Imprisoned in Irkutsk

Indeed. We landed back to Irskutsk and the police entered the plane to check for our documents, asked for my Russian visa, I would not have it.

As it was late in the evening they held me and put me shut in an airport room (actually a waiting room) for the night. Early morning they put me queuing at the ticked window to buy a ticket for the next plane leaving for China. Yes, if you do not have a visa airport police will automatically deport you back to the place you come from. But I did not have Chinese visa and Chineses would also automatically deport me back to Russia. I speak Russian, I told the police what had happened and what would happen, they would not care.....(Later, somebody in Russia told me it was a movie with that plot; somebody get deported between to foreign countries without any way out)

I was about to reach the sales window when the crew turned up with the police and saved me. They had decided to tell them my unlucky story. Irkutsk airport police did not know what to do with me, they decided to call to Moscow for instructions but it was there six hours earlier and Moscow was not at work, they put me again in the room waiting for Moscow answer.

Six hours later I was brought to the police station, they had not received any bad information about me but either a way forward, they did not know how to solve the situation.

Suddently, somebody thought about checking the rubbish bin there. There was my visa in pieces. Soviet Union visas were not stamped in the passport but clipped in it. I had still three days permit to stay in Russia. They glued the visa pieces together and set me free.