Jello wrote:

The real lesson being: never attempt to import anything to Russia on the level. Actually obeying procedure and 'the law' is equivalent to not obeying the unwritten rules. If you don't know who to pay off, you can't play. Strange, but true.

It is a very similar story for export (my experience, although I haven't written the Russian story... it was "impossible" or "unlikely" we would get export paperwork in a "timely" (3 day) manner until a couple of crisp US hundred dollar bills were added to the requesting paperwork (5 minutes)).

RE: Phone Seizure Seen as Example of Russian Corruption - New York Times