Urgent Travel Advice Required

[MBC230K-2010]

It's been a long time since I posted on this forum. So long i forgot my password and my email address changed so I registered again.
But here I am, the crazy Englishman who travels to Russia in his Mercedes W202 C230K almost every year.

I have three questions:-

1 Are there any forest fires on the M9 between Latvia and Moscow betonka ring road?

2 Are there any forest fires around Dmitrov north of Moscow?

3 How long are the queues at Terehova-Buratchki at the Latvian border to ENTER Russia? In 2009 I waited 15 hours to get in to Russia!

I still have the same car on 143,000 miles now.

Regards

Les

 

[-=sab=-]

Hello Les!

First of all you can send me your previous nickname and your new email. I wil change it in your old profile and after that you can restore your password using our password recovery service.

I heard that current situation around Moscow is much better than 1 week ago.

Sorry, but I have no info about queues and cannot help you in this question. Probably somebody can provide this info.

Good luck in your trip!

 

[MBC230K-2010]

Thanks for the offer -=sab=- which I will respond on when I return to the UK.

I can report that border procedures at Terehova - Buratchki are very much improved. Even at no. 30 in the queue at 0700 Sunday morning, I was admitted to the Latvian side within 1hr 30m. And there was a change of shift (smena) too which delayed things (1 hr). Russian insurance cannot be purchased on the Latvian side anymore because Parekh Bank stopped selling it and stopped operating exchange (obmen valuta). On russian side everything is possible! The temporary import document for the car is not used anymore. In place of it, you receive a sticker on your customs declaration with numerals and VIN. Automatically valid for 3 months. Do not lose the declaration! I purchased insurance at first service station on right hand side in Russia. So I drove without insurance for 100m inside Russia. Customs did not mind about this! Note for UK car owners: UK does not sell green card for russia or I would use green card.

M9 to moscow almost all very good road except 50kms around zapadnaya dvina. Very many DPS / GAI on the road (sunday collection for "charity"!) but they stop only russians - foreign numerals = too many problems! Mainly found DPS / GAI closer to big towns (within 20 kms) but most of road is free and fast. Garmin satnav very good but satellite reception in moscow sometimes not good and thinks car is somewhere else 200m away. Even shows road where dacha is!
Regards
Les