the problem is that any executive level declaration not reflected in an official government statement/rule/normative act, etc. pref. reflected by publication in rossiiskaya gazeta will be useless to you at enforcement level.
to date, there are a number of theories: 1. students will not be affected, b/c it would be silly to chase them out after 90 days. 2. valid REGISTERED work visas will not be affected 2a. and valid REGISTERED work visas will be grandfathered, b/c it would be cruel to force companies/individuals with valid visas to get new ones. 3. and of course, diplomatic visas will not be affected. item 3 is probably true independently of RF government action, as diplomatic relations are based on reciprocity and the vienna convention, so dip. and technical employee visa holders are (90%+ likelihood) OK. items 1 and 2, 2a are not supported by anything other than application of logic and/or magical thinking. the fun fact is that all of this comes into force in mid-January, and the country shuts down in about 3 weeks, so odds of anything actually being done, signed and published are very low. as to students, there is simply no telling. the first violation is a fine, and b/c the kinks aren't worked out, it's probably a fairly trivial fine, BUT it is ALSO a violation of the RF visa regime, so next time you go for a visa... essentially, think PWC, where they thought they were getting a fairly meaningless fine, but turned out that a felon (legal person) can't be licensed to be an auditor... if you are a U.S. national, ACS is planning a meeting on the 29th, if you are an 'other' national, talk to your embassy, but at the end of a day, this is like every other regulatory development in Russia it's either vital and critical or just a beaureaucratic fowl up and meaningless. definitely one of the two. or not. _______________________________________________ Expat mailing list [email protected] http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat http://www.expat.ru/forum/
