Today I cancelled an excellent airfare on Expedia into St. Petersburg (and out of Vilnius) because of my understanding of the Russian visa rules on the US consulate's and St.-Petersburg.com website. Basically, in bold, on both websites, it says US citizens as of Jan 2017 now need to purchase a 3 year, multi point visa entrance for $270. This does not seem worth the expense as I just wanted to spend 5 or 6 days in St. Petersburg and then go on to the Baltic states. I don't envision traveling back to Russia in the next 2 years. My question is, am I reading this correctly? The visa application is online and I am wondering if I chose (or if it is possible to choose the single entry visa (which says it is $90), will my application be rejected because the 3 year visa is mandatory (not just recommended)? I thought about calling the consulate in Washington on Monday.
Thank you!