US citizens urged to leave Russia Monday morning...
💥Rocky IV Flag?💥
This is supposedly to avoid wrongful detention... but why now all of a sudden? The timing is... strange.
This is supposedly to avoid wrongful detention... but why now all of a sudden? The timing is... strange.
Average Russian take on America and Americans is actually remarkably similar to ours here at GAW: "land of the free, could be a really great place, what evil leaders, wow do some of those people believe their media too much."
On Putin: opinions vary, but pretty much people agree that he's more or less right on most things, and just disagree with specific decisions. I'm not as sure I've got the pulse on this, but it's definitely not widespread negative mood.
Ukraine: everybody has family or friends there, nobody wants war, many are against it, many totally support it as necessary for the survival of Russia. They know it's the deep state—they knew a lot of the stuff BioClandestine has been posting about going into this. Lots of people are shocked and relieved that I as an American am in support.
Living here is really amazing. I have a lot of children and they were so crazy cooped up in the USA. Here they have freedom. Russians look at us like we have three heads when we tell them the kinds of things that trigger CPS calls in America.
Cost of living is much less, but so is income. Lots more ownership of homes.
We are so much freer here we hardly know what to do in some ways.
Ask more questions as you like!
Love the first hand account of life there! Thanks fren!
are there any freedoms we have in america that you don't have in russia?
Guns are more restricted. But people do have them, legally and not. A lot of the differences that might make good answers here are subtle and complex since things just work differently here—we homeschool and it's a bit different, but it does work out OK.
In general there's a bit less, like, theoretical freedom? like Absolute Freedom of Speech isn't beat into everyone's head as some divine precept. But our experience is that there's way, way more actual freedom. (And health freedom made it into the constitution here, unlike in America!) Here, when the authorities are doing something to you, you tend to know it. And they do less stuff to you. Things like cops actually taking the situation into account and having human compassion when there's a violation. When there are extenuating circumstances they relax enforcement like human beings.
There's strong social pressure to do what the group does, that connects somewhat to the soviet years. That is a challenge sometimes. Handy to be the crazy Americans so we have a social excuse to question things. I know there are some people who resent us for that kind of thing, but the culture is very libertarian and people generally let us do what we need to do.
What are the schools there like (their equivalent of K-12)? I am sure that they too do have some liberals trying to indoctrinate the students as I am sure younger Russians coming out of uni to be teachers have been influenced by Western Culture (not all, but some), yes?
Ok, could you maybe start a thread in General.win to keep this discussion/ Q&A going so it wont end up derailing this thread and getting all deleted for being OT?
School is definitely a frontier where the DS types were moving in on Russia. We saw some textbooks from the west that definitely sent the message that the west was the cool place and the hideous movies are the starting point for western culture. It's nothing like American schools but the west was definitely making inroads there. It will be interesting to see what happens on that front now. We homeschooled in the US and homeschool here too—there are some good groups that help our children socialize and get Russian-language coverage of school subjects. Other expats could answer better about what the school experience is like here.
Wow thanQ for your input. My dad visited Russia back in the 70's or 80's (I don't remember when it was actually) when it was still the USSR.
He bought us all Russian stacking dolls. And told us that everyone there had to wait in long lines to buy food or supplies of anything there.
I suppose things have changed much since the USSR
Thanks!! Very interesting! I have so many questions, but no time at the moment. I'll DM you later. Thanks again.
Nooo keep it public, I like reading about this. I’d ask questions to if I could think of anything worth while.
Would Russia be considered a Christian country? Without physical persecution?
As a Russian Orthodox Christian (currently going to a western rite mission church here in ye good ol' USA), I would argue that the view point on "idolatry" as an interpretation of icons in the church is a new-age Christian one (post-schism, definitely, although I'm no historian on exactly when icons were ousted -- with the creation of the protestant church, maybe?).
To be clear: I grew up in a variety of different Christian churches (Lutheran, Episcopalian, etc), and I wasn't sure about the icons within Orthodox churches either, at first. But before dismissing the very idea of icons, there are some truly amazing resources out there to explain the beauty and love involved in icons, iconography, and the veneration of icons. It is not idolatry in any way.
I do agree with the sentiment, however, that many should visit an Orthodox church! Whether OCA, Greek, Antiochian, Russian, western rite or eastern, or a monastery -- we exist in many forms and enjoy visitors immensely! Just don't expect many chairs available to sit in during service...
What in the world are they doing to the baby boys?!
Thank you for sharing. Yeah, definitely something off about that practice. Nothing should be confusing about Christianity. And walking in circles, chanting…yeeeah, that’s not right imo.
What was the process to move to Russia? I've heard that they're pretty strict on immigration. Did you have family or something that made it easier for you to get there?
For most it is extremely difficult to get a visa to travel. They can apply and pay for their application, then wait out their time as long as one year to have their interview. When their day arrives, they might wait for their interview all day only to be denied. The process then begins again, apply, pay, wait and get rejected. This routine can go on for as many as 10 years (10 times) to get a visa. It is also difficult to travel as most cannot afford a vehicle. As many as 7 families will share one vehicle. There is public transportation but the conditions are not pleasant. Some will travel an entire day just to get to their destination. Money is scarce so they usually do not spend on frivilous things. Life is not comfy as the above poster wrote. Their lives are very hard.
No family. It helps that we’re Russian Orthodox and have gone on TV with our story, things like that. At least currently Americans can get a 3-year tourist visa, but residency is not simple.