List of restrictions:
```All non-food stores are closing, except for pharmacies and grocery stores and essential goods stores.
➖ Cinemas, museums, concert halls, circuses are closing.
➖ All cafes and restaurants are closed, only takeaway and delivery are allowed.
➖ All enterprises and organizations are closed, except for those necessary for the functioning of the city infrastructure and a number of others.
➖ All public events are prohibited.
➖ Theaters and museums can continue to operate, entry is possible only by QR codes.
➖ Medical organizations will continue to provide routine medical care.```

Aw, yeah, and it'll take ~25min subway only to get to the center. So +15 min walk and you're going to spend ~40min just to get somewhere.

If you wanna spend like ~800$/month, then, you're going to be more in center and surrounded by something like

You will spend less time on travelling to somewhere, there will be more cafes, travel agents, more 'couchsurfing' events for socialisation with locals (50%) and English-speaking pals (50%). Yet still! You'll live in a quite non-renovated place!

To get a nice place you'll need ~1200$, I believe. So Moscow may be good, but, still:
1. It's a city for people who went to work there, not a touristical one (and Saint Pete is a touristic city). So many people live there not because it's cool, but because there're many opportunities and if you are not hunting for opportunities, then, prob, you can miss the whole point of living there.
2. It's more expensive then other cities (still, it's not that much expensive, I believe)
3. It's overcrowded in a bad manner it's not like a lot of pals to talk to, it's just a busy city.
4. Taxi is expensive.
5. It's airports are distant and taxi's are expensive. So it's not that cool for travelling. Though if you're going to rent something in city center, then, you'll live close to airports express railway systems.

Saint Pete:
1. More like a 'city center'. For $200/month you can already rent A ROOM with nice renovation something nearby subway/metro (5min walk) in just a city center. Though common facilities are still shitty, so I'd better pay a bit more. For 14$/day I already rented some small apartments in the same central place. It was small, but it was my own and it was daily rent without any discounts.
2. People are more chilly, in my opinion.
3. Has better views, in my opinion

4. In May/July days will be longer in Saint Pete. Prob, you'll be able to see 'white nights' if you don't go somewhere else in June. Prob, you'll see Scarlet Sails (prob, can't post a link, have a look in Wikipedia).
5. It also may be less hot in that season than in Moscow.
6. Saint Pete has super developed service. You can eat almost everywhere. In my opinion, Moscow loses in that term. Prob, Moscow's city center is better, but I don't know.


So, my overall conclusion:
1. You can live comfortable in Moscow. There're many specialists that may have salaries like 3500$-6500$/month after tax. They have beautiful offices, the best possible coworkers, and all of this stuff, there's also a ton of professional (and non-professional) events. So it compensates the city's high cost. But for a digital nomad, in my opinion, especially in May/July Saint Pete is just more comfortable. I also don't know your budget. But, if you're ready to spend ~3k-4k$/month, then, Saint Pete is better, if you're ready to spend ~$4k-$6k, then, Moscow may be also not that bad option for you.
2. In Moscow you may find some colivings. I have never tried them, but if you wanna find a professional communities it might be interesting for you.

Ow, yeah, last but not least, it's prob, the most strict city about covid.

Though, it seems, that in reality is not that bad and lots of people go to work, etc 🙂 I'm not there, so don't know really, just heard about it.

Both are fun cities although perhaps Moscow feels a bit more impersonal. Loads to do in both of them. You get more artsy/hipster people in Saint Pete and more career and corporate folks in Moscow but the difference is not massive. English levels are very low in both of them

Both, I want to visit Russia, but I'm Canadian

I'm just starting out and currently in Saint Petersburg (been living here for last 3 years). Going to stay here until Spring and then move to Moscow for another 3 months so feel free to DM me if any of you is in Saint Petersburg now or planning to come soon - would be happy to meet with you guys. I'm Russian so feel free to ask questions about Russia as well

Also question to my fellow Russians we all know that the visa situation is not too good for people with Russian passports so how do you go about longer stays abroad (say 1-3 months) and the restriction of only being able to live within the Schengen area for 180 days throughout a year? Would love to live, say, 3 months in Portugal, 3 months in Montenegro, 3 months at Canary Islands etc but I'm not sure how would you go about it visa-wise

Well, Schengen zone is basically closed right now because of Pandemic and I don’t think it will open any time soon unless you’re applying for long stay visas like “D7” in Portugal. I was considering this option until I learned about Portugal taxes :smile:
Honestly Europe is pretty bad place in terms of digital nomading if you have Russian passport. The hustle with visas are just too much and not worth it.

In Asia and South America (where most digital nomads are) you usually have the same conditions as most of the foreigners.

Basically, if you really want to stay in Europe you need to research long term visas. Spain has one and Portugal as well. But be prepare to pay European taxes. It’s more immigration rather than nomad stay.

I’m currently in Georgia. Turkey also okay to stay with Russian passport. And before that I was 2+ years in South East Asia.

What do you mean by taxes? You are not a tax resident until you spend 6 months in a country afaik. Also I'm employed in a Russian company so that shouldn't be a problem if I stay for 3-6 months at a place max

In general yes, you right you are not becoming tax resident unless you stay less than 183 days.

But most of the open ways to go to Europe suggest you’ll stay there longer, like D7 or Non-Lucrative visa in Spain.

I wouldn’t hope to most of the European country to open borders in 2022 even if you have EU vaccine. I can get a shot with Pfizer but I still can’t get EU visa because this shot isn’t issued inside EU 😄

True. The only thing you probably need to get local visa and not use Schengen AFAIK. But not 100% sure.

Bottom line is better to research each specific country and their rules about COVID vaccines and visas.

The problem is that you can’t get touristic visa now. And seeing how Europe countries shutting down right now it’s not going to change anytime soon.

Don’t want to sound gloomy though, just my observations 😄

Spain visa with Russian vaccine? It’s very surprising.

Yeah, and probably you’ll have a hard time if you decide to go outside of Hungary.

And it’s usually quite hard to get 90 days visa when they’re issuing “duration of stay”. You’ll need 90 days Airbnb.

I think Portugal is the best choice for people from Russia right now but it’s mostly for longer stay

Please note that my words might be outdated but that’s how it worked for me in the last months

It’s viable option especially because in Portugal you can try to extend tourist visa

I am not sure if it works with Schengens issued by other countries though. But technically it’s possible.

I believe they only give you long visas if you had shorter ones before. Could you elaborate more on how you've done it? Would be super helpful for me

My goal was to stay in Greece for a week as a holiday and then move to Portugal as remote work for two months. When I applied to Greek visa I've told them only about the planned Greece visit and even provided the ticket back from Greece to Russia after one week stay. After my visa got approved I've canceled the ticket back and got one from Greece to Portugal instead. The rest is same as with any shengen tourist visa

Compared to my current 1% on everything (no social security, no VAT) it’s pretty horrible 😄

Portugal is a really nice place in terms of taxes if you have only passive income but bad if you’re working as freelancer.

Love this. You can go to San Marino now without visa with Russian passport. But you can’t because they don’t have airport and the closest one is in Italy 😄 pinched_fingers

If Portugal had real 0% income it would have been the best country in the world to live in and everybody would be already there 😄 Such country doesn’t really exist.

I am sure there are multiple ways to avoid this by structuring your business some complex ways with lawyers but I didn’t wanted to go that road.

🛬 jjzirrms just arrived in 🥃 Moscow, #russia

Missing Moscow a little, haven’t been there for a few years. Maybe manage to visit this summer.

Ленинград — Пока так

(HN doesn't let me post YT links...)

Btw here is the translation of one of the local news:

_Municipal services are not able to cope with garbage collection and street cleaning, the load on emergency rooms is growing, residents move around the city on skates and try to sprinkle sand on the streets on their own._

The song is the Leningrad's effort to bring attention to these problems