Kazan' Travel Forum

what are the dangers of kidnappings of travlers from the USA, and is kazan less dangerous than other parts of russia and how can I see a street map of Kazan?

No. I 've never heard that Kazan differes from other Central Russia.

Very high risk of kidnapping is in North Caucasus regions (Kavkaz) - like: (highest): Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Northern Osetia; (lower): Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Kazan and Tatarstan in a whole is not there, it is in Central Russia, though it has Muslim majority there.

This year Kazan is celebrating its millennium jubelee (see www.kazan1000.ru/eng/ ) , so there will be very many tourists there and foreigners. In this case it is another danger that this year there will be higher risk of "common" street crime like pickpocketing, as it was in St.Peterburg during its 300 y. anniversary.

Cheers,
Pavel

Another danger - not much people speak english there (in Kazan).
funny, it seems American medias work good :-))) kidnapping of USA citizens in any part of Russia. Fantastic!! :-)) another story to my collection of awful stories about Russia :-)
I saw street map of Kazan only in Russian (in cyrillic), it's really hard to find maps for cities, situated far from Moscow.

Thank ,s for the info , never been to Russia so I needed to know of any dangers there ! Thanks ! Ya been a big help ! Have a great day !

Andrey, Kazan is not "far from Moscow". As we discussed it here some time ago it is just 1 NIT from Moscow. NIT is the most usefull measure for Russian distancies invented here - at VT forum ;))) NIT is Night-in-Train. So, Kazan is at minimal distance from Moscow ;-)))))

BTW I've noticed that this forum is actually about another Kazan':

There are several matches for Kazan' at VT:

Europe > Russia > Kirovskaya Oblast' > Kazan'
Europe > Russia > Respublika Tatarstan > Kazan'
Europe > Russia > Novgorodskaya Oblast' > Kazan'

I think that you want to visit the large one - in Tatarstan, as other two are very small towns or even villages.

Hi there, I do think that Russia, and kazan too is not dangerous not more so then other places in the world. I have been now twice to kazan, and found the people very friendly and helpfull. Sometimes it helps when you at least speak and read a lttle Russia. We westerns always expext other peole to speak English!

Right....There are many things Horatio... looks like we all look to the outer world like one big Chechnya...

yes, I've mentioned it!! It's really another city but i agree that Tatarstan's Kazan is the aim of the forum.
in any way, Tatarsatn is the most calm region in Russia. so...

Pavel, are you sure North Ossetia should make it in your list? I do not follow the situation so closely, but I have never heard of any kidnapping there except for Beslan of course. But if we judge the situation solely on the number of terrorist attacks, then Moscow and Stavropol' territory would be more dangerous. Of course I agree that Dagestan, Ingushetiya, and Chechnya are currently a no-go zone. Or am I missing smth?

(Just had last week an argument with my parents exactly on the same point - whether North Caucasus - for instance, Elbrus area - is dangerous. Of course they think it is, but they also think Turkey is dangerous).

OK I agree to move Osetia to next category ;) Though it is too close to "hot points" (Beslan bears this out).

As of Cheget and Dombai (though they are part of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Cherkessia mentioned in my post) as well as Adygeya, I think it is rather calm and peacefull regions of North Caucasus - the exeption. I know it from tourists visited the place in last 2-3 years. I planned to visit Dombai this year, but my newborn daughter changed those plans. ;) Last time I was there in Soviet times - it was super super super great place for tourists.

He guys we whwre talking about Kazan!

Well, I guess we all agree that Kazan' is as safe as a city with a million population can be.

I was in Dombai in 1994 (for half an hour :) ), absolutely fabulous.

> He guys we whwre talking about Kazan!

Not exactly ;-))) First question was: "what are the dangers of kidnappings of travlers from the USA"

The only one question was uncovered: "how can I see a street map of Kazan?"
- If you look through Kazan' forum (not this, but real one - http://www.virtualtourist.com/f/97a66/) you will found links to the street map with names in Cyrillic.

Cheers,
Pavel.

I think it would still make say top 30, so it is more like Philadelphia, PA. And besides it is a convenient first stop at the Transsiberian.

Neil, I share your wonder. Kazan questions flood forums. Is it again scammers activity? ;(

Though I have different impression from Kazan' - it is rapidly developing now. I think it has a good chance today to became a tourist attraction of Russia.

Pavel

No, I do not have anything to do against Philadelphia, and as a matter of fact never been to Kazan', but I think this is a rather typical Russian situation - a number of attractions (they still have Kremlin and Syuyumbeki Tower, don't they?) combined with an awful infrastructure. Pskov immediately comes to mind as another one. I think we should just separate these two things.

Indeed, as Pavel mentions, another reason could be in elevated (for whatever reason) amount of scammers there or in higher success rate. I did not check anti-scam websites., may be there they have the answer.

Btw Volgograd seems to be next popular city after Kazan'.

Neil - tebya tozhe.