a citizen of the EU), you can enter Russia for up to three days without a visa at all (provided you are entering the country through one of the three border points of entry: Vyborg (by land from Finland), Moscow (by air at SVO terminal 2), and St Petersburg (Pulkovo Airport LED). These regulations have been in place for about a half year now, however only a month ago it became more of a streamline process.
As I mentioned before, Russia is not a place you can just go on the spur of the moment (if you are a US citizen), but how many Americans would go to Russia without having their hotels accomodations and itenerary preplanned far in advance?