My husband just read that you cannot take dollars out of Russia....which is a bit difficult not to do, if you take dollars into Russia. It was suggested that you have a stamp on your passport that you are bringing the dollars into the country.<BR><BR>Any one have any experience with this?<BR><BR>KC

Don't know what your husband was reading, but either it was wrong or he didn't understand properly. You are not allowed to take Russian rubles out of Russia. Taking any other currency out is fine. In the St. Petersburg airport there is a currency conversion place right before you go through the metal detecters and customs so you can switch your rubles back into another currency. <BR><BR>

Nicole is sort of correct. In theory you cannot take rubles out of the country, although they generally don't care if it is less than several hundred dollars' worth.<BR><BR>You will want to go to <BR><BR>www.russianembassy.org<BR><BR>or<BR><BR>ww w.RusCon.org<BR><BR>and read the section on currency for exact details. <BR><BR>The key is you cannot (generally) take out of Russia more money than you brought in. Get a STAMPED declaration when you arrive to prove upon departure that you took the money into the country; there is a seperate form for this available at airports (and hopefully from the customs officers on trains), the stamp does not go on your passport. Also, if you use ATMs keep the receipts (in case you are leaving with more money than you arrived with).

The sign at the airport says that you must declare foreign currency if it is over 1,500 USD. However last fall they wanted to see a declaration for all foreign cash. I did not declare on entry. I converted what cash I had and then walked through the green line. This spring I just walked through the green line on entry and exit, I only had a small amount of cash. In Russia ATMs are available almost everywhere.

&gt;&gt;&gt;In Russia ATMs are available almost everywhere. <BR><BR>Do you mean just Moscow or St. Petersburg or really everywhere in Russia? As I understand it, ATMs are not very prevalent in central and eastern Russia. But I could be wrong.<BR><BR>Jennifer<BR>

mark's answer is the right one <BR>(just there in june 2002)

Outside Moscow/Petersburg ATMs are completely hit-or-miss. I had problems finding ones that would give cash on American cards in Petrozavodsk, Irkutsk (only one in the main post office dispensed more than $40) and Ulan-Ude. It might have just been bad luck, but keep this caution in mind.

As an addendum, sometimes you can get a cash withdrawal from within the branches of some banks (most often Sberbank).