Kazan invitation and visa, part 1

May 18th, 2010

I hope to be in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia for the summer. To get to Russia you need both an invitation and a visa; the consulate won't process a visa until the invitation has been issued. I processed my paperwork through an expediter that I had been told was generally reliable. I filled out the forms so that they would expedite my processing, and I overnighted it to them on 8 April 2010. I had hoped to have my invitation by 18 Apr 2010. Alas, the Russian government has recently changed their policy about expediting paperwork: they no longer do it. The expediters sent me a note saying it would be issued May 11. The invitation was in fact issued 11 May, so theoretically I should receive back my passport by 25 May. I'm a bit nervous since my departure date is the 27th.

Safe computing in Russia

May 18th, 2010

I'm taking a laptop on vacation this summer, and I've decided to be paranoid about data security and to operate in such a way that even if the laptop is stolen, my data should be secure unless someone uses a supercomputer to crack the passwords. Details:

  • I've set a password to log onto Windows.
  • I'm using McAfee for virus-scanning & web safety.
  • SMTP doesn't encrypt your username/password, so instead of Outlook I'm going to use an SSL encrypted webmail app.
  • I'm using Password Safe to store all the other passwords that I might need to use for the summer.
  • I'm using a DropBox folder for all files I generate for the summer. That way if the laptop is somehow stolen, I can still access the files via the web interface.

With that approach, I should only have to remember three passwords: the webmail password, the password for Password Safe, and DropBox.

Where is Tatarstan?

May 18th, 2010

Nowadays Russia is properly called “The Russian Federation” «Российская Федерация», which is made up of 83 “federal subjects” «субъекты Российской Федерации». One of those federal subjects is called the “Republic of Tatarstan” «Республика Татарстан», which is outlined in green down below:

There are about 10,000,000 Tatars worldwide, about 5.5 million of whom live in Russia. They are a Turkic people who speak a Turkic language. About four million people live in Tatarstan, of whom over 2,000,000 are ethnic Tatars. There are over a million Russians in the republic as well.

The largest city of Tatarstan is Kazan «Казань», which is located about 450 miles east of Moscow and is the eighth largest city in Russia with a population of over 1.1 million. Tatars make up somewhat more than 50% of the population of Kazan. Russians make up somewhat more than 40%. It is located on the confluence of two rivers: the Volga, which is the longest river in Europe, and the Kazanka.

Tatar language tidbit

May 18th, 2010

The word for apple in Tatar is alma. The word for this/these is bu. Since they don't use “to be” in the present tense, Bu alma means “This is an apple.”

To make plurals, you add -lar or -ler to a word, so Bu almalar means “These are apples.”

Visa has arrived!

May 21st, 2010

My Russian visa has arrived. I'm very pleased because I was worried it wouldn't get here before my flight, but it turns out the expediters knew what they were doing.

The first time I went to Russia, the visa was a separate piece of paper in three parts, all of which were taken back from you before you left Russia, so you were left with no record of where you were in your passport. This time the visa is pasted into my passport itself. Here is a picture of it. (I've blurred the vital parts to prevent identity theft and document forgery.)