Voices Of The World (Russia)
For about 80 years, there has been a negative attitude of Russia portrayed in Western media & foreign policy. I am often reminded of the quote by Nietzsche, “Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy’s staying alive“. In some sense, the American economy is designed for an enemy like Russia to remain alive to operate itself–imagine if Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Raytheon and others’ stock fell by 80% due to no enemy to fight. It’s much easier to “lose” a few million here and there when you’re spent hundreds of billions to contain Russia, too.
But what’s the truth of Russia? I have a friend who lives in the beautiful capital of Moscow who speaks to a country that resembles Midwest America, at least back in the day. People don’t wish to ride their bears, drink vodka and blow up buildings; they wish to raise a family, save their money, go on vacation, read poetry and watch films–normal stuff.
For most Westerners, speaking to a Russian is sort of like speaking to a mystical creature. They are told that they are evil and their enemy in all aspects of life but they don’t really know what goes on there; what people are like; what is it all about?
I chat to a Moscow resident named Svetlana. Svetlana is a radiologist physician in training. Who claims to have lots of knowledge from citizens outside of Moscow given the nature her work.
So you’re well attuned to the lives of Europeans and Americans, you’ve met plenty. How would you say people differ?
An ordinary Russian is not much different from an ordinary American/Mexican/Canadian. We strive for the same goals and celebrate the same events. We do not have a common heritage, history or language–but our everyday is pretty much the same. Well, I am not so sure anymore with what life is like in America today–it reminds me of the Soviet Union.
I have read many correlations between the society of the Soviet Union and what’s now the United States. I’m sure those in the European Union can also highlight the similarities with the Soviet Union as well. Despite this, does the average citizen in Moscow want to learn English? You could travel easier with English or perhaps receive English-speakers to Russia.
If we take the generations after the collapse of the USSR, then almost everyone knows English to one degree or another. English is studied at school. Of course, if you don’t want to study it, then you will know English at A1 level, but now a lot of young people know English. The only problem is the lack of practice, they will understand you, but they will not answer
Thats funny you say that because in my experience they may just stare at you and not reply.
Haha, that’s right, I’m like, “OK, it’s better to let them think I’m a bitch and walk past them without even looking at me than to realize that I’m illiterate
This is one of the two features that will confuse tourists in Russia. The second is the expression on the face of the Russians 🗿
Yes you’ve mentioned the Russian face—where Russians only smile when they mean it and they like you. They’re very conservative with their usage of the smile—like British with hugs, I suppose. Is that more of a Moscow thing however, or country-wide?
Compared to Europeans and Americans, Russians don’t smile at all. In our country, smiling is not part of politeness. On the other hand, it’s nice to know that people who smile at you are sincerely glad to see you. We save our smiles!
Do most Russians want to meet foreigners? Travel to Europe? United States? Would you say that Russians “hate” Americans and if so, how do they show it?
A lot of Russians travel around Europe, but most often they choose Turkey or Egypt. Of course, there is propaganda in Russia as well as in America, so a certain category of people blames America for all the troubles. Of course, ordinary Russians don’t hate America, that’s nonsense. Many would like to have a good chat with Americans
Do Russians and Americans have many similarities?
Yes of course, being both large countries with exports we have a similar outlook. Like the Americans, the Russians are not averse to making fun of our propaganda.
Speaking of similarity
You’ve also mentioned that it would be a good idea, regardless of ones passport to buy land in Siberia—stating that there is a tremendous amount of land available, the temperatures are not terribly cold everywhere and that there many be a whole lot of resources on your property.
“A foreign national can buy an apartment, a country house, a garage, and even land (for private housing or private subsidiary farming) except in border areas, regions with special regimes, forests, nature reserves, and closed administrative areas”
Just the other day, I was looking for information on this topic (and yes, foreigners without Russian citizenship can buy land), I came across an interesting article in the construction of an “American village” in the Moscow region
The project involves the creation of a small settlement in the Serpukhov area for Americans and Canadians who want to move to Russia because they want to raise children in traditional values. I really hope the guy is successful!
Americans have no real idea how far their dollars can go here… They will be very comfortable.
That sounds really interesting! I’ll explore it further.
When I was in Georgia I saw scores of Russians moving in there, the same went for Serbia and Montenegro. I spoke to a Turkish immigration lawyer who said that the laws have changed because so many Russians had shown up. Have you witnessed many leave to escape the military draft? What was that like?
Yes of course many people left, but we have a big army anyway. They went to Turkey or Egypt on “extended holiday”. Some arranged deals with traumatologists to state that their leg was broken in 6 places and could not support weight for years and years, of course, nobody needs your broken leg, you need a DOCUMENT that you have it broken. The Wild Wild East!
Sanctions
How have (or has) the sanctions against Russia impacted life there?
To be honest, it hardly has at all. We can still receive courier services to Russia, businesses just rebranded with similar logos or they’ve moved to Kazakhstan legally. We have to go to Turkey now first if we want to fly anywhere, that’s a change. We still ship all our commodities around the world, we haven’t received more money for them but the Europeans have ended up paying more. Nobody around me (& I am in the capital) is phased. Even people I speak to who come into the city from rural Russia, their life hasn’t changed much. I suppose the ruble lost some strength but economically we are growing, far more than any European country & there’s jobs for people.
I will say…it was a blessing for Russia that Trump won in 2016, Russia was simply not ready for this war, we would have lost 100%. Trump put the conflict on pause and Putin managed to prepare everywhere. That is why Russia is now the least affected by sanctions (the Russian elite does not count)
Now wait for the Biden supporters to call Trump a Russian agent…
The numbers of dead Ukrainians far out-number the number of dead Russians…Do you think the fact that Ukraine sold themselves out for Western money that they’ll never be the same? I’ve just covered that they were cheering upon the crashing of the POW plane. Do you think that they’ll just be anti Russia in the future??
I’m afraid you just don’t fully understand the situation: Western Ukraine has always been against Russia, it has never welcomed Russians there…the fact that they treat even eastern Ukrainians terribly is a fact. I went to medical school with a girl, she was born and raised in Ukraine and moved to Moscow in high school. When she was returning to her relatives, she was intentionally sent in the wrong direction by the station staff when she was late for the train. To the question: why did you do this, she was told – we don’t talk to Muscovites
East Ukraine, they’re more Pro Russian (as you can see from the territory Russia has acquired), where exactly is the border that constitutes East/West?
Ha, where it always has been! Fighting has been ongoing since 2014, I know this is not a reality in Western media but it is for the soldiers on the ground here. The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 with low-level fighting between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists who seized some towns in predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine. In terms of the divide, it’s easy for me to direct your audience to maps of Ukraine when asked the question “Do you identify as Russian?” or, you can search the voting results of the 2004 and the 2010 Ukrainian election. You can also see the majority of language spoken by East Ukraine is Russian whereas the West speaks Ukrainian.
If I may, the West can be ironic about this as much as it likes, but no one has declared war on anyone, neither Russia nor Ukraine. It’s been deemed a “special military operation” and nobody has challenged that to deem it a war. It’s a perfect situation for the West to play politics.
If I single in on Crimea for example. Crimeans are ethnically Russian, not Ukrainian. While Crimea has been changing hands between regional powers for centuries, for most of the last 200 or so years it has been part of Russia. The fact that everyone (in the world) expected Russia ownership when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 tells you a lot.
War
Yes, so I was going to ask about that because what has become obvious was the continual shipments of fuel, oil, gas, food, steel, everything from Russia THROUGH Ukraine, in fact it set all-time highs. All while we are in this amazingly huge war. Russia never killed the power grid (which is what you do in a war), there were people in Kiev partying during the whole thing and Europe continued to receive Russian goods via Ukraine. So, how much of this is politics and how much is it war?
Yes, not only gas is still supplied through Ukraine, but also oil with ammonia. So far, the shadow business has been operating and will continue to operate: Russian gasoline is imported into Ukraine, some banks are operating (they were renamed, of course), the “war” was created only for commoners who will go to kill and die for other people’s money, this has always been and will be
Russia and Ukraine already had negotiations. Initially, Russia was not going to take away a single centimeter of Ukrainian land–there was an agreement only on Ukraine’s accession to NATO. The leader of Zelensky’s party explained in a recent interview (which probably went missed because it was in Russian) why these plans were abandoned. It turns out that Boris Johnson urged them to continue fighting and not sign a treaty with Russia. Johnson’s logic is clear – it is beneficial for the West to weaken Russia.
And you say this hasn’t happened?
Things have changed certainly. It’s evolving. But for everyday life here, Nope. As I mentioned, Russia was prepared for this [expansion of NATO]. Even the people who don’t like President Putin here, they acknowledge that he is two steps ahead of other world leaders. This whole thing is simply politics & money. I think your average local knows this whereas a Westerner thinks its impending doom of the planet. I’m afraid I have to tell them they are going to have to wait for the doom they crave
Any thoughts on what’s next?
Obviously, everyone is already tired of this shit and now we just need to get out of it and declare that they [West] are the winners. Who actually achieved their goals- I think your readers know.
Europe and America now need to somehow create this victory for their people – and as you can already see, they are actively preparing the ground for their “victory”. You recently said that some people really believe that Putin is going to fight with the whole of Europe (with NATO, with the West, with the whole world, with the whole galaxy) Ukrainians have already done this thing to their people, launching fake Russian plans to seize Ukraine in 3 days (by the way, it was originally a meme joke but it was told as truth)
You watch, they will say in the media headlines “A miracle! We were able to defeat Putin, the face of universal evil. We stopped these villains in Ukraine by sacrificing just a part of it! Those Russian losers, we are the best again!
Okay that’s all very interesting, we will definitely watch out for that declaration by the West and I hope we can check in for another interview in the near future! Thank you very much for your time, Svetlana!
Anytime! Hopefully our American village will have more support by then. Большое спасибо! (Thank you very much!)
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