maxiarg46 3mo

Hi. For a non russian (non belarusian either) it's possible to enter belarus from russia by train, but when coming back to russia, must be done by flight only, are both correct?

boris_k 3mo

No. The Russia/Belarus land border is closed for all foreigners.

maxiarg46 3mo

But from Russia to Belarus is possible?

boris_k 3mo

No, it's not. There is no border control on the land borders between Russia and Belarus and this is the reason why foreigners are not allowed to cross it (because they have to check your documents). As far as I heard, they want to implement something soon in that regard for foreigners but as of now, these rules remain the same for many years.

boris_k 3mo

In other words, the Russian authorities will not know you left Russia.

iamnotnomadic 3mo

Which part?

maxiarg46 3mo

For those who work from Russia to western companies, do you need a special vpn? Do you need a western IP? Have you setup a company somewhere else for invoicing? Estonia or somewhere else?

hugohb 3mo

Hi all, quick update now that I've been here for almost 2 weeks: NordVPN only works for me when using my dedicated IP server. Any other server loads forever trying to connect, then fails. But my dedicated IP server works just fine.

boris_k 3mo

Even on mobile internet? 🤔

hugohb 3mo

I only use it on my laptop, so from wifi. But I've tried several places with different internet providers, they've all worked so far.

boris_k 3mo

Mobile internet is a different story, they block almost everything via DPI 🤷

maxiarg46 3mo

What does that mean? You can create your own vpn?

hugohb 3mo

Nordvpn has a service where you can "rent" a fixed IP address on one of their servers. It's available only for a handful of countries (from the top of my mind, USA, UK, Germany, France), but it allows you have one specific IP address only for yourself, for as long as you pay for it.

maxiarg46 3mo

And people wont be able to notice you are on a VPN?

hugohb 3mo

Who is "people"?

maxiarg46 3mo

I am thinking of a way to keep working for foreign companies, but from Russia.. and many foreign companies dont like that

maxiarg46 3mo

So, security teams of companies for instance

maxiarg46 3mo

The other thing I was thinking of was creating my own vpn with one router in my home country and another router in russia, using a vpn server and client respectively.. maybe that works

frappuccino 3mo

After some while I found a setup that works in Russia without VPN. I used perplexity instead of chatGPT and that was mostly it. Work-wise restrictions aren’t really preventing you from working.

However, sometimes I still needed instagram and youtube, so I just set up an https://getoutline.org/ VPN server on AWS EC2 instance and connect to it. It took me ~15-20 minutes to set up.

Downside is that all EC2 IP addresses are in black list for chatgpt, so I have a friend who has set up VPN server on his router in France.

There is no chinese firewall, so once set up, VPN works for good, without need to rent a new IP address every day.

maxiarg46 3mo

So you connect your EC2 server to your friends VPN server in france to get a french IP?
How does connecting to the EC2 server gives you internet through it? is it for general internet use or you only use it for social media?

boris_k 3mo

How is that "without VPN"? 😂 It's also a VPN, just your own, "custom" one. Yeah, it's a little bit more reliable since the IPs would not specifically indicate a VPN service, but a cloud platform instead.

AWS is, however, too expensive and they charge for the outcoming traffic. You can get a Hetzner server for like 5$/month with 20TB of free outcoming data per month. Choose the server location in Finland.

P.S. Outline is also blocked via DPI in Russia by mobile internet providers.

boris_k 3mo

He just set up a VPN server on an EC2 server. It's one of the options and you'll get an IP from the server region you selected. But as I said, AWS is not the best option for this as they charge for traffic.

maxiarg46 3mo

Will I get an IP that companies can detect as VPN?

maxiarg46 3mo

I can just setup a VPN server at my mothers home. But in order to consume it I need an extra router, correct? or not?

maxiarg46 3mo

I wanted to make it as indetectable as possible, so I thought of having my own router acting as a client, and connecting my laptop with Ethernet wire to it.. so no vpn configuration is made on my computer

boris_k 3mo

Not really, you just need a PC/server running all the time at your mother's home. Then you can just connect to it directly.

boris_k 3mo

Yeah, also an option

boris_k 3mo

They will detect it as a cloud provider IP. Which is somewhat suspicious, yes. Some companies may not like that.

maxiarg46 3mo

Better to just setup the server at my mothers home. In order to avoid carrying an extra router, how can I connect to that server from the laptop?

I heard that if I use wifi on, some companies are able to access your wifi networks available near you and predict your location based on that. That was the reason why my first option was using an extra router. However I wonder if security/customs would ask me why do I carry a router with me?

frappuccino 3mo

no, these are two separate computers

frappuccino 3mo

I mean, at least I don’t need VPN for my work.

With AWS the thing is that I had an instance idling in there, so no additional cost here for me.

frappuccino 3mo

you can set it up on pretty much any computer

boris_k 3mo

I don't think carrying a router is a problem. Regarding location detection, I am not entirely sure if that's possible on a laptop via WiFi (I guess, technically, might be). I'd be more worried about your phone where they can detect the location via various methods. I logged in to a bank application via my phone under a VPN and they still detected my location somehow (most likely, in a background mode while the VPN was turned off).

maxiarg46 3mo

Yup but the computer would have to be on all the time. Just cheaper to use a 100 usd router for that :)

maxiarg46 3mo

The last thing I need in my life is someone from customs/migrations uneducated on computer hardware and thinking I have a secret device to do something bad to national security 😁

maxiarg46 3mo

So I was thinking of just buying a router there

boris_k 3mo

Just tell them you carry it to have a better connection quality (I actually carry one for that when I travel)

maxiarg46 3mo

Did they ever ask you about it?

boris_k 3mo

Also, using a VPN in Russia is not illegal at this point. Promoting VPN is, however, illegal 😁

boris_k 3mo

Nope, never. But it's usually in my luggage suitcase and I also did not fly with it to Russia for a long time.

jrand0m 3mo

I dont think that it should be a problem. Few of my friends who unfortunately happen to go there carry glinet routers. Those routers notoriously have vpn as one of the main selling points on their website.

Friends are russian and non russian nationals.

The worst thing happened was checking their socials, photos and other correspondence on mobiles.

Nobody asked about routers.

Also in case of any checks I’d wouch for “hotels having shitty wifi” tale.
Its legit af.

jrand0m 3mo

This is possible, but only if your notebook has any type of management imposed by your employer. This is MDM or mobile device management.

They cannot exactly do 100% precision, but it is possible if your employer is super twisted on security. They gather the surrounding wifi hotspots names which will allow them to aproximate your location. This is never used as strong signal but could cause some attention.

jrand0m 3mo

But like 99% of detection usualy comes from vpn not covering full traffic.

jrand0m 3mo

Most nutritious are DNS query leaks.

jrand0m 3mo

If you are supper worried Id suggest to learn about openwrt router os, wireguard vpn protocol. Then buy a router who can be easily fashed with openwrt firmware and do your own vpn setup.

jrand0m 3mo

All can be done with generative model of choise.

jrand0m 3mo

If still will have questions - reach me out.

maxiarg46 3mo

Thank you 💪
Claude helped me and recommended some router models to easily install a vpn server and client. I will check that soon

frappuccino 3mo

Hey, nobody cares about routers, okay?😹

maxiarg46 3mo

If they know what a router is 😂

frappuccino 3mo

It ain't America, we have nail artists with Masters degree countrywide 😅

justinh 3mo

Anyone know whether it’s possible to just open a bank account in Russia (I had Sberbank like 12 years ago) and then a bank account in a middleman country that’s friends with Russia like Georgia or Armenia, then send money from your western bank to the middleman bank and then from the middleman bank to your Russian bank account? Is it that simple? And just pay of course for the transfer fees?

maxiarg46 3mo

Good question. Following

boris_k 3mo

Possible via Kazakhstan but not sure if you can open a bank account as a foreigner in Russia with full capabilities (such as receiving transfers from abroad).

justinh 3mo

Ah good point. I’ll see about getting someone in Russia to call sberbank and ask

maxiarg46 3mo

Update us later if you can

boris_k 3mo

hmkzxpporzj I read on the news, that the rules have been changed today. It looks like it's possible to cross the land border for foreigners starting today. Still worth investigating more properly before planning your trip.

maxiarg46 3mo

Oh great. In both directions?

boris_k 3mo

Seems like it, yes

sizzle 2mo

I wouldn’t be surprised if Russian salon girls went to a university to do their nail school - Russian manicures are next level 😍

majariusz 2mo

What's the best flight search tool for going into Russia? This may be a naive question. I just searched Skyscanner and some sanctions shenanigans prevents them from showing me records.... I hate this politics shit, bor show me facts

aekrylov 2mo

aviasales.ru

aekrylov 2mo

aviasales.com is their English version I think

boris_k 2mo

trip.com or city.travel cause they both support foreign bank cards (aviasales also works but it's an aggregator and it may redirect you to a russian airline website where you won't be able to pay without a russian card).
However, note that city.travel has extremely shitty support and you won't be able to change your booking after you buy a ticket. At the same time, on trip.com payments just don't go through sometimes for unknown reasons.

dzhiriki 2mo

.com version of aviasales only shows services that accept foreign bank cards, afaik

julioandres 2mo

Yes I did as a foreigner in tinkoff or tbank now

julioandres 2mo

Soo Is anybody in Moscow now?

julioandres 2mo

Is it a stupid idea to plan a meetup?

ludddd 2mo

Any folk here living in Moscow currently?

boris_k 1mo

There's some downgrading filter for the countries involved in conflicts. It works the same way for Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Myanmar, Ukraine, etc. Probably automatically based on some "foreign travel advice" website that marks these countries as "do not go under any circumstances" 🤷‍♂️

frappuccino 1mo

Oh you're right! Tel aviv is also 0.5 which doesn't make sense either. Thanks for clarification

techguybiswa 1mo

Hands down - St Pets is one of the most amazing cities I have ever visited!

techguybiswa 1mo

Hi Digital Nomads from Russia 🇷🇺😇

I need your feedback and review on one of my business ideas 💡

I am from india and I was wondering to start an import export business with Russia.

The payments part is already sorted as I plan to use one of the Russian banks that has offices in my country and will allow inward and outward remittance from Russia.

The part I am considering is what exactly to export - I have a few ideas in my mind like maybe electronics, organic spices, or pharmaceuticals.

In this link you can see you have at least 4Billion USD worth of exports happening in 2023 alone.

https://tradingeconomics.com/india/exports/russia

Looking forward to hear more of your ideas.

techguybiswa 1mo

Or what about exporting services like online English teachers, web dev work etc etc

mariaromanza 15d

i opened my account in tinkoff but i didn't have full capabilities like transfers abroad

mariaromanza 15d

and had to "renew" my contract every ~3 months to prove that i was still here and legally

mariaromanza 15d

i ended up cancelling it

hermis 9d

Hello guys! I'm from Poland and I was looking to take a short trip to Moscow. In theory, it is possible to apply for a tourist visa. My problem is that I'm a contractor for Meta, which is considered an extremist organization. Technically, I'm not hired directly by Meta but by a service-providing company. I was wondering if it's safe to go there and if I should mention that I work for Meta. Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

boris_k 9d

The real possibility of getting in trouble is very low. Your work for Meta is not automatically considered extremist unless it's specifically related to its "extremist" actions in Russia (anti-Russian content moderation and distribution). Plus everybody is still using Facebook and Instagram in Russia, it's not illegal to use them. Still, I guess the "risk" is slightly above zero for you. I wouldn't mention you work for Meta.

boris_k 9d

(also, considering that you are Polish, the chances of some "additional" questions at the border are quite high)

chrisnatterer 9d

don't bring any weed... :P

hermis 9d

Yeah I was considering just not mentioning that, chances of letting me in since Im polish are low anyways, and as you said probably some additional questions will be asked like what I do in that company and once they ask about such stuff I don’t think its quite good to lie..

hermis 9d

didnt rly planned to, just let me in I will be polite 😭🙏

boris_k 9d

The chances of letting you in are quite high, only the chances of interrogation are high as well. No need to lie, just tell them your occupation, if they ask who you work for, tell them you are an independent contractor, if they insist on company names, give them the one of that service providing company.

hermis 9d

You dont think they will be asking who we are providing service to?

hermis 9d

sorry for such questions, something new to me when it comes to going to a country with some restrictions

lexalexa 9d

Just tell that you work for service provider

lexalexa 9d

I haven’t heard of a witch-hunt for meta employees

fiiv 8d

You don’t have to go that far into details. You’re an IT guy at an IT company in Poland.

hermis 8d

bro XD

mikeneves 7d

I recently came under 3 months private visa, it’s my fourth visa and only now got my passport hold at the airport for 3 hours. All international flights now go through Sheremetyevo and they have a secure process in place with biometric in place that it wasn’t like this before. They made me wait but didn’t went through any interview or whatever, probably some background check. You will 100% get your passport hold for control, but the interview part, who knows. People told me that phones, laptops etc might get checked during interviews so yap, no point making lies

boris_k 7d

Plenty of international flights are arriving/departing from the other three capital airports, not sure where you got this info about Sheremetyevo.

mikeneves 7d

Personal experience, already did flights from Morocco, Turkey and Serbia because I live in Portugal and first time I got that problem through that airport, also realised that from Morocco I can no longer choose flights to other airports, only Sheremetyevo

mikeneves 7d

So that makes me think that they try to route most of the flights through there

mikeneves 7d

From some specific countries at least

boris_k 7d

I don't think it's security-related. Most flights from Turkey still land in VKO. Most flights from the Middle East are in DME. SVO used to have the biggest number of international flights prior to 2022 because it is the Aeroflot home airport (now they are not flying internationally that much due to sanctions).

allgo 7d

For Russia??

goktugyil 5d

Yeah

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