An unexpected twist forces MAJOR changes....

It has taken me six full days to finally get round to posting this post. On Monday last, my wife Anna and I went along to the Edinburgh Russian Consulate to apply for our Russian visas for our trip there in the summer.
To obtain the visas, my mother in law had to submit her application to the local OVIR office in St Petersburg, they took a month or so to process the official invites, and Anna's mum then sent them to us in Scotland. This process took us nearly two months then. So, we took these invitations with us to the Consulate.

The first thing the guy behind the desk asked Anna was why she wasn't using her Russian passport as she is a Russian citizen. Anna replied that her Russian international passport expired three years ago, and she had become a British citizen in 2004 and had since then used her UK passport to travel to Russia (like the rest of us)
As she was explaining this, the guy brought out a stamp of some sort, stamped her passport with it, and told her AFTERWARDS that having done this, she would not be able to enter Russia using a UK passport. He also scored through Anna's invitation, writing the Russian equivalent of "Null and Void." He then told her not to bother trying to obtain a visa from the London Consulate, or the Helsinki Russian Consulate as they would not issue them when they saw the stamp he had put in!

Anna asked why he had done this. He replied that as a Russian citizen, it was "her priviledge to enter Russia as a Russian citizen, using her Russian passpoet, and therefore not requiring a visa".
I could see there was a problem developing here, and asked why she could not use her UK passport. He told me a UK passport used by a Russian citizen was not recogised in Russia at all, and was therefore worthless!
I then said that she had already used the same UK passport three times in the past two years to return home to St Petersburg, with no problem at all. This seemed irrelevant to the Consul chap, who told me again that it would now be impossible to use this passport to gain entry to Russia! When I asked him what had changed since our last journey, he said a new law had been introduced to stop Russian citizens entering their country on anything other than a Russian passport. I asked when this had happened, to which he replied,incredibly, "Seven years ago!!!" Although it was pointed out to him that he HIMSELF had issued Anna's visa last year, he ignored this..
He did offer that the Consulate could make a new Russian passport for Anna, at a cost of £200, and a SIX MONTH wait, not exactly any good, since our holiday is only three months away.

After arguing the point for 45 minutes, and with my wife in tears, we left.

I have since telephoned the UK passport agency about the matter, and they were unwilling to become involved, stating only that a UK passport presented no problems for entry to Russia, but perhaps the Consulate had become upset that my wife was choosing this passport ahead of the passport belonging to her own country. No doubt they didn't want to "make waves" over it all.
I also phoned the two companies in Edinburgh who offer to make visas for you, without the need for the invitation, when travelling to Russia. Both said they could get the visas, but that they would have to submit the applications and the passports to the Russian Consulate in London, as "Edinburgh is being a bit sticky at the moment about allowing Russian citizens who hold UK passports to enter Russia with those."
Of course, that would have been great, if my wife's passport had not already been stamped by this idiot in the Consulate. He obviously knew that London, or indeed Helsinki's Russian Consulates would do the paperwork without question, but wanted to prevent that. WHY? Who knows....

So, if any other Russian citizens read this, living in the Uk, and wish to travel home to see relatives, be very wary of the Edinburgh Consulate, and especially of NIKITA MATKOVSKIY, who has taken it upon himself to play God and refuse to provide visas for people whose only wish is to see their own family back home.

After all of this, our plans were in ruin basically. We were all very upset by the actions of this guy, and the fact that he could, by himself, change all our holiday ideas just like that. However, we thought it all through and have since decided that since we have booked and paid for our ferries, we will still travel, and stay instead in a rented holiday house in Finland, near to Helsinki, where Anna's mum, dad and sister will come over the border from St Petersburg to stay with us. Actually, as they are viewing this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Finland, we are now heartened, and looking forward again to it all.

It's not exactly what we had in mind, but we have found, I think , a very nice place to stay, that will accommodate all of us, and Anna's folks comfortably.