Calling Russia and other CIS countries — Basic information

Important: Since February 1, 2006 the old area code for Moscow is invalid. The new code is 495. Why did they change it?

Basic Information

An international call can be made in two ways. The first one is calling directly from your phone. It is expensive, unless you use an international calling plan which covers Russia and the CIS countries, but the quality of the connection is good. The other way is to use a prepaid calling card. If you prefer the former way, you should first check with your long distance carrier what the rates for CIS are. They may be high ($1 per minute and up). International calling plans offered by the majority of long distance companies have the rates of $3 to $5 per month, and offer a decent rate for selected countries (20-50 cents per minute). For more information please contact your long distance telephone company.

Prepaid calling cards are economical, but somewhat inconvenient. You will have to dial a lot of extra numbers, and sometimes the quality of the line is inferior. However, you can program your phone to dial those numbers for you. If the quality of the connection is not essential for you, you should buy a calling card and enjoy incredibly low rates (2.9 cents per minute to Moscow). Calling cards also go very wll with mobile phones. Your mobile phone can be easily programmed to dial the extra numbers. You will get the low rates plus airtime, of course.

The US system of area codes is easy: 3 digit area code + 7 digit number. The system which is in use in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union is more complicated. Don’t be afraid, though. It only takes a little time to get used to it. After all, it is also quite logical. The length of the area codes varies (3 to 5 digits), as does that of the numbers (5 to 7 digits). If you want to know the reasons behind such complexity, read Detailed Information.

When calling directly from your phone, you should first dial a certain code to get the international line. For the US it is "011". If you are dialing from a mobile phone, it is usually the “plus” character (+). In Europe it's "+" or "00".

The second step is the country code. For Russia it's "7". For Ukraine it's "380". For Belarus it's "375". Detailed Information contains codes for other countries.

Next, dial the area (city) code. Below are listed the most popular ones:

• Moscow, Russia: 495
• St. Petersburg, Russia: 812
• Novosibirsk, Russia: 383
• Kazan, Russia: 843
• Yekaterinburg, Russia: 343
• Naberezhnye Chelny , Russia: 8439
• Volgograd, Russia: 844
• Kiev, Ukraine: 44
• Kharkiv, Ukraine: 572
• Odessa, Ukraine: 482
• Donetsk, Ukraine: 622
• Minsk, Belarus: 17

The codes for the rest of the cities are in Detailed Information

The last step is to dial her local number. The overall number of digits you dial should be 11 for Russia, and 12 for Belarus and Ukraine.

Prepaid calling cards have instructions on the back which you should follow. After you hear "Enter the number you wish to dial", or a similar message, make sure you enter the sequence described above.

Keep it in mind that the lady’s phone number that you receive may or may not include the area code and country code.

The system is really complicated, so we let the girls themselves or their agents fill out the phone numbers with area and country codes to the best of their knowledge. In case the number does not work, even though you followed all the steps described above, make sure the area code, country code, etc., are correct. Use these instructions and Detailed Information as guidelines.

And last, but not least: the country code for Russia is “7”. In CIS countries one dials “8” to get a long distance line. Thus, some women put “8” or “+8” before their numbers, and it looks like a country code, but it isn’t. We have tried to correct this mistake in almost all the numbers we have and receive, but you may accidentally come across it if you get the a lady’s phone number from another agency. Thus, if “8” precedes the number, and this “8” is not a part of the area code, replace it with “7”. You may also get one of the old numbers which are being updated now. In this case the number of the digits will be less than 11. It is a very rare occasion, but should it happen to you, you should place “2” or “0” between the area code and the number, to achieve the total of 11 or 12 digits. Remember that it should be 11 for Russia and 12 for Ukraine and Belarus. Please see Detailed Information for details on that. Do not get frustrated if you cannot do it on the first try. You may have to dial it in different ways before you succeed. Remember to write down the sequences when you dial them. Do not try to do it from memory – it won’t do any good, and you will lose even more time. Memory plays tricks with long numbers, so believe us, writing them down helps a lot.

Now, let’s sum up. Below are examples for the most popular cities. In those examples, each X stands for a single digit of the local subsriber's number. The dialing sequences are for dialing from US and Canada. If you are from outside the US or Canada, you should replace 011 with the code used in your country.

• Moscow, Russia: Dial 011-7-495-XXXXXXX
• St. Petersburg, Russia: Dial 011-7-812-XXXXXXX
• Novosibirsk, Russia: Dial 011-7-383-XXXXXXX
• Kazan, Russia: Dial 011-7-843-XXXXXXX
• Yekaterinburg, Russia: Dial 011-7-343-XXXXXXX
• Naberezhnye Chelny , Russia: Dial 011-7-8439-XXXXXX
• Volgograd, Russia: Dial 011-7-844-XXXXXXX
• Kiev, Ukraine: Dial 011-380-44-XXXXXXX
• Kharkiv, Ukraine: Dial 011-380-572-XXXXXX
• Odessa, Ukraine: Dial 011-380-482-XXXXXX
• Donetsk, Ukraine: Dial 011-380-622-XXXXXX
• Minsk, Belarus: Dial 011-375-17-XXXXXXX

Do not forget to calculate the time difference correctly. You may call her in the middle of the night, and she would hardly be happy about that. Sometimes our ladies get calls from the USA at 3 or 4 AM, which is not the best time at all. Some women even refuse to list their phone number in our catalogue because of that. You can check the time difference here.