Hi there!
Now you got your World Cup tickets and, FunD and international flight sorted and you can't wait to land in Moscow.
But you didn't expect things go that easy with Russia, do you?
There is one issue you have to be aware of if planing to visit Russia for World Cup 2018.
Visa free entry widely advertised by Russian authorities and FIFA doesn't mean FanID is all that you have to arrange.
Apparently every foreigners who comes to Russia under FanID still must register in every city they visit within 24 hr upon arrival.



Why is this?
Registration is a relic of the past dating back to the Soviet times so KGB could track and stop you from traveling to certain places without authorities' permission.
Nowdays is not that strict at all and simply the process by which the Russian authorities are notified, after your arrival in Russia, of the place where they can find you if needed.
You would think that the Landing Card, which you filled out on the plane before you arrived to Russia would suffice, but no, the registration is a totally different thing and should be done separately.
Sounds weird does it? It does, like many other things in dodgy Russian laws. Legislation remains unclear in some respects, making each organization to interpret it differently.

Officially, it's not your obligation to register at accomodation, it should be done by the accommodating party.
If you are staying at a hotel, the hotel must register your automatically and they will without you even knowing that.
Problem potentially arises if you stay in small private hotel or apartment.
In case you stay Airbnb, the host is obliged to make your registration; however they may refuse to do the proceeding (even though they have the legal obligation to do it).
I can guarantee you that in 90% of cases private hosts wouldn't even know about this requirement.
Potentially they (not you) can do it in any nearest post office. All they need is to fill immigration form (all in Russian) and pay very small fee. But reality is, neither them or you interested to experience this hassle.
I can not imagine that all thousands foreign guest arriving in every city would head to post offices all at once. This is simply impossible to manage and nobody will even try.



I highly doubt that this regulation will be somehow enforced during World Cup. I fact, regime in Russia is that much keen to show off for the whole world so they even abolished visas for you. Any negative reports will hurt so highly doubt they would be stupid enough to give such an obvious reason to blame.
Can not see any possible way for immigration to track you if you fail to register any way.
In Russia they have saying: "The stupidity of laws is always compensated by lack of enforcement" And in this particular case this should be your motto too.
In my opinion this gonna be used only if they really want to crack on on you if somehow you become visible/annoying for authorities. Like got involved for street violence or make trouble on the stadium.
They all learned lessons russian fans taught in Marseille during last Euro-2016. And "fail to register" will be used as another reason for your deportation if they fail to get a footage of you directly involved in the fight.
This is just an example.

I had foreign friends visiting me in Russia multiple times and they never had any problems being not registered in private property.
Except one case.
We were on mental adventure trip driving from Vladivostok to Moscow across Siberia. My mate arrived from Australia and crossed the border in Vladivostok where we bought the car and hit the road staying in camps or just a tent. That was simply impossible to register even if we wanted to. So upon departure from Moscow SVO airport immigration noticed Vladivostok stamp in his passport which is 10.000 km away. That was 2 weeks ago and since then my friend completely gone from the radar as he haven't got any tickets, bookings whatsoever, except shit loads of photos taken along the route.If you make the Trans-Siberian route by train and sleep on it, in this case the train ticket would be equivalent to the registration (you always have to keep your ticket in handy).
Unfortunately he was on work visa and his employer was fined with 1,5 million rubles, and of cause quick enough they made him redundant. But this is another story...
Point is, they only can find out that you fail to register in rare cases like that one.
If you arrive and depart from the same city nobody would ask any questions.

I would suggest you don't be concerned too much about it. Just carry with you all train/air tickets as prove of your travels.
I case if some nights you spent in Airbnb like accommodation just keep printouts of your booking and if anything arise just say that host was unable to provide registration for you. Remember, the foreign citizen can’t register on its own, the responsibility for the procedure always lies in the host party, not you. But again, I highly doubt any issues of this sort.
Registration accreditation is not necessary to leave the country, though the second part of immigration card you already filled on arrival is required. You should make sure to keep the second part of your landing card to give away at the border on departure – don't lose it!

Read up also our articles How to rent a car in Russia 2018
and How to buy Russian train tickets

And, if you have any additional questions just chuck a comment and our community here will be always happy to help!