Russiable

Marko spent two months on the road this summer and autumn, and Russia came three times. He drove across Georgia and into Russia at Upper Lars on 19 August, crossed into Kazakhstan two days later, came back into Russia in September and drove on to the Mongolian bor...

No, the Russian border interview isn’t something everyone gets, and it isn’t pure luck either. A lot depends on who you are: the odds go up sharply if you’re British, American or Canadian, if you have any link to Ukraine or a Russian partner, if you travel to Russia very often, or if you’re the only foreigner on the bus or the flight. And a lot depends on where yo...

Happ isn’t a VPN: it’s a free app where you paste a “key” that someone else, a person or a company, gives you. It’s hugely popular in Russia because those keys use protocols like VLESS, which disguise themselves as normal web traffic and usually get past the blocks. But the app on its own doesn’t connect you to anything: what matters is where the key comes fr...

To run your own VPN with Amnezia you need two things: a rented server, from about $5 a month, and the free AmneziaVPN app. You don’t need to be good with computers: the provider emails you three details (IP address, username and password), you paste them into the app and it sets everything up on its own in a few minutes.

This is step 8 of my guide t...

⚠️ Important notice (October 2026): Pay in Russia no longer accepts top-ups with Visa or Mastercard.

When I published this guide in July 2026, you could top up the card with any foreign Visa or Mastercard, and with Apple Pay or Google Pay too. Since August that’s no longer possible and, for now, there’s no date for it to come back. These are the on...