Stavropol City, surrounding area - Safety

Question

This is my first time posting here. Thank you in advance to anyone who reads and comments.

I have the possibility of going to Stavropol City, Russia for work. I will be staying in the city then traveling to the city of Nevinnomyssk about 60km South of Stavropol to visit the Client's factory.

If I go, I will be staying about 3 days and 2 nights. Each night I will stay at a hotel in Stavropol and leave to Nevinnomyssk to have meetings with clients during the day.

I know the surrounding regions can be quite volatile and the US/UK embassies warn against all travel to Stavropol Krai for any reason.

However, when I checked online a bit there seems to be a number of cases of people visiting Stavropol and having wonderful experiences but I am hesitant to rely on anecdotal accounts.

Does anyone have solid information on this area? Namely Stavropol City and Nevinnomyssk.

Again thank you for reading and any information is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

There is an official crime chart with a very thorough breakdown by region of various types of crimes committed, and I don't think you will be able to find anything more statistically thorough than that. Unfortunately it's only in Russian, but you can still copy and paste bits of the information from it into Google Translate if you are interested. I can summarize it in one sentence, though: nothing out of the ordinary.

Generally speaking, one must realize that Russia is a very homogenous country (legacy of the USSR) with only a few notable exceptions which are its largest cities and a few "fringe" regions, but Stavropol is neither of those. The difference between "good" and "bad" neighborhoods in cities is generally very vague if not nonexistent (even though that may not be viewed as a universally good thing), and the notion of "ghettos" will likely sound surprising to most Russians (even though forced relocation did take place under Stalin's tyranny).

In other words, while it is certainly possible to be mugged there just like in any other place in the world, chances of that happening are slim, especially if the company you're visiting will escort you from and to the airport.

What you do need to be on the lookout for in my opinion are frauds of any kinds. Although the crime rate is low, your inability to speak Russian, coupled with the ill-famed police indifference, may make you an easy mark for con men (possibly including your client, if they are not a trustworthy business).

Answer 2

When I was in Stavropol many times and there are some rules for everybody including Russians:

1. Don't show your cash money for anybody;
2. Your behaviour should not be defiant;
3. Be careful crossing the roads.

As for me, It's better to live and work in Nevinnomyssk.

Answer 3

Probably would be better in a comment but I don't have enough reputation yet. Anyhow:

I think it is as safe as any other place in Russia, actually I haven't ever heard of a reason why wouldn't it be. I did some research in news sites of both of the cities (you can check me up on this with google translate in Chrome browsers). There is nothing unusual in crime sections.

Download offline google translate to Russian before you go and I think you will be fine.

links: Nevinnomyssk Stavropol