Source: American Chamber of Commerce in Russia
When traveling abroad, the traveler should pay more attention to his/her personal security. St. Petersburg, Russia is not an exception so, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia in cooperation with the St. Petersburg militia (police) ask you to follow the below simple recommendations and precautions:
- Exchange currency only in bank exchange offices, because exchanging currency with private persons is prohibited by the active legislation
- Do not leave your personal belongings, luggage or documents unattended (not even in the car)
- Keep your money, valuables and documents in inside pockets; it is not recommended to leave them in bags, sacks or back pockets
- If you want to move around the city, order taxi by telephone from your place of residence; by stopping private cars in the street tourists subject themselves to unnecessary risk
- When making payments, don’t show all the cash you are carrying
- If your car is stopped by the militia officer, you must ask him/her to produce his/her certificate of employment, then write down officer’s first name, patronymic and family name; the number of his/her certificate and the number of his/her breast badge (if available)
- If you need to leave your car for a long time, it’s recommended to park it in the guarded parking lot
- Do not give a lift to strangers
In case a foreign citizen loses his/her documents, he/she must:
- Turn to the militia station at the place of loss. The written statement must describe the circumstances of the loss in full detail
- Get the certificate on the loss of documents from the militia station
- Turn to the diplomatic representative of his/her country to obtain the document giving him/her the right to return to his/her country or the duplicate of the lost documents
- Turn to the hosting organization for it to forward the official petition to issue the new visa instead of the lost one
- Submit the petition of the hosting organization to the Department of Visas and Registration (ОВИР) at the place of registration of the hosting organization
- Receive the exit visa and leave the territory of the Russian Federation within 15 days.
In case a crime is committed against a foreign citizen, the victim must turn to:
- Department on Duty of the Head Office for Internal Affairs (Дежурная часть ГУВД) in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast (Region), tel. 340-10-02;
- Senior Officer of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Head Office for Internal Affairs (Старший наряда УУР КМ ГУВД), tel. 702-21-77;
- Criminal Investigation Department No 6 of the Head Office for Internal Affairs (Оперативно-розыскная часть No 6); address: 19 Zakharievskaya street, floor 5, tel. 278-30-14;
- City Tourist Information Center; 14/52 Sadovaya St. (at the corner of Nevsky Prospect) or 12 Dvortsovaya (Palace) Sq. (a kiosk); tel. 310-82-62, 310-22-31, tel./fax 310-28-22.
Militia officers’ authorities toward foreign citizens; procedures of treating foreign citizens.
Militia’s Established Procedures for Treating Foreign Citizens
1. When addressing a foreign citizen, the militia officer ought to salute him/her by putting his/her hand to the headwear, introduce him/herself, giving his/her name and position and then briefly explain the reason and purpose of his/her address. If it is the foreign who addresses the militia officer, the latter, having followed the same etiquette, must listen attentively to the statement of the foreign citizen and take relevant steps, and, if necessary, explain where to turn to for the solution of his/her problem.
2. Patrol officer must wear his/her breast badge.
3. At the request of the officials and citizens, the militia officer must name himself and the place of his/her work and produce the certificate of employment, not letting it out of his/her hand. 4. When checking up documents of foreign citizens, the militia officer must handle them with care and mustn’t make any notes in them. Subject to examination are the foreign passport’s place of registration and term of validity, residence/stay permit and special marks testifying that the passport owner’s stay in the given place is lawful. In case the militia officer discovers any foreign citizens without documents, registration or holding expired documents, he/she informs the officer on duty and then follows his/her command.
5. Persons who produce documents with obvious signs of forgery or persons who misappropriated those documents are to be escorted to militia.
6. In any case when the rights and freedoms of a foreign citizen are restricted, the militia officer must explain to him/her the reason and cause for such a restriction, as well as his/her rights and duties emerging under such circumstances.
7. Militia must provide the detained persons the opportunity to get legal assistance, specified by the law; at their request (and if the detained persons are under age – without fail) militia must inform their relatives and administration at the place of their work or study about their detainment; in case of necessity militia must take steps to organize before doctor medical assistance and eliminate danger to anybody’s life, health and property, arising as a consequence of the detainment of the said persons.
8. Militia must provide the opportunity for the foreign citizen to see the documents and materials that directly concern his/her rights and freedoms, if not stipulated by the Federal law otherwise.
Militia officers’ authorities toward foreign citizens
In accordance with “Militia Act”, militia officers can exercise granted to them rights only in order to discharge the duties entrusted to them by the said Act.
In order to carry out their duties, militia officials are given a number of rights, including the following:
- demand that citizens and officials cease criminal actions, administrative transgressions and other actions, hindering militia to exercise their powers or impeding the legitimate activities of people’s deputies, candidate deputies, officials of government and self-government structures, representatives of registered social organizations;
- remove people from the site of crime or accident;
- check up documents proving citizens’ identity if there are sufficient reasons to suspect them for crime, think that they are wanted by militia, or if there is a cause to institute proceedings against them for administrative transgressions;
- in accordance with the Procedures stipulated by the laws on crime and administrative transgressions - carry out personal inspection of citizens, inspection of their belongings and things which they have on them, if there are sufficient reasons to believe that they carry weapon, ammunition, explosives, blasting devices, drugs or psychotropic agents;
- check-up permits and/or licenses issued for physical or legal entities to carry out activities or operations to be monitored and controlled by the Militia in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation;
- get necessary explanations, information, references, documents and copies thereof from citizens and officials;
- draw up statements of crime and administrative transgressions; exercise arrests and detentions; implement other measures stipulated by the legislation on administrative transgressions; detain for up to 3 hours persons who unlawfully penetrated or attempted to penetrate buildings or territories guarded by militia, check-up their IDs, get explanations from the said individuals; in accordance with the Procedures stipulated by the laws on crime and administrative transgressions, militia are allowed to carry out personal inspection of citizens, inspection of their belongings and transport used to penetrate buildings and territories guarded by militia;
- carry out criminal procedures in cases, specified by the law;
- convey to medical establishments to be kept there till sobering those inebriate persons who are found in public places unable to orientate themselves in the environment and/or walk without assistance; those inebriate persons who can harm themselves and/or those around; and in case other lodgers submit their written statement - those inebriate persons who, being at home, give reasons to assume that their behavior jeopardizes their health, life and/or property;
- following specified by the law procedures - examine those persons who are suspected for crime and those in whose case there are reasons to institute legal proceedings for administrative transgressions; test persons for alcohol or drugs - or convey them to medical establishments to be tested, if the result of their examination is needed to confirm or disprove their involvement in the transgression or to provide for the objective transgression investigation;
- by the order of the head of internal affairs agency (militia divisions) or his/her deputy - put cordons (isolate) areas to eliminate the aftereffects of disasters, accidents and catastrophes; take quarantine measures in case of epidemic or epizootic outbreaks; suppress mass disorders and group actions offending the work of transport, communication and organizations; detect and retrieve fugitive convicts or crime suspects (in case of necessity – examine their transportation means);
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