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Message
re: What is Russia like today?
Posted on 2/19/22 at 9:50 am to sta4ever
Posted on 2/19/22 at 9:50 am to sta4ever
Living in Moscow feels very similar to living in any big U.S. city, minus all of the violent crime.
As far as Putin goes, I don't get a sense of being ruled by a dictator. I feel I have the same freedoms as when I lived in the U.S. The standard of living is lower, but people happily live within their means. However, outside of Moscow is some extreme poverty.
The major difference is the police will profile. I pass as a Russian, so I never had problems, but if you are from a -stan country or Africa, you will probably get stopped in the metro every so often for your papers.
As far as Putin goes, I don't get a sense of being ruled by a dictator. I feel I have the same freedoms as when I lived in the U.S. The standard of living is lower, but people happily live within their means. However, outside of Moscow is some extreme poverty.
The major difference is the police will profile. I pass as a Russian, so I never had problems, but if you are from a -stan country or Africa, you will probably get stopped in the metro every so often for your papers.
This post was edited on 2/19/22 at 10:40 am
Posted on 2/19/22 at 10:19 am to NewGrad1212
quote:Statistics exist for a reason.
The major difference is the police will profile.
Thanks for your answer.
Keep your head down if this shite blows up.
Posted on 2/19/22 at 10:32 am to NewGrad1212
quote:
Living is Moscow feels very similar to living in any big U.S. city, minus all of the violent crime
Perhaps moreso than any other nationality, Russian criminals are often brilliant minds. You saw this to a lesser extent with La Cosa Nostra here in the States, but the Russian gangsters are often engineers or other professional types. Certainly not your average street thug here.
Posted on 2/19/22 at 10:51 am to NewGrad1212
How is economic freedom in Russia as far as taxes, regs, access to capital?
Do you still have to have good connections or can any citizen start a business with the proper motivation and good decisions as long as they can get a loan or investment?
Do you still have to have good connections or can any citizen start a business with the proper motivation and good decisions as long as they can get a loan or investment?
Posted on 2/19/22 at 10:57 am to NewGrad1212
That's a good thing
Posted on 2/19/22 at 10:58 am to NewGrad1212
quote:
Living in Moscow feels very similar to living in any big U.S. city, minus all of the violent crime.
Isn’t that amazing.
And did they have criminal justice reform? No. I’m sure they have very strict laws for violent crime.
But the losers around here will tell you we are too tough on criminals and we have too many people in jail.
Posted on 2/19/22 at 11:40 am to NewGrad1212
quote:
The major difference is the police will profile.
That’s pretty much everywhere outside the US.
Posted on 2/19/22 at 8:02 pm to NewGrad1212
Stray thoughts
Moscow is incredibly clean. There’s no litter, anywhere. People are also very polite, and very generous. I was struck by the way even a shop owner would treat you like a guest in their home.
The food is wonderful.
The police don’t leave their sirens blaring. They turn them on, briefly, to clear traffic. And then shut them down.
You do see a disparity in wealth.
The inner ring of Moscow is a different world from the outer rings, old and beautiful buildings, and so much more money.
The GUM shopping center makes me think of Galleries Lafayette in Paris.
The security presence was muted. I hardly saw anyone around the Kremlin for example. I have a memory of one truck come through the gate, with three soldiers sitting in the back.
Everyone was very relaxed.
When I was there it was election week and I did see a handful special police in riot gear, waiting to fight demonstrators (according to my girlfriend.)
They were standing around a statue of Pushkin, but it was 01:00, and there wasn’t a soul in sight, so either it was overkill, or they expected young men to show up from bars eventually. I didn’t feel any tension though. It was odd.
Moscow is an incredibly safe city. You could feel it.
It’s also beautiful, between the parks, the Moscow river, which winds through the city, and the center ring, with old the old Tsarist era buildings.
When you leave the city, it gets rural very quickly. And it gets much less developed.
There’s a massive concentration of wealth and investment in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The countryside is quite poor.
Corruption also gets worse the further you get from the big cities. One of my friends had a small but successful technology startup in Tatarstan. The mayor of his small town told him, either you sell your company to me, or I’ll take it.
He sold it for a fraction of its value.
His sorry reminded me of what you read in 19th century Russian fiction.
I suspect Russia is probably what it was 300 years ago. With a veneer of modernity applied on top. Society hasn’t changed much though.
-
Russia made me homesick for the America of my childhood. I was struck by the way people reminded me of how we used to be.
One of my mentors in school was an ex Soviet diplomat. I remember that he said once that we were similar.
There are differences though. The Russians have a consideration for other people that we don’t have. I won’t say they’re communal, like the Japanese or Chinese, they’re not, but the respect and recognition of other people is very different.
I was always treated as a person, and that was very important to the Russians who were interacting with me.
Moscow is incredibly clean. There’s no litter, anywhere. People are also very polite, and very generous. I was struck by the way even a shop owner would treat you like a guest in their home.
The food is wonderful.
The police don’t leave their sirens blaring. They turn them on, briefly, to clear traffic. And then shut them down.
You do see a disparity in wealth.
The inner ring of Moscow is a different world from the outer rings, old and beautiful buildings, and so much more money.
The GUM shopping center makes me think of Galleries Lafayette in Paris.
The security presence was muted. I hardly saw anyone around the Kremlin for example. I have a memory of one truck come through the gate, with three soldiers sitting in the back.
Everyone was very relaxed.
When I was there it was election week and I did see a handful special police in riot gear, waiting to fight demonstrators (according to my girlfriend.)
They were standing around a statue of Pushkin, but it was 01:00, and there wasn’t a soul in sight, so either it was overkill, or they expected young men to show up from bars eventually. I didn’t feel any tension though. It was odd.
Moscow is an incredibly safe city. You could feel it.
It’s also beautiful, between the parks, the Moscow river, which winds through the city, and the center ring, with old the old Tsarist era buildings.
When you leave the city, it gets rural very quickly. And it gets much less developed.
There’s a massive concentration of wealth and investment in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The countryside is quite poor.
Corruption also gets worse the further you get from the big cities. One of my friends had a small but successful technology startup in Tatarstan. The mayor of his small town told him, either you sell your company to me, or I’ll take it.
He sold it for a fraction of its value.
His sorry reminded me of what you read in 19th century Russian fiction.
I suspect Russia is probably what it was 300 years ago. With a veneer of modernity applied on top. Society hasn’t changed much though.
-
Russia made me homesick for the America of my childhood. I was struck by the way people reminded me of how we used to be.
One of my mentors in school was an ex Soviet diplomat. I remember that he said once that we were similar.
There are differences though. The Russians have a consideration for other people that we don’t have. I won’t say they’re communal, like the Japanese or Chinese, they’re not, but the respect and recognition of other people is very different.
I was always treated as a person, and that was very important to the Russians who were interacting with me.
This post was edited on 2/20/22 at 5:20 pm
Posted on 2/21/22 at 11:19 pm to NewGrad1212
quote:
The major difference is the police will profile. I pass as a Russian, so I never had problems, but if you are from a -stan country or Africa, you will probably get stopped in the metro every so often for your papers.
How are they towards the lgbtq community?
Seems like same sex households don’t get the same treatment has Hetero.
Nvm seems you answered a bit earlier. I guess there is some pride in Moscow but homosexuality isn’t criminal anymore and that it’s been declassified as a mental illness.
But no protections from discrimination.
This post was edited on 2/21/22 at 11:36 pm
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