Can I take my electric skateboard to Russia?

I am Russian (originally from Moscow), and I can tell you it’s absolutely fine to use it.

Most of the answers are right – there are actually a lot of guys riding a gyro scooter (because it’s just got extremely popular Russia and I don’t know why), hoverboards, and sometimes you can even see a guy riding a Boosted Board (O_O it’s $1500) in Gorky Park. So there is no problem to use it, if we are speaking about the law. Man, what I am talking about, in Moscow there is a company who made dozens of parking zones with electric bicycles all over the city.

Charging your board somewhere in Starbucks or anywhere else while you are drinking your coffee is also not a problem.

So the only problem you have is your air flight, because as some of the guys said before in this thread, you have to check in your airline about is it ok to take such a big Li-ion battery on board. Personally, I think it’s just better to find a very soft pack for it and just drop it like baggage. In this case you are just avoiding mental pain and saving your time.

Also you should check the local laws. In the USA and Canada, police have been known to ticket these “unregistered electric vehicles”

source: http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-mans-first-ride-on-electric-skateboard-ends-with-600-ticket

Many (if not all) airlines have policies prohibiting such items. Not only are large lithium batteries prohibited, electric vehicles are prohibited regardless of the size (or presence) of a battery. You will not be able to take your electric skateboard with you on the airplane, neither has hand luggage nor as checked luggage. Some examples (I picked one from each major airline alliance):

KLM

Lithium battery operated self-balancing devices or personal movement devices, such as hoverboards, airboards, oxboards, e-skates, waveboards and U-runners are not allowed to take with you onboard even if the battery is disconnected or removed.

British Airways

Due to the potential fire risk associated with lithium batteries, hoverboards and other self-propelled electrically-powered vehicles (e.g. Air Wheels, Solo Wheels, etc.) are completely forbidden.

United Airlines

In the interest of safety for our customers and employees, we do not accept as checked or carry-on baggage any recreational self-propelled vehicle or device designed to carry one or more persons or goods, and which moves by use of a lithium battery-powered electric motor.

TL;DR: you may or may not be able to bring your skateboard on a plane. You could go by train. But are you sure you want to bring the skateboard anyway?

You can’t bring large lithium batteries on planes because they are a fire risk.

Restrictions are based on the battery’s capacity in watt-hours (Wh). To find the capacity of your battery, multiply the capacity in Ah (amp-hours) by the voltage. If the capacity is quoted in mAh (milliamp-hours), divide by 1000 to get Ah.

Anything over 160Wh (watt-hours) is forbidden on passenger planes, period, by international regulations. Lithium batteries can only be put in the hold of a passenger plane if they have capacity up to 100Wh and are installed in a device. Any battery that’s not in a device (the airlines call these “spare batteries”), and any battery of more than 100Wh (up to 160Wh) must be in your hand luggage. Furthermore, you must notify the airline in advace if you intend to bring a lithium battery in the 100–160Wh range (I think there are restrictions on how many can be brought on the plane in total). You’re only allowed two spare batteries in that range.

From cursory research, it seems that typical skateboard batteries are 22V and in the 5000–8000mAh range, which gives a capacity of 110–176Wh. The upper end of that range cannot be brought on planes at all. The lower end can be, but you can only bring two batteries, they must be in your hand luggage and you must inform the airline in advance.

I expect all airlines will require you to put the skateboard itself in your checked baggage. If you can’t remove the batteries, you can’t take it, since they will need to be in your carry-on.

An alternative option might be to travel to Russia by train, but it might take a couple of days. You can certainly get from Paris to Moscow, though you’ll need to search more than I did. Die Bahn is usually excellent for European rail travel but it doesn’t understand that, for a really long journey, stopping somewhere overnight is the right option. For Paris–Moscow, it decides you need to be in Berlin by 9am and the only way to do that is to go via Antwerp, Rotterdam, Utrecht and a bus to Hannover, which is obviously crazy; clearly you’d travel to Berlin the night before, with a single change somewhere in the Rhineland.

Other issues you do or do not raise:

• Bringing the skateboard into Russia is presumably fine, unless you have reason to believe that electric skateboards are illegal there. Customs shouldn’t be concerned with you bringing valuable things into Russia as long as it’s clear that you’ll be taking them with you when you leave. Lots of people travel with much more valuable items, such as laptops and cameras.

• I’d be extremely surprised if you were allowed to bring a skateboard into the stadium with you. Even if you’re allowed to bring them into regular football games in France, the World Cup is Different[TM]. It’s a major sporting event and they’re very restrictive about what can be brought into stadia, for safety and marketing reasons. For example, at the 2006 World Cup, a large number of Dutch fans famously had their shorts confiscated because they were advertising a non-sponsor brand of beer.

• Other answers have already covered whether it will be feasible to use an electric skateboard to get to the matches in Russia, and whether it would be wise to use one around the big screens and so on. Remember that major events such as the World Cup do attract a lot of petty crime – do you really want to have to guard your skateboard while you’re trying to enjoy the game?

There is no ban on electric vehicles like yours in Russia – in the fact there are many people riding segways / hoverboards / EUCs / e.t.c. The only issue is your airlines company which may not allow to carry large Li-Ion battery with you.

I really suggest you to check that before you buy the tickets, otherwise you may not be even able to leave France with your skateboard.

Russian cities are quite crowded, and will be even more so during this event. I strongly suggest you don’t take it there. Not only it won’t speed you up, but you probably will end up recharging it all the time, since places of interest are usually further away from each other, than in smaller countries. Stadiums are mostly on the outskirts of the cities, as well, so subway is the way to go, not electric something.

All airlines by now have disallowed larger Lithium batteries, and that explictly includes skateboards (carry-on as well as luggage).
You will simply find no airline that flies your skateboard to Russia (or anywhere else).

I would not advise to take a 600 € skateboard to something like a football world championship.

First of all, most people coming to the event will walk or take public transport guided by the local authorities. Those will not want you to get out of the big groups and travel on your own, they want everybody to stay with the group of their country.

Secondly, if you are able to get into the stadiums, you will likely not be allowed to take it inside. If you are not going into the stadiums, you will stay outside with all the others to watch the big screens (if there are those) or into pubs/bars and such to watch the smaller screens. And in neither situation can you keep your electric skateboard from getting away from you if someone notices it while you are distracted.

The main reason it might be confiscated while traveling is the batteries, which might be too big for the limits of the plane/airport security. I am not sure how the limits are at this time, nor can I see where you are from and which airports you would use, but I would not take the risk.
There is a small chance on you having to pay customs on bringing it into Russia or even when bringing it back home, but mostly those people will not confiscate, they will have you pay the bill.