Although there is a list of the countries which US citizens can entry without visa, Russian Federation still require every US citizen to take a time and visit nearest consulate in the area or to request a visa via mail. But that would be not the most difficult part of the process. Visa is issued based on the purpose of the visit and the list of the required documents required for every single person, no exceptions. And it’s good if you have two spare weeks to arrange everything. Although you can always process visa in one day in case if you have already prepared letter of the invitation or voucher or you have a trusted travel AGENT to take care of everything on your behave. But it’s only your responsibility not to forget all your travel documents inside of the top drawer in your bedroom.

Also, it’s good to remember that Russian Federation uses the electricity standard of 220 volts and 50 hertz. For a long time the electricity was pretty cheap and not much people care about saving it, but as prices for major sources of energy went up Russian quite actively start support energy saving programs brought by European enthusiasts. The power sockets are exactly the same as in France and if you’re a planning to take on your trip some of appliances of American origin, so it’s time to consider buying an adapter and avoid running around nearest electronic stores in search of one.

Going along with digital world progress, today Russia is one of the biggest consumers of new cell phone or PDA around the world. You could hardly meet a person without one, so feel free to take your device as long as it’s GSM standard compatible. You could easily take a prepaid sim card on every corner, but if you are planning to make international phone calls and tell you family of your good time in Moscow or St. Petersburg, avoid direct phone calls and just buy international phone card which gives you almost the same rates of 3 – cents per minute as in USA.