Long distance hiking in Russia. Is it possible with a visa?

In fact, hiking in Russia is absolutely legal. There are not so many forbidden territories. Usually this is a 5 kilometer zone from the state border. One needs to have permission from the border service to visit it. In addition, there are a lot of protected natural areas or reserves. A special permit is required to visit them, but i think it is typical for any country. There are a couple dozen of closed strategic cities (usually it is a small towns with nuclear facilities), entry there also requires permission. The fears about the increased attention of the authorities to foreigners is an exaggeration. There are several foreigners working in our laboratory and they have never been stopped by the police with any questions over all the years of work. The greatest danger in Russia is natural factors. The vast territory and remoteness of most routes often do not allow tourists to be evacuated quickly in case of any trouble. In addition, the number of brown bears has increased dramatically in Siberia over the past decade. Bear attacks on humans occur annually. It is difficult to advise anything in case of a meeting with a bear… In any case it is a good practice to have a satellite phone with you on the route. In addition, it is necessary to notify the rescue service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations about your journey plans and route schedule.

In the summer, when fires are raging in the Siberian taiga, the authorities may impose restrictions on visiting forests. At this time it is better to refrain from hiking and especially not to make bonfires. There have been cases when hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest were burned out in the taiga due to the carelessness of tourists.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that crime rate in Russia has been continuously decreasing for the last 15 years. Now even the republics of the North Caucasus have become safe for tourists. For example, Chechnya is one of the safest regions of the country, where crime has decreased many times, and gangs of Islamic militants disappeared a long time ago. Last year I visited the mountainous regions of Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan and Chechnya and did not encounter even the slightest hint of danger. However, there are territories where you can run into trouble. For example, this is the Republic of Tuva. There are some regional features that should be studied before going there.

Hiking by foot is generally allowed unless you are in restricted areas (there are many of them, most are close to borders or to military bases, but it is hard to say exactly without knowing where your destination is).
And you will need to register at the accomodation upon arrival (the most easy way is to stay at a hotel for some time).

But if you are really planning this trip these days please be ready to elevated attention to your personality from "government-related" officials like police, border guards, FSB, etc. As you may know, Finland is officially included by Russia into the list of "unfriendly countries" so a visitor which is from one of them is by default subject to additional checks / whatever. It is especially true if you are traveling into more remote areas where you can be the only visitor from the West and therefore you can draw additional attention by the local police / intelligence officers, and the consequences could be unpredictable.

I would recommend you to watch the video of Real Bald and Bankrupt (the traveler called Ben from England who speaks Russian) on Youtube where he showed how he was detained in Birobidzhan (Far East of Russia) by the police. He also wrote some details on Instagram about his detainment and how he has managed to escape the jail but I can’t find it at the moment.

On the contrary, the vast majority of ordinary people in Russia do not care that much about you being from abroad / from "unfriendly" country and I wouldn’t expect that anyone would report something to the police. It is not usual for Russians to report something to the authorities because the common trust in authorities (especially in its low-level parts like local police offices) is traditionally low since the Soviet times.
Also usual people are generally friendly to foreigners, especially in more remote / rural areas. You can also see it in Ben’s videos.

Hiking in general is legal in Russia, even on a tourist visa. However, the biggest obstacle is the requirement to register yourself at a place of accomodation. If you’re staying in the wilderness, there’s no one to register you. The Russian laws regarding foreigner registration are difficult to understand, often confusing, and there is a lot of conflicting advice to be found in the internet. As always in case of Russia, there could be a big difference between a written law and an actual practice.

I’m no expert on Russia, but I would advise spending a night in a hotel in the beginning of your trip, getting automatically registered. When checked by the police a month later and hundreds of kilometers away, having some registration will be much better than having no registration at all. The same applies to leaving Russia, because Russia is known to detain foreigners who committed any immigration-related violations, even very minor ones and even when attempting to leave the country voluntarily. Not being registered is such an offence.

That being said, given the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fact that Westerners are now subjects to increased attention from the Russian authorities, I would advise you to reconsider your plans to visit Russia. I’m not suggesting the entire Russia is a hostile war zone, but in case you do anything that can be remotely considered an attempt at espionage (such as straying too close to a resticted area – there are many of them in the Russian wilderness, sometimes entire towns!), you could end up in way too big trouble.