Biting the bullet and submitting the paperwork for our Russian visas (we are riding East from Uk, via Central Asia and then on to Canada via Vladivostok and Korea starting April 2019).

We'll be entering Russia from Kazakhstan and then again from Mongolia. We had understood we could travel on a double entry business visa - but have since been told by a (seemingly) reputable Visa agent that this might cause problems and they wouldn't be able to process the application for us because we are not 'working' in Russia.

This is the first time I’ve heard/read about this.

Instead, they say we should apply for a 90 day dual entry visa for science culture sports & religion. In order to apply for this visa they say that we would need a telex or letter from the ministry of tourism confirming the purpose of our travel.

Does anyone have any first hand information that might help? In particular whether (i) you had heard of other overlanders using this sort of visa (ii) whether you have any idea who might be able to issue the telex/letter that is required - alternatively, (iii) can anyone confirm that they have used a dual entry business visa for this type of trip (and in particular who you asked to provide your visa support letter in Russia to confirm your details and purpose of travel).

Thanks guys

A business visa is supposedly for business development, it's not actually a work permit. So that part of it doesn't sound right (people have gotten Russian business visas on very slim pretenses for a long time). But the thing about the business multivisa is, you need to first have a used single-entry visa in your passport. You can't really get a business multivisa through the commercial channels without having traveled to Russia on a single visa first.

I'm interested in the replies as well, I'm planning to go on a RTW in a couple years and I'd like to follow more or less the same route as you. (Kazakhstan to Russian Altai to Mongolia To Siberia and Vladivostok).

No, you can actually get 3 months double entry without having been to Russia before.
Then there are sometimes agencies that can get you like 12 months multiple entry the first time. However this is probably not so relevant for you as 3 months double entry seems enough for you.

What you have to know is that you might run into trouble at the border. And it seems to be mostly at the border from Russian Altai into Mongolia, what I heard from others and experienced myself.
Wr got questions about using business visa and we came up with a story about making a documentary. He still said it was wrong, but then we could bend the conversation a little bit as we could blame it on the visa agency that we used (but we did not name them). He was actually mentioning that we should have another visa, something like a cultural visa. Maybe it is the same that you were told.
You could get a fine or be expelled from the country or something like this.
So many people are advising to use a business visa and are doing that, but I just wanted to say it is not risk free.

Unfortunately it looks like UK citizines cannot get another Tourist visa in Ulaambatar. For us this worked quite well being Dutch.

And I don't think it is allowed to have two active visas, like if you would have a transit visa and a tourist visa in your passport.

Greetings from Japan as we did largely the same route. But we used our first double entry visa entering already in West Russia, and then in Altai again. Then we got a tourist visa in Ulaanbataar.

Getting a Transit visa in Ulaanbataar is not very nice to.go to Vladivostok. However we have seen some fast bikers do it.

Not sure how fast you are. You vould also look into double entry 30 days tourist visa if you are really racing it like some bikers do