Foreigner in Russia?

Like for any other country, you have to fill a migration form when entering Russia. A part of it is returned to you and is kind of your “exit-visa” from Russia; you need to preserve this till the time you are in Russia.

In addition when you enter Russia, within a day you need register your visa. Again, you get a document you have to preserve carefully for the duration of your stay.

By the end of day one in Russia, I had - 4" x 2.5" migration card printed on a newspaper quality paper and the registration card (another small piece of paper) - and the nightmare of not losing them.

The interesting part... 

Russian police officers have the authority to randomly stop people and request their identity and travel documents at any time and without cause. So no matter what part of the world you are from, except Russia, you need carry your original passport with visa, migration card and registration with you at all times.

Bright colored domes of St. Basil's Cathedral on an overcast day

The story... 

I was walking back towards my hotel from my first weekend city tour. As I was enjoying the calm flow of the Moscow River besides me, a van drove off the road, onto the walkway and stopped right in front of me. The van door opened and one of the four policemen sitting inside asked, “Passport? Registration?” After I gave the documents to him, he uttered something in Russian which I understood as "are you from India?”

As one of the officials was examining the documents, the other three were busy playing cards and chatting with each other. Suddenly the officer who was checking my document showed something to he colleagues in my passport - I figured he was showing them the other visa pages of my passport. Then they started blabbering something to me in Russian, the only word I understood was “...Obama...”

Inferring that I don’t understand Russian, one of them put the cards he was holding in front of me...probably inviting me to join their game, I refused and they let me go.

I had taken just a few steps forward when they returned besides me. One of them took a pen out of his pocket and started saying something again in Russian. I was able to figure out words like..."souvenir"....."Amerikanski"...."Anglichane" (Russian names for American and British respectively). I opened my bag again and took out a pen. Promptly they gave me their pen, took mine and drove away!!