antoniob
Sorry for the late reply.
Since then, I went to an MTS shop in the city centre and asked them to register me again, which completed the authentication. Staff are more knowledgeable in shops that are visited by many foreigners.
As it is not a big city like Moscow or St Petersburg, there was almost no waiting time for the procedure.
However due to the system, nothing is reflected in the SIM card field in Gosuslugi 😭 The shop staff said there was no problem. Of course I can still use it.
I speak very little Russian. Fortunately, a Russian friend (who speaks English) came with me and helped me.
Also, the bank staff spoke English. Everything else I used a translation app.
I tried to read out the biometric numbers in Russian, which I had practised, but they said it was hard to distinguish between the two due to poor pronunciation 😂 They said it doesn't have to be in Russian. I was told I could use English or Japanese, so I read them out in my mother tongue, Japanese.
