IDD is available. Country code: 7. When dialling the Russian Federation from abroad, the 0 of the area code must not be omitted. Some Moscow hotels have telephone booths with IDD. For long-distance calls within the CIS, dial 8 then wait for the dial tone before proceeding with the call. Collect calls, calls placed using credit cards and calls from direct dial telephones in hotels can be extremely expensive. International calls can be made from phones in the street and phonecards are available from many shops and kiosks in the street. The emergency services can be reached as follows: fire – 01; police – 02; ambulance – 03. For enquiries regarding Moscow private telephone numbers, dial 09; for businesses, 927 0009. For national directory enquiries regarding the Russian Federation and the CIS, dial 927 0009.

Roaming agreements exist with international mobile phone companies. All major cities are covered by at least one operator. Handsets can be hired from some companies.

Public access is available in hotels in larger cities and in Internet cafes.

Over recent years, the Kremlin has secured greater control over Russia's media.
Press: The main dailies in the Russian Federation are Izvestiya (website: www.izvestia.ru) and Komsomolskaya Pravda (website: www.kp.ru), both published in Moscow. Newspapers and magazines are published in some 25 languages. Multilingual editions of the Moscow News (website: www.english.mn.ru) are available weekly. The Moscow Times (website: www.themoscowtimes.com) and St Petersburg Times are published in English. There is also a daily Internet newspaper, Russia Today (website: www.russiatoday.com).
TV: Russia TV Channel is state-owned. NTV is a national netowork owned by the gas company, Gazprom. Centre TV is a commerical network and Russia Today is an international English news channel. Other networks include Channel One and Ren TV.
Radio: Radio Russia and Radio Mayak are state-run networks. Russkoye Radio and Moscow Echo are privately run. Voice of Russia operates programmes in English and other languages.

Airmail to Western Europe takes over 10 days. There are postboxes and post offices in every hotel. Inland surface mail is often slow. Post office hours: 0900-1900.