lubyanka

Moscow, June 28 2000.

Walking down the street on a beautiful sunny day, I think "Train to Glory" by The Ethiopians is on my walkman when all of a sudden...

A big, burly Russian soldier steps out of the subway entrance and stands in front of me. Unlike the other security servicemen I have seen in Moscow this guy is smartly dressed and well equiped. And he is aiming his machine gun right at me.

So I turn my music off and take out my earphones to hear this guy demanding my documents (good job I can speak a bit of Russian, no?).

Ok, no problems. He looks at my passport and visa and asks me when I'm leaving. "Tonight" I tell him. So he wants to know where I going when I leave Russia.

"Mongolia?!?"

This he finds hard to believe, so he studies my Mongolian visa. His incredulity is stretched even further when I tell him I going by train.

Eventually as he has become more confused than me, he waves on me way, advising me to leave.

Y'know, I only wanted to take a few photos of Lubyanka Prison, the KGB headquarters......

....but the story doesn't end there

The previous night there had been bombings in Moscow linked to the new offensive in Chechnya that had been launched by the Russian military a couple of days earlier. The city was full of road blocks and checkpoints. 17 yr old soldiers in their best uniforms getting medals in Red Square. Later at Yaroslavl Station, whilst waiting for my train, I saw train loads of these kids being sent off to war.

So, a little wary after my gunpoint interrorgation I walk hastliy past the soldiers, avoiding eye contact as I could se them think about stopping me. I head to Red Square thinking I won't look to suspicious if I hang out there for a while. I grab a drink from a kiosk and sit down to gather myself back together.

Within seconds of sitting down a policeman comes over to me and demands to see my papers. They are all in order so i hand them over.

He tells me they have "expired". My visa is valid for another week. So I tell him
and show him the date. He nods, and tells me it is my registration with city police that has expired. I can be in Russia he says but not Moscow. I start to argue, telling him show me where in my papers it says this. he calls for back up on his radio and walks me to his patrol car. Asking me for my Russian-English dictionary he looks up the words "arrest" and "prison" and shows them to me.

Uh oh.

So, reluctantly, I co-operate. He takes my details, date of birth, passport no,, visa no. etc. He tells me I have to pay a fine of 2000 roubles. I don't have 2000 roubles so he asks me how much I have got. about 1650 roubles (about $40 I think). that will do he says.

Finally I understand!

Happy with his "bonus" he tells me I will be entered on the State computor and will be questioned again by the border police upon leaving Russia (which funnily enough didn't happen, hmmm).

I have to leave Moscow immediately. Dodging security on the metro I haed out of the city and hide in a forest on the edge of the city for the rest of the day, before getting a late night ride into the city to catch my midnight train.

Phew.