Originally Posted by
WHBM
Explained to me that the photo in the passport is you not smiling, and the Russian officers do a very precise comparison, so they want that you should be the same.
You will notice that part way through the process they do indeed do a very formal stare at your face, they are doing this check. Probably something dreamed up by the KGB years ago. You can smile at other times.
Eta pravda
?!! Well, it is Russia, so nothing surprises me. Certainly, that slow formal stare is quite disconcerting the first few times one meets it. How they now cope with my bored resigned look I have no way of knowing
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