Russia: In Russians I instill fear

I'm actually rather proud of this one feat. And I'll tell you why:

As a black person, I tend to stand out in the Russian environment. Of course, all that's changing more and more, so now when they see me they're like "eh, just some other dude." Thanks to my glasses though, I don't get beat up because I'm "just some other SMART dude." That is, I am seen as separate from my Central Asian counterparts (native Kazakhs, Tadjiks, and Kyrgyzs have confused me for one of their own).

So, here's the back story. After class I went to the gym, changed into my gym clothes, went out, and had to put money on my phone. I walk into this random store and say

Me: Do you put money on phones?

Girl behind counter: Um, yeah.

Me: Can you put 200 rubles on my phone?

Girl: Whoa! Just not that much!
Me: What?

Guy talking to girl: Oh, it's a joke. Joke? It's a local joke.

Me: Oh, I'm not local so I wouldn't get it.

Guy: Oh really? Where you from?

Me: US

Guy: Oh? Which part?

Me: Miami.

Guy: Oh, you know I have a friend that's doing work and travel there right now.

Girl: Oh that's cool. But what are your roots? You don't look American.

Me: I'm Colombian.

Guy: Oh... um... your Russian's really good, how long have you been studying Russian?

Me: ... a long time.

Guy: Can I shake your hand?

Me: uh... sure?

*shakes hand*

Me: What was that for?

Guy: Well, now that you shook my hand it means you respect me. And you can't kill someone when you respect them.

Apparently, they saw me come into the store swole (?) from the gym in my gym clothes asking gruffly about cellphone service in good Russian and once they found out I was Colombian. Well, you do the math. Built gruffy Colombian + really good Russian = ?

It's so nice to know that this is how people respect me in this country :)