A woman from Kazan contacted me on 12-1-2013 with a nice seductive and induced letter. We corresponded for several weeks with love letters. she even called me on the phone. IEventually it got to the money issue. I requested copies of identification. she never sent any. I then contacted a flower delivery service to deliver flower to an address she gave. I asked to verify recipient and to send me a photo of her. The delivery service went 2-3 times but could not locate the address she gave me. I snet a postal letter and asked her to let me know when she got it. I told her there was some money inside it. She never replied as to receiving it. It contained a $1.00 bill as a test. She kept writing me that we should marry but she neede money for Visa and application of $500.00. I told her it is impossible to get a tourist visa. She said she has connections in the embassy. I let her know that she needed to fund for her own Visa. I would assist her with airfare after she got the Visa and sent me a copy for verification with USA embassy. No documents ever received. In her last communication she told me she would not write me anymore unless I sent her money. No money sent.
It is not completely impossible for someone from the FSU area to get a US tourist visa. But the immigration laws treat all potential visitors as persons who have no intent to return back to their native country unless there are strong ties to their native country present that would "force" the person to return home. Strong ties include owning a local business, job, houses, financial assets, relatives. Note that there is a visa waiver program for many residents of certain foreign countries (such as UK, France, Germany, Sweden) that can get a visa without going through the entire application process. The FSU region is not among them.