Russian visa (anyone have any experience with them?)

I applied for one for business purposes (didn't use it at the end though). In theory you can apply for a tourist one - in fact, I've been advised to do so by our travel arrangment people as it is much quicker to sort out, but my boss didn't want to do that.

For business visa, you need to provide a letter from employer, and also some confirmation from your Russian contact that you've been invited, and it takes 2 weeks to sort out - the whole thing was quite a hassle, so my suggestion is that you go for a tourist visa.

I know people who have been technically working who have gone out on a tourist visa with no issues - the whole business visa requires a letter of introduction which is then sent to the embassy and then there's all the paperwork so I'm not quite sure it envisages the situation you're in

Either way it'll take 6 weeks to get the paperwork and I think you'll have to give them your passport for a couple of weeks (unless of course your client is some oligarch who can ease the process for you)

I would guess the best thing to do would be to phone the embassy

Urgh they're a ruddy nightmare. When I went there on business, we went for the tourist option (on our Russian clients' recommendation) - we used a visa company in London who did all the application for us and rushed it through, cost about £150 per person I think. We did need a letter from the hotel we were staying at, saying we were 'invited' to stay there.