I read in an article that during the Soviet period, Balashikha was a place where foreigners were banned, and that the law still exists. I was just wondering if that was true. ?
i see! they may be officially banned, but there are no roadblocks or anything like that, and i know foreigners who visited and visit balashikha. arbitrary id checks (especially in metro) are frequent in moscow, but i have seen it only once in balashikha at the flea market: i certainly remember the policeman admonishing a group of central asians for visiting 'balashikha, which is a protected territory'; i think as in most such cases it ended up with a bribe. police control in russia is ethnically based substantially. a mongoloid has a much greater chance to run into an id check than a caucasian. in line with russian tradition of having strict laws which are only occasionally and sporadically enforced, everyone in russia is supposed to have an id with them (otherwise you can be detained by police for up to 3 hours for 'verification of the identity'), but even in moscow you rarely get checked, unless you look very suspicious or foreign, and virtually never in balashikha. ps. me running to a news site searching for 'russia foreigners' after your first comment shows what sort of expectations and ideas we have of russia these days.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-24 10:27 pm (UTC)is it true that foreigners are banned from your city?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-25 05:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-26 04:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-25 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-26 04:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-26 06:07 am (UTC)ps. me running to a news site searching for 'russia foreigners' after your first comment shows what sort of expectations and ideas we have of russia these days.