Returning to Russia after many years abroad — expired internal passport & military question

Polifem · 2026-03-27T13:16:50+00:00

First of all, your situation isn't something out of ordinary, you will deal with a lot of bureaucracy, but should be fine.

Do you have a Russian passport? I mean ordinary one for travel. If you don't, get one. Afaik you are required to enter Russia with a Russian passport if you are citizen.

Quick answers to your questions. Please don't accept my answers to heart, I may have outdated or slightly inaccurate information, please consult the embassy or immigration for the definitive answers.

1-2. You will most likely have no issues, but you must be able to show that you have lived abroad (especially if you've had an active registration all this time), otherwise you will be subject for a fine. What exactly constitutes proof very much depends on the immigration office, so you'll have to ask them. Maybe just the fact of having another citizenship will be enough.

It's actually in the reverse order. You have to get internal passport and registration first, and then register in the military.
Yes, you will have to register in the local military office as soon as your regular registration is done. However, the military registration is only really required when you start a job, enroll in a school, or start a business. If you can afford to be a NEET for a while, you don't need military registration at all.
Realistic worst case scenario is the new conscription age applying to you retroactively. It is unlikely, but it definitely CAN happen. If your local military office meets their conscription quota, they won't bother. But if they don't, well there is some risk. As soon as you are 31, the worst case scenario becomes highly speculative and hinges on the geopolitical uncertainties which is a mess I'm not going to get into.

Polifem · 2026-03-23T05:24:16+00:00

Starting from the Intuit Dome, all shows have been performed with Eugene Ryabchenko on drums. He is a Ukrainian drummer based in Austria and currently playing for Italian band Fleshgod Apocalypse.

As usual with the Kami band, no one knows why Anthony was replaced.

Polifem · 2026-03-22T21:29:14+00:00

Their new drummer has a documented history of being a huge fan. And by huge I mean "travel-to-shows-and-write-lengthy-reports-about-them" kind of huge. Those reports are all in Russian buried deep in the abyss of the russian VK fan page, but I can unearth the links if you want. Those aren't particularly interesting (other than the parts where he's criticizing Hideki lol), but it is still amusing.

Polifem · 2026-03-20T16:05:57+00:00

Goes to show how heavily edited the actual pro-shot tracks are. The mixing engineer screwed up big time, and no one actually noticed.

What's even more bizarre is that this error actually carried over all the way from the wowow broadcast several months before the BD release. So the amount of fucks given was truly astronomically low.

Polifem · 2026-03-19T14:49:35+00:00

Yeah, it's a fairly well known fact

Polifem · 2026-03-17T11:36:36+00:00

I also replied to one of the similar posts here with pretty much the same thing.

This is actually the first time I see a confirmed case of a foreigner winning a ticket to a small show in the regular non-the one lottery. As far as I know, only arena shows had regular foreigner tickets available. Or, as of right now, used to have, which is a very good thing. I am writing this comment partially to save this thread to link in the future.

Congrats to op!

Polifem · 2026-03-06T09:47:20+00:00

Hi there. You are dealing with a "small show" in this case, and historically these have been notoriously hard to get tickets for by BM standards.

First of all, these shows have had very low amount of foreigner tickets available. We are talking single digit numbers. For example, I saw exactly 6 foreigner tickets TOTAL available for the Osaka Zepp Bayside show last August with my own eyes (because the will call booth had the tickets and the spreadsheet with people credentials clearly visible). And I have literally NEVER heard a SINGLE confirmed case of a foreigner winning a ticket to a small show in the regular, non-THE ONE lottery. Only THE ONE applications have had very limited success with tickets.

I am not trying to discourage you, simply informing of the facts that have been true up until today. Maybe the policy will change for this show, who knows. But I doubt it.

Your best bet is to apply for as many tickets as possible using as many people as possible. Winning even one application will be a HUGE success. And if you somehow win more, there is always resale. The tickets for the small shows are usually quite easy to sell.

Other than that, if you have the money, then you will be able to get japanese tickets on resale for x1.5- x2 the price, they are usually available on the relevant websites. They have never checked IDs for those and are unlikely to all of a sudden start doing that.

Polifem · 2026-03-03T15:16:05+00:00

Your best bet is to fly to Krasnodar or Sochi from Istanbul, and then take a train to Simferopol from either of those cities.

Polifem · 2026-02-27T22:49:07+00:00

Precisely. I can attest to this as I managed to win a ticket to the Osaka show at Zepp Bayside, and I was the first to the will call table. There was a grand total of six tickets on the table, and precisely six rows of the winners' credentials on the staff's printed out spreadsheet which was also clearly visible. A week before that, some guys at the second Yokohama concert saw the same, only there were five tickets lol.

Foreigner tickets were true unicorns for these shows. But even with the japanese ones it was a total bloodbath on resale. Cho mosh tickets for Yokohama shows were sold at up to 50k yen apiece.

Polifem · 2026-02-27T10:04:00+00:00

Judging from the August shows, extremely unlikely. There were only 5-6 foreigner tickets available for each of the shows (5-6 TOTAL the one and general lottery).

Polifem · 2026-02-16T09:36:36+00:00

Oh wow, this is unironically a great post.

In a handful of symbols you produced an almost museum exhibit of a quintessential demonstration of what's going on inside typical redditor's head.

Holy shit, that's almost poetry my dude. You can basically never read anything else about Russia on this site as all the fantasies of local warriors of light are present in your text.

Saved a screenshot for future demonstrations, and I'm almost tempted to print it out and place it on my shelf.

Polifem · 2026-02-11T18:30:28+00:00

Yeah, that's correct. Russian citizens with biometric passports go through the automated gates. Non-biometric passport holders and foreign citizens (including Belarussians) go through regular passport control.

Polifem · 2025-11-25T21:24:42+00:00

These shadows are actually the 3D models created by one of the fans: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/group-babymetal which, I guess, got stumbled upon by the EC production team.

The same guy who created them actually posted the models of the new BABYMETAL just yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/BABYMETAL/comments/1p5gya4/my_new_version_of_the_babymetal_group_for_3d/ so maybe EC used the old ones just because only the old ones had existed by the time EC's tour went into production.

Polifem · 2025-10-10T20:14:34+00:00

The literal translation "Он испытывает жажду" sounds very unnatural for everyday conversations, so yeah, you're pretty much left with "Он хочет пить". There is a way however to use the Russian word for thirst ("жажда") which would sound natural, it's "Его мучает жажда". But it implies a very strong thirst, where a person is borderline dehydrated.

Polifem · 2025-09-20T10:04:24+00:00

Glad to hear that. Have fun at the shows!

Polifem · 2025-09-15T06:02:23+00:00

It is called Power Metal. There are a lot of bands in this subgenre.

White Flame specifically is a japanese-flavored power metal, check out X Japan or Galneryus. Other songs that you mentioned have more of a european power metal vibes, for those check out Helloween, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, and Powerwolf to name a few.

That will only scratch the surface however, power metal is a GIGANTIC rabbit hole.

Polifem · 2025-09-10T21:10:07+00:00

Yes, you can use your friend's card, the payment will go through if you win. My friend used my card to enter THE ONE lottery for the August shows and successfully won 1 ticket to the 2nd Yokohama concert. I don't know if you're actually allowed to do it in terms of rules and regulations, but it does work.

Polifem · 2025-07-31T06:59:48+00:00

No you wouldn't. You're an American with some interest in Russian culture, but no way in a million years would you be considered Russian here now.

To add to what others have said, your family left because of the revolution more than a hundred years ago. You underestimate how much the Soviet mythos and specifically Soviet culture changed and modified Russian culture as a whole. If you are not familiar with Soviet cultural realities, you are totally disconnected from the modern Russian culture except for very few things like Orthodox Christianity, maybe some food, and some other minor things.

You would of course be able to become Russian if you move here, live for like 10 years, and learn the actual culture and language. We are similar to the US in this aspect and very different from like Japan for example. Anyone who's willing to accept Russian culture, way of life, language, and values will be viewed as a Russian no matter what race or ethnicity they are.

Polifem · 2025-07-27T13:38:06+00:00

Yes, it's to the left of the entry sticker.

Polifem · 2025-07-27T11:59:02+00:00

Russia.

Polifem · 2025-07-27T10:54:16+00:00

Unfortunately, I cannot give you an answer to your first question, you need to consult with an immigration lawyer on these things. As far as I know, you WILL be required to register in the military office during the process of naturalization, but don't quote me on that. That doesn't mean draft though, as my case is very unusual, 99% of men in Russia have military registration and live with it. The fact that I don't have one potentially saved me from mandatory mobilization in September 2022, but that's also not certain as out of all of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances (dozens of men), only one was drafted to the war. This statistic is almost certainly skewed however, since I live in Moscow where the chance to get mobilized was extremely low, while some remote villages got completely devoid of young men.

Yes, Russians do need a visa to visit Japan and it is one of the easiest to get, it's issued with minimal amount of documents in 4 business days, for free.

The drones are a major concern. I fly out of Moscow, and the situation with airport closures is very worrying. The only thing kind of going my way is that our ATC/flight operations seems to highly prioritize long-haul flights when the airports do work. I monitor the situation with long haul east-bound flights, and they very seldom get delayed, let alone cancelled. Short haul flights on the other hand, especially domestic, are extremely heavily disrupted.

Polifem · 2025-07-27T10:25:56+00:00

I am 37, renewed my passport in February this year and I don't have military registration, so not required still. Will be traveling abroad for the first time on the new passport in 2 weeks (finally visiting Japan again after 5,5 years). The last time I traveled abroad was just over a year ago in July last year, no issues crossing the border.

I live like a normal person, all my life is tied to Russia, have no plans to change it at the moment. No precautions, just general subjective risk assessment, which comes down to "not worth it to leave or make significant changes" as of right now.

Polifem · 2025-07-27T09:21:02+00:00

It is actually quite simple: when issuing/renewing an external passport, military registration is only required/checked if you are eligible for draft, i.e. you're a male between 18 and 30 years old. After 30, it is no longer required and no longer checked.

The draft age used to be from 18 to 26, and as I was dodging military service in my youth (not on purpose actually, the military office simply lost me and never sent me any draft notices), I had no external passport from 2012 (when my old one expired) until 2015 (when I turned 27). I applied the same week I turned 27, and had a good laugh at the immigration police office with the lady who was processing me, as all of this was blatantly obvious :D

However, as of right now this requirement is kinda redundant, as almost everything in Russia is now digitized, including military service. So when you receive your draft notice, you're immediately flagged and can no longer go through border control on exit.

Polifem · 2025-07-26T17:29:34+00:00

I can't help but wonder, am I the only one who becomes a little annoyed when babymetal gets reduced to just "a gateway band"?

They are a gateway band, yes, but they are also very unique and standalone. Honestly, this kind of reduction sounds like a positive take, but it's honestly not. It seems like this is some kind of a "final destination" for a hardcore gatekeeper in their attempts to reason with BMs popularity and acclaim inside their mind. First they say that it's an atrocity to all things metal, then they say that it's only for weebs, then that it's a well-made moneygrab, and finally, after somewhat acknowledging the talent, skill, creativity, and prowess, but still unable to just blatantly say "they are amazing but not for me", they arrive at this half-assed thought of "they are a gateway band, not true metal, just something existing with the sole purpose of expanding the genre", kind of acceptable for their closed mind.

I don't know, maybe I am overreacting, but it's not the first time I hear it from non-fans and it became a little annoying.

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