Dodgy dealings in Red Square
We got up at 6.30 this morning for a photo-shoot in Red Square for the Moscow Times (read the story here) - which went very well, apart from me having to pay a “fine” to a militia guy with 500 Roubles (kindly negotiated on our behalf by Martin, the photographer) to persuade him to give Phil his passport back -all for using a tripod to do a panorama of the square!
Click here or on the image to get a better view
If you’re reading this, my Russian friend, I hope you like this photo of you with Phil.
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Those dealings in fullA dodgy encounter with a dodgy official - we come very close to our first yellow card Duration: 1min 40sec |
Posted by Christian
Rob says:
April 12th, 2002 at 12:11 pm
Caught in the act! I take it he didn’t see you take the picture!
Scrapper says:
April 12th, 2002 at 12:36 pm
500 roubles, what’s that, about 10 and sixpence?
Seems fair enough to me, fella’s got to make a living after all.
Chris says:
April 12th, 2002 at 6:22 pm
Ok, ok, it’s only about 12 quid. But as for making a living… is that what you call ‘living’? Can’t say I do… ‘parasite’ is more the word I was thinking of.
The previous time we tried to film with the ball in Red Square, another militia guy (or possibly the same one, since I guess it’s his patch) came up to us and tried a similar trick. He asked us for our Moscow registration stamps, which I have on good authority don’t exist. He claimed that if we stayed more than three days in Moscow we needed a special stamp on our visas. We managed to ply our passports out of his hands by involving him in our football story, and he went away.
So this time the militiaman tried the same thing, and I said to him that we had only been in Moscow for two days, which seemed sufficient to thwart that particular blag. It was only when Phil used the tripod that he saw his chance to impose what I can only assume to be his entirely spurious story about the tripod.
Having just written this, I remembered that the Greenwich Meridian folk also disallow tripods, but I thought they had a better case, inasmuch as it is a pretty tight space there, and if there were a hundred tourists all with their tripods, no-one would be able to move. Red Square on the other hand is huge. You could fit an army in there - some folk once did, as I recall.
Anyway, reasonable or not, I hate corruption in all its forms.
Unless you want to bung me a tenner, that is
Scrapper says:
April 12th, 2002 at 6:32 pm
Well I still reckon it’s fair game - I’ve spent half me life clipping tourists up the West End and some of them even thank me for it, let me tell ya!
Chris says:
April 12th, 2002 at 6:41 pm
Thanks Scrapper - I’ll be expecting my tenner by internet transfer asap then…
Igor says:
April 15th, 2002 at 7:34 pm
Excuz me Scrapper but do you have authorisation to use this web page? Can I see your papers pliz.
Mike says:
April 16th, 2002 at 2:02 am
Fellas, sorry about your bad experience at the Red Square. The Russian cops are notorious for their extortions, and that’s one of the many soviet legacies that, unfortunately, still exist in our country.
Ivan says:
June 20th, 2002 at 8:58 am
Zank you for the roubles comrade. I have spent zem on some vodka and I will drink it while cheering Brazil tomorrow!
ivan zp.se horribbull says:
November 4th, 2003 at 6:52 pm
vonce again comrads zank you for ze roubles its been two yers now and i az finally spent zem.i shall now be looking for zum unsuspecting boyoz from ze vales next veek for my next yers vages…zank you in advance…no cameras pleeeze!!