Fun with Sibir

We decided to fly to Novosibirsk for New Year celebrations, so I found myself looking for flights online. Normally I just fly Aeroflot, 'cos they're usually on time and have good planes, service, etc. Except this time they were very expensive, so I was forced to look for other options. Alas I found reasonably priced tickets with Sibir (S7). They had an on-line special on their very new and swish website with very good flight times, so I decided to book with them. As I was putting in my credit card details and clicking 'pay', a red message came up which said something along the lines of "You transaction could not be processed, please call our service centre... ". So I called the Moscow service centre and got told that since I'm trying to pay for tickets with an overseas credit card they need me to fill out a couple of forms, which will be sent to my email address shortly. Fine, I thought - not that I have a choice in the matter it seems... and it doesn't sound too difficult anyway. A couple of hours later an email came, where I was asked to scan and email the front and back of my credit card along with my passport and also fill in and sign an attached document, which said the following "I (name) wish to purchase (ticket details) with credit card (credit card details). By signing this document I hereby declare that I will not hold Sibir Airlines liable for any unauthorised transactions, should they occur." Hmmm... that was a bit too much for me, so we are now flying Ural Airlines instead (which, although having a pretty basic website, didn't have problems processing my German credit card in real time). I am still baffled by this type of service, even though it doesn't surprise me coming from Russia :)