Originally Posted by
flash8
Moscow, back in December 1998, deep winter, at the time only had a tourist visa with fixed entry/exit dates, wanted to extend to spend Christmas there.
Asked Airline staff at the BA office on Tverskaya (the only folk I could think of), the girl behind the counter made a phone call and then she told me she would take me to the airport after work, and in her own car off we went, met a waiting immigration officer at the airport (Sheremetyevo-2) who took my passport away, modified the visa, came back and returned it to me thirty minutes later, I paid him $100 for the privilege (2 x $50 notes) and he duly handed the girl $50 of it (her cut!). We then drove back to Moscow where we went to a bar and had a drink!
Today that would be impossible, but in 1990's Russia anything went.
Impossible, or just a lot more expensive!