In practice, you show up at the border of Russia and are detained (in my case, because virtually no Americans cross this particular border). A nice, younger FSB

In practice, you show up at the border of Russia and are detained (in my case, because virtually no Americans cross this particular border). A nice, younger FSB agent with some English skills asks you a battery of questions but doesn't really care about their job, asking if they can just fill in your address again when given your parents' address, because it's more work than it's worth to transcribe another address that no one will ever read. Later, an older, saltier, more senior FSB agent harangues you over some missing documents before getting bored and letting you go. We have some amusing preconceptions of Russia that rarely survive the reality of Russia.