People making huge life changing decisions for themselves and their children based on no actual research. These are some of the dumbest people in the world. I feel bad for their children.
People aren't born with beliefs in their head and beliefs aren't set in stone, so you're absolutely correct. These people choose to be the way they are. Instead of learning something new and maybe being slightly uncomfortable before working through what it means and how it really impacts them, they will instead try to reinforce their ignorance and gravitate towards anything that tells them their ignorance is actually better than knowing/changing/growing.
Islamic extremism, and Evangelical extremism, are very, very similar. If it weren't for their hatred of each other based on both of their faiths being absolutist they would be perfect allies for each other.
Authoritarian, misogynistic, hateful of LGBTQ+, demanding of special privileges and powers based on their faith, primacy in society.... hell, the only place they differ is on booze and food.
“Well, now that I’ve watched enough Momtok to fully understand the medical implications of vaccines, I guess I’ll move onto some manosphere YouTube videos to get a solid handle on the geopolitical consequences of moving to a foreign country”.
They are big on traditional family values, you know, hating lgbtq, racism, beating your wife and children, pretending to be a good christian but never go to church, and alcoholism!
Finally, a place where I can be a horrific human being and not be ostracized or looked down upon... AND I don't have to improve myself or my behavior? Paradise.
That’s why trump’s comments on Rob Reiners death made conservatives mad. He held up a mirror they couldn’t ignore. Even if it were only for an hour or a minute. The complete reversal of attitude from Charlie Kirk’s death to Reiner’s was juxtaposed with how they see themselves.
The transactional nature of affection/decency/attitude could not be ignored. Trump acted on full display the way they pretend “the left” acts.
Hate to break it to you but the vast majority of conservatives don't even care enough about Trump's Reiner comments to read the statement. It doesn't matter to them. You're only referring to cherry-picked reactions from a very tiny minority of MAGA supporters.
Yeah, but they don't have to deal with pink hair degenerates that they might see on their yearly trip to the "big city" like Ft Dodge Iowa ,(pop 25,000).
About 6 years ago we were looking at going travelling and Russia was high on our list as a good land trip. We were thinking Europe, Russia, caucasus countries.
Anyway, turns out Russia actually make it hard to visit. The visa process was more than what we could do with our planning time. So we flew to Baku instead, and travelled overland backwards through the caucasus countries, Turkey and Europe.
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia were super interesting. It was crazy being kind of out of the anglosphere where English really wasn't common as all tourism was focused towards Russia as the local economic giant.
But still, Azerbaijanians (very pro Iran) hated Russia. Georgians (quite pro Russia) hated Russia and Russians. Armenians (almost a Russian vessel state) loved Russia, but like, but were visibly more deprived. They had a good reason to be pro Russia, from what I was told it was the only country that really supported them against Azerbaijan and Turkey and that whole genocide, but even that (I understand) was so that Armenia could be propped up as a continual thorn to Russia's other local enemies.
Really interesting geopolitical stuff going on, especially when you're just from a little island who simply conquered other countries a long way away and then ignored its own atrocities.
But I didn't come away from it thinking "wow, there really is a false western narrative about Russia" and honestly I was probably looking for one and would've loved to "uncover" such a conspiracy.
I did meet an ex-Morman American on a tour in Georgia though who was seeking to get into Russia. The only positive Russian stuff I heard was from him.
Dude, I would not go into Russia right now even if it was easy. You did the right thing visiting Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Much much better places to go.
You came from Russia and live in the US. I'd like your view of the differences or some of the cultural issues maybe? Just if you're up for it - I think your point of view is probably interesting and helpful for people to understand.
Oh, hah, that could be a whole essay probably. Here are a few anecdotes from the last time I was in Russia, which was ~15 years ago.
- Moscow has official cabs, but nobody uses them. Everyone just waves down a gypsy cab, which is often an old Lada. Anyway, my friend and I are sitting in one, chatting, while being driven to wherever we were going. Both of us were born in Moscow, speak Russian fluently with no accent, but by that point have been in the US for 20 years and consider ourselves Americans. Still, while in Russia, it's best to pretend to be a local. The driver looks at us through this rearview mirror and says, "You're not from here. Where are you from?" We're surprised, "What do you mean, we're from here." And we start naming the neighborhoods and streets where we lived as kids. He's not buying it. So I ask him how he can tell we're not local. He says, "You're always smiling. Even when not joking, when discussing something serious, you have a smile. People here don't smile like that."
- Before arriving in Moscow, we traveled a bit to other countries. Somewhere along the way I got a cut on my arm and developed a small infection. While in Moscow it started to really hurt. The family I was staying with took me to a nearby neighborhood hospital/clinic, and told me to bring US cash. We get to this clinic, and holly shit the line is around the corner just to get in. They're checking passports at the front door. We skip the line and go right up to the person at the front door. My cousin takes one of my $100 bills, gives it to the person, and just says I need to be seen immediately. I am taken into a small room right away. A doctor comes in within 20 minutes, and my cousin gives the him $300 cash. I show and explain the cut, the suspected infection, etc. He brings in an ultrasound machine on a cart, confirms the infection, writes me a script for antibiotics, and away we go. $400 of bribes for essentially VIP treatment.
- Some of the main ring roads have a center-lane that is for turning only, as you commonly see all over. But when traffic is bad, people take over that center lane and use as a travel lane in whichever direction traffic is heaviest. I was in a car with another friend that still lives in Moscow, in heavy traffic on one of those ring roads, and we were driving in that turn-only lane. My friend is wealthy, and was driving a somewhat new Land Cruiser with tinted windows. It's not an insane sign of wealth, but it's definitely a sign that you are not poor so the only question is how rich you are (there is no real middle class). There is a cop up ahead, standing by his car in that turn-only lane and one-by-one each car traveling in the turn-only lane slows down, opens the window, gives him a bit of cash, and keeps driving. My friend curses, then opens his glovebox, and he has a pretty huge stack of cash (Rubles) that he says is for just such an occasion. He rolls down his window just a bit, sticks out ~5 bills that the cop takes, and we keep driving. Not a word was spoken between the cop and my friend. He explains to me that he had to give a bit more because he's in a nice car, whereas an old Lada could have gotten away paying much less. Bribes are so common that you have a stack of bribe cash conveniently in your glovebox, and cops take them like they're collecting tolls.
Taking a step back, Russians have gone through many traumas over generations. There were famines, bank runs and currency devaluations, wars, pogroms, etc. All the while, corruption was always rampant and simply part of the culture. This results in a society where everyone strongly believes they're in it alone and they have to look out for themselves first and foremost. The whole Soviet "greater good" socialist mentality is gone, and I would argue was always just a ruse. In general, everyone is very selfish and there is not a lot of empathy left to go around.
In times of stability, it can be fine. But in times in instability, it's just a dangerous place to be. Outside of the big cities, someone could stab you to death just because they're an angry alcoholic and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they can probably get away with it for a shockingly low amount of money bribed to the right people. In the big cities, it might be a bit harder but most likely it would just take a slightly larger bribe. Either way, you're dead and just one of those tourists that mysteriously disappeared in Russia.
Also, I have a fear of being the next Brittney Griner. Russia is desperate, and they are obviously not above jailing a random US tourist on made-up charges in hopes of doing a favorable prisoner exchange or getting some sanctions relief. I wouldn't say it is likely, but the risk materially high enough that it is not even close to worth it in my view.
It is interesting to me how Trump is bringing bribery as common practise to the States. He threatens the FCC licenses of networks and then they make contributions to him. If you have a million dollars you buy a gold card and get citizenship. We already dont have health care so privatized health care is essentially elaborate bribery. The States has mercenary DNA.
I love your story about the taxi driver seeing your “tell”. Smiling more is an unconscious cultural thing. Good to know.
Thanks. That cab ride is so memorable to me for that reason; I was completely taken aback. He was absolutely right.
Regarding bribes, for what it's worth, I think the US was already a fairly bribe-friendly culture. Tipping is rampant, which is basically out-in-the-open small bribes. It's a well-known and studied correlation between tipping culture and corruption in society. https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/are-you-paying-a-tip-or-a-bribe // https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42611 There is other history here: Payolla, ABSCAM, organized crime, etc. I love the US, but on the spectrum of corruption, it is closer to Russian than Denmark. I don't know where the line us, but I know in general the US just hasn't crossed it whereas Russia crossed it long ago.
Thanks for sharing! I think it's really important to understand each other, and this is some great insight! In my mind, it's the absolute best part of what sites like Reddit can be.
Would encourage you to watch some of the videos by Dr. Sarah Paine on youtube. I don't think the narrative is false at all, just a little more nuanced. Because Russia has always seen itself as a continental power, they continually want to destabilize their neighbors. That means propping up little states like Armenia, but also keeping states like Georgia and Azerbaijan down so they don't get any big ideas. If any of the countries in their orbit does get big ideas, Russia invades them. They've been doing this since the Tsars and now they are trying to do it to Ukraine because it refused to be a vassal.
I have good news for you, there are several hours of her lectures up. In a fucked up way, her description of Russian history made me not feel so bad about the current predicament in the US. This is just what they do and the way to beat them is pure economics.
I was following a dutch youtuber who was doing some travels on his motorbike through Australia and he had an accident on one track and things went sour so he went home. Months later he surfaces with a new video saying he was going to Russia.... I called him a fool and unsubbed.
There's Zoef on the move, also dutch, who did the winter camping up to North Cape last winter, in a VW Up... He's now in Russia, headed towards Siberia.
I travelled to Azerbaijan about 12-13 years ago to visit friends working in Baku, We did a weekend camping thing way way out in the countryside and to this day I describe it as the most remote, isolated feeling I have ever had. Beautiful country and completely isolated from the outside world..or at least it felt that way.
Also, loved the fresh bread at the bakeries on the way.
I crossed russia for fun 20 years ago. I loved the experience but im not in a rush to go back. It is a hard country with some lovely people but certainly not for the faint hearted.
Armenian loves Russians, not Russia. The Russian government, as a matter of fact, supported Azerbaijan in the war in 2020. Just imagine your country is in a defence alliance with Russia, and is supposed to defend you when a war starts. Still, in reality, Russia cuts weapon supply for you and sells weapons to the country that is attacking you. That's what Putin did.
I mean it provides them all the things they seem to like.
You're allowed to say all manner of slurs and discriminate against LGBTQ, you can experience the wonders of being crushed by a kleptocratic autocracy in which a number of oligarchs you'll never meet (and who only answer to said autocrat) largely decide your fate, you get to have no right to healthcare, you get to enjoy being thrown into a glorified military meat grinder.
Why don't they just go there instead of trying to turn the US into it!
Because what they really want is national socialism, IE, a system that actually has social benefits but only grants them to members of the master race.
But they don't want it for everyone, just themselves. What they want is pure capitalism, but they are Elon Musk or Bill Gates. They want them to be the exception. No one else gets bailouts but them. No one else can have abortions but them. No one gets protected by FEMA but them. No one gets healthcare but them.
Tomorrow if the whole country was just straight white MAGA, and a hurricane hit NJ, Texas would still say "f**k them" and vote against aid to NJ.
During trumps first term, there was a farm subsidy for minority farm owners. A grant or something they could apply for. The right wing cult saw that “black farmers are getting money” as a bad thing while the white farmers get millions in subsidies.
Agreed. Notice that farmers voted for farm relief subsidies. Maga are also expecting doge money and tariff money. Other forms of help to others like snap and healthcare they're against, but not for them.
I wish more Russians did this, too. Specifically, those in Europe. It takes a special kind of stupid to live somewhere like Germany, constantly complain about the state of the EU, and profess your love for the mad dictator in Russia. Like, move there and enjoy yourself if you love it so much.
That's wild. Every Russian that I meet in the US absolutely hates Putin. I guess it takes more effort to get to the US from Russian than it does to get to western Europe.
I’m American. We have a Russian guy at work who was a massive Putin lover. Just wouldn’t shut the fuck up about him.
Any time somebody would bring him up he’d rage about how terrible the other world leaders are, how Putin saved Russia and made them strong again, etc.
During the Ukraine war, one of our divisions, which was based on Ukraine, moved some their staff out of Ukraine and into other places if they wanted. Three of them came to the US office.
Mr. Russia has, surprisingly, had the courtesy to not say shit about Putin in a couple years. He’s even shown the guys where they can buy food they like, hiking spots, other stuff to do on weekends. I wouldn’t say they are friends but Mr. Russia is being surprisingly civil for a guy who spent the last decade or so licking Putin’s boots.
His „super cheap” week’s worth of food was 9481 rubles. The median monthly salary in Russia at the time was around 50k rubles, so basically a week’s grocery shopping was nearly 20% of the median person’s pre-tax salary. In purchasing power terms that is as if a weekly shop in US cost $850 at median salary of $51k a year.
Yes, the three worlds classification was a Cold War grouping of nations based on alliance.
More accurately, it was...
1st world: NATO-aligned or friendly (the Western Bloc)
2nd world: Warsaw Pact-aligned or friendly (the Eastern Bloc)
3rd world: Unaligned (the Non-Aligned Movement)
The association with economic prosperity was a byproduct, and not the purpose of, the classification system. This is why, when you look at which nations were included in each category, they did not all uniformly fit into the same level of economic development; South Africa, Brazil, Iran, and Thailand were all part of the 1st World, but none of them are highly developed economies.
This is also why we now use Developed, Developing, and Least Developed Countries. Once the Cold War ended, the three-world system no longer served its primary purpose.
It is a 3rd world country in a lot of ways. I think it was McCain that once described Russia as a gas station with nukes and that’s a pretty accurate description. It’s no super power, it hasn’t been in decades. And even when they were they were only militarily. Stuff like indoor plumbing? Forget about if you don’t live in the big cities.
It’s also hilarious because he basically went to a Russian Auchan that, although currently was being operated fully by Russian management due to sanctions, basically does everything the way Auchan in EU does, so really he was just shilling EU ideas unknowingly.
Definitely communism. In a capitalist system, you'd have to buy the trolley and throw it away when you're finished shopping. Then a business can come, collect the discarded trolleys, destroy them, recover the material, ship it to China, have a new trolley made and ship that back to America for another single use shopping trip!
funny thing is the dude wasn't actually an engineer, so it makes the whole thing even dumber. dude thought he'd just waltz right into the cushiest assignment without any real training or experience by virtue of being an American. it's hard to feel sympathy for these people.
“Let’s just give this random guy from an enemy nation, defecting for no discernible reason, a high-level assignment with plenty of access to sensitive information.”
That other murican that joined their army was horrifically tortured and raped before they finally mercy killed him. These mfers signing up to join the russian army are just signing their own horrific death warrants.
Imagine living in the states an deciding youre going to pack your family up and go join the russian army in their attack on Ukrain, regardless of the capacity in which you intend to serve.
Yep it was surprisingly good. The presenter just needs to lay of the video filter / makeup, theres some very uncanny smoothness going on with his face, which is offputting for someone covering a topic that's such a hotbed of misinformation.
I can't even imagine the level of brain rot you must have in order to move your family of five to Russia during a war and then think that the terms of whatever government contract you signed would be upheld 😳 uh yeah dude you're going to the meat grinder. There's a reason that the State department has a highest level 4 "do not travel" warning against Russia.
Thank goodness for subtitles because the Swiss German accent ist ganz schwer. Oh my... I'm 15 minutes in and just *astounded* at how delusional they both are.
Exactly this. The headline for this video dos a disservice the actual video. It’s more of an overall update on what’s going on over there; it just starts with the morons who decided to move.
As an aside, you know we are deep trouble when Russian news is more accurate and truthful about their economic reality than what the WH is trying to spin about the US economy.
The guy from the US wasn’t too far into the war. Granted, anything after the initial push probably felt like an eternity for the folks who planned a lightning offensive that was supposed to take days.
Either way, beyond the obvious “haw haw” of the headline, and to the “Russia is starting to show cracks” of the video…it’s interesting that a foreigner from a western country, who reportedly had a useful skill, was immediately turned to the front and ground up.
Not saying that westerners’ have inherently more value. Pragmatically though, guys like that are a clear asset in terms of information operations. The value you’d get from him posting about how awesome his life is in Russia as a former westerner outweighs his value as a rifle on the front several fold. Especially in the earlier months.
When you consider how much time and effort Russia has put into sewing discord in the US, and how successful it’s been, it’s somewhat confusing that they fumbled this hard. Not a brilliant take, but hear me out. Makes me think that the machine isn’t quite so wired tight and there’s a huge disconnect between grand strategists and recruitment pipelines.
it’s interesting that a foreigner from a western country, who reportedly had a useful skill, was immediately turned to the front and ground up.
Because the people who need skilled workers and the people who decide where people have to go are different people, and it's not something unique to Russia. Once an organization gets large enough, individual talent is imperceptible through the churning of the machine.
Weird on Russia to miss that much of a propaganda piece like you say, but I guess given just how many ops they run in this space it's hard to keep track. I do wonder how exhausting it all is for the Russians to maintain the narrative / be constantly on the moral low ground. Maybe the psyches are so different to ours it's not difficult at all... Think Stanford prison experiment, at scale for several generations.
Russia has been the most corrupt, most genocidal, and most purged country amongst significant powers for centuries with brief respites of anarchy between revolutions into a new tzar. There is a deliberate ‘fu$& it all’ attitude that develops where you are sh&$ upon so much that anybody you can wreck who lacks protection from the elites gets to be robbed or even to be another body in a ditch. Bucha perps got medals specifically to rub it in to the world that this Russian government is committed top to bottom to the usual genocidal ways they have had for centuries. It is visibly hard for people in decent countries to comprehend that. Witness the many Euro leaders and even US presidents saying Putin changed. The hell he ever did. “Decent people shouldn’t come here, they’d be happier somewheres else” as Jack’s 1989 Joker said. Turns out even morons and traitors would be happier elsewhere. I was a Russian history major btw. The other operative quote of Russia was “and then it got worse.”
I love the ridiculousness of it all. What do you hate most of all? Immigrants. What do you do? Uh... become somebody else's immigrant, and have the same set of balls when you get there that immigrants do when they come to your country by requesting, expecting, or demanding frankly anything at all from the folks whose home you just moved into.
Valuable learning experience. Feel exactly what immigrants in your country feel by being put through the same shit that you put them through.
Fucking does my head in when people in leftist spaces start propping up Russia as this beacon of anti-imperialism when in reality it is this a hyper capitalist, fascist and extremely right-wing country.
There is a dude in my electrician class that is obsessed with Russia and says he wants to move there. He's got to be the biggest dunce in the class. He's always late and fails assignments and labs left and right. At this point I just assume he has a crayon lodged in his brain from childhood.
I've seen these types of people who are fresh in east orthodox christianity, which has became a trend among young conservative American men (aka "orthobros"). A lot them prefer the Russian Orthodox Church over the Greek because of its "masculine" leaning aesthetics, so of course its influenced them to see Russia with rose colored glasses. They parrot the same rhetoric that the huffman family said about wanting to escape liberal america to paradise traditional white Russia. But now that I know there's a Russian Shared Values visa for people like them I'll pass forward to them lol
"... If you're sick of seeing people with pink hair walking through the streets..."
I love that he phrases it like this. It points out that all of these people moving haven't ever truly experienced a worse life than one in Russia to make them need to move there. They've simply seen people with dyed hair in public and promptly lost their shit over it.
I walk around in public with unnaturally dyed hair. Never realized I was providing the public service of triggering the worst of folks badly enough that they self-deport.
I'll wait breathlessly by the mailbox for my peace prize.
Guys, as a Russian even I don’t want to move to Russia. Why do people believe in these blatant lies that the Russian propaganda is trying to spread within Western countries?
Really, I don’t understand. Even if you don’t know a thing about Russia from inside (like local news, for example), it’s still a lot of outside signs that the country is not livable for normal people.
I genuinely don’t understand. I even started thinking about making a subreddit/X about Russian propaganda and explaining why it’s an obvious scam and how things truly are inside Russia
From another youtuber's video, didn't that British guy just move there for love? Not exactly the smartest option, but that's far more understandable than the people moving there for "traditional values."
Yep. He used to go to any kind of leftist protest and try to make people look stupid on camera. I confronted him about it once at a protest in Dublin and he ran a mile.
This book tells the stories of Americans who moved to the USSR around the time of The Great Depression following the promise of a better life, but wound up living in poverty, or in the Gulags or executed.
I think few people care about these people getting this treatment from Russia, but it's incredibly sad that some of them bring children there. Those children have probably gotten their whole lives ruined by the idiocy of their parents.
Ohh I just remembered when bunch of people from Austria moved their families to Argentina or Chile because they didn't like the Covid restrictions.
Shocked pikachu face when life was much shittier at their destination
Speaking as a Finn: If you ask any European (who has not been paid by Ruzzkies), Russia is a shithole, has been a shithole, and certainly right now, is a huge shithole. If you believe their government's lies, you have only yourself to blame.
It's just counter-propaganda video. Overly dramatizing actions of stupid people who think that problem is in people around, not in themselves. They didn't even think about where they will work, somehow they assume they don't need to know language. Signing contract with army and not being able to read what you signing is beyond stupid.
People making huge life changing decisions for themselves and their children based on no actual research. These are some of the dumbest people in the world. I feel bad for their children.
They've done research, they just don't believe info from one side and choose to believe info from the other.
People aren't born with beliefs in their head and beliefs aren't set in stone, so you're absolutely correct. These people choose to be the way they are. Instead of learning something new and maybe being slightly uncomfortable before working through what it means and how it really impacts them, they will instead try to reinforce their ignorance and gravitate towards anything that tells them their ignorance is actually better than knowing/changing/growing.
I wish you guys would stop describing my brother - it's just getting mean now
Your brother is my dad? Are you my uncle?
*Game of Thrones theme intensifies
TIL I am also your uncle.
Better Russian than Democrat, bro! /s
FAFO
thankfully they no longer vote!
U.S. citizens can vote if they are living abroad. You only lose the right to vote if you give up your citizenship, not if you are outside the US.
I mean pick up a Russian history book. Read some literature. Watch some of their films.
If that doesn't clue you in to how grim Russia is, I don't know what will.
Who remembers when this was American and British men moving to the Middle East and siding with the terrorists?! Because I do!
Islamic extremism, and Evangelical extremism, are very, very similar. If it weren't for their hatred of each other based on both of their faiths being absolutist they would be perfect allies for each other.
Authoritarian, misogynistic, hateful of LGBTQ+, demanding of special privileges and powers based on their faith, primacy in society.... hell, the only place they differ is on booze and food.
It's just natural selection 🤷
The reactionary mind is incapable of critical analysis.
Research is required anytime you make a decision like this. They did their research. They just chose to believe the lies.
╭(-᷅_-᷄ 〝)╮
He diD HiS oWn rESeaRcH!!!!
“Well, now that I’ve watched enough Momtok to fully understand the medical implications of vaccines, I guess I’ll move onto some manosphere YouTube videos to get a solid handle on the geopolitical consequences of moving to a foreign country”.
Russia good, vaccines bad, it's all just common sense, and anyone who says otherwise is poisoned by misinformation.
Don't spend too much time thinking about it, because that's what low IQ betas do.
"A ha! Just as I suspected. I'll live like a king, and beautiful Russian women will throw themselves at me!"
From experts in Facebook!
And Tucker Carlsons breadgasm.
They are big on traditional family values, you know, hating lgbtq, racism, beating your wife and children, pretending to be a good christian but never go to church, and alcoholism!
Finally, a place where I can be a horrific human being and not be ostracized or looked down upon... AND I don't have to improve myself or my behavior? Paradise.
But he said he’s an American. You get away with all of that TODAY in the US. All you gotta do is wear a red hat.
Bruh played himself
The truth in your comment bums me the fuck out.
That’s why trump’s comments on Rob Reiners death made conservatives mad. He held up a mirror they couldn’t ignore. Even if it were only for an hour or a minute. The complete reversal of attitude from Charlie Kirk’s death to Reiner’s was juxtaposed with how they see themselves.
The transactional nature of affection/decency/attitude could not be ignored. Trump acted on full display the way they pretend “the left” acts.
Hate to break it to you but the vast majority of conservatives don't even care enough about Trump's Reiner comments to read the statement. It doesn't matter to them. You're only referring to cherry-picked reactions from a very tiny minority of MAGA supporters.
Who needs money when there is vodak!
Here here, by Vodak!
Don't forget HIV and abortion!
Yeah, but they don't have to deal with pink hair degenerates that they might see on their yearly trip to the "big city" like Ft Dodge Iowa ,(pop 25,000).
He moved to Russia to give us a better life.
Quite considerate, really.
About 6 years ago we were looking at going travelling and Russia was high on our list as a good land trip. We were thinking Europe, Russia, caucasus countries.
Anyway, turns out Russia actually make it hard to visit. The visa process was more than what we could do with our planning time. So we flew to Baku instead, and travelled overland backwards through the caucasus countries, Turkey and Europe.
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia were super interesting. It was crazy being kind of out of the anglosphere where English really wasn't common as all tourism was focused towards Russia as the local economic giant.
But still, Azerbaijanians (very pro Iran) hated Russia. Georgians (quite pro Russia) hated Russia and Russians. Armenians (almost a Russian vessel state) loved Russia, but like, but were visibly more deprived. They had a good reason to be pro Russia, from what I was told it was the only country that really supported them against Azerbaijan and Turkey and that whole genocide, but even that (I understand) was so that Armenia could be propped up as a continual thorn to Russia's other local enemies.
Really interesting geopolitical stuff going on, especially when you're just from a little island who simply conquered other countries a long way away and then ignored its own atrocities.
But I didn't come away from it thinking "wow, there really is a false western narrative about Russia" and honestly I was probably looking for one and would've loved to "uncover" such a conspiracy.
I did meet an ex-Morman American on a tour in Georgia though who was seeking to get into Russia. The only positive Russian stuff I heard was from him.
Dude, I would not go into Russia right now even if it was easy. You did the right thing visiting Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Much much better places to go.
Source, I am a former Russian living in the US.
I'd be interested in expanded color commentary if you can do so.
On what topic? Why I would not visit Russia?
You came from Russia and live in the US. I'd like your view of the differences or some of the cultural issues maybe? Just if you're up for it - I think your point of view is probably interesting and helpful for people to understand.
Oh, hah, that could be a whole essay probably. Here are a few anecdotes from the last time I was in Russia, which was ~15 years ago.
- Moscow has official cabs, but nobody uses them. Everyone just waves down a gypsy cab, which is often an old Lada. Anyway, my friend and I are sitting in one, chatting, while being driven to wherever we were going. Both of us were born in Moscow, speak Russian fluently with no accent, but by that point have been in the US for 20 years and consider ourselves Americans. Still, while in Russia, it's best to pretend to be a local. The driver looks at us through this rearview mirror and says, "You're not from here. Where are you from?" We're surprised, "What do you mean, we're from here." And we start naming the neighborhoods and streets where we lived as kids. He's not buying it. So I ask him how he can tell we're not local. He says, "You're always smiling. Even when not joking, when discussing something serious, you have a smile. People here don't smile like that."
- Before arriving in Moscow, we traveled a bit to other countries. Somewhere along the way I got a cut on my arm and developed a small infection. While in Moscow it started to really hurt. The family I was staying with took me to a nearby neighborhood hospital/clinic, and told me to bring US cash. We get to this clinic, and holly shit the line is around the corner just to get in. They're checking passports at the front door. We skip the line and go right up to the person at the front door. My cousin takes one of my $100 bills, gives it to the person, and just says I need to be seen immediately. I am taken into a small room right away. A doctor comes in within 20 minutes, and my cousin gives the him $300 cash. I show and explain the cut, the suspected infection, etc. He brings in an ultrasound machine on a cart, confirms the infection, writes me a script for antibiotics, and away we go. $400 of bribes for essentially VIP treatment.
- Some of the main ring roads have a center-lane that is for turning only, as you commonly see all over. But when traffic is bad, people take over that center lane and use as a travel lane in whichever direction traffic is heaviest. I was in a car with another friend that still lives in Moscow, in heavy traffic on one of those ring roads, and we were driving in that turn-only lane. My friend is wealthy, and was driving a somewhat new Land Cruiser with tinted windows. It's not an insane sign of wealth, but it's definitely a sign that you are not poor so the only question is how rich you are (there is no real middle class). There is a cop up ahead, standing by his car in that turn-only lane and one-by-one each car traveling in the turn-only lane slows down, opens the window, gives him a bit of cash, and keeps driving. My friend curses, then opens his glovebox, and he has a pretty huge stack of cash (Rubles) that he says is for just such an occasion. He rolls down his window just a bit, sticks out ~5 bills that the cop takes, and we keep driving. Not a word was spoken between the cop and my friend. He explains to me that he had to give a bit more because he's in a nice car, whereas an old Lada could have gotten away paying much less. Bribes are so common that you have a stack of bribe cash conveniently in your glovebox, and cops take them like they're collecting tolls.
Taking a step back, Russians have gone through many traumas over generations. There were famines, bank runs and currency devaluations, wars, pogroms, etc. All the while, corruption was always rampant and simply part of the culture. This results in a society where everyone strongly believes they're in it alone and they have to look out for themselves first and foremost. The whole Soviet "greater good" socialist mentality is gone, and I would argue was always just a ruse. In general, everyone is very selfish and there is not a lot of empathy left to go around.
In times of stability, it can be fine. But in times in instability, it's just a dangerous place to be. Outside of the big cities, someone could stab you to death just because they're an angry alcoholic and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they can probably get away with it for a shockingly low amount of money bribed to the right people. In the big cities, it might be a bit harder but most likely it would just take a slightly larger bribe. Either way, you're dead and just one of those tourists that mysteriously disappeared in Russia.
Also, I have a fear of being the next Brittney Griner. Russia is desperate, and they are obviously not above jailing a random US tourist on made-up charges in hopes of doing a favorable prisoner exchange or getting some sanctions relief. I wouldn't say it is likely, but the risk materially high enough that it is not even close to worth it in my view.
Brillant comment, thank you for sharing your experience. Glad you were able to make it out.
It is interesting to me how Trump is bringing bribery as common practise to the States. He threatens the FCC licenses of networks and then they make contributions to him. If you have a million dollars you buy a gold card and get citizenship. We already dont have health care so privatized health care is essentially elaborate bribery. The States has mercenary DNA.
I love your story about the taxi driver seeing your “tell”. Smiling more is an unconscious cultural thing. Good to know.
Thanks. That cab ride is so memorable to me for that reason; I was completely taken aback. He was absolutely right.
Regarding bribes, for what it's worth, I think the US was already a fairly bribe-friendly culture. Tipping is rampant, which is basically out-in-the-open small bribes. It's a well-known and studied correlation between tipping culture and corruption in society. https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/are-you-paying-a-tip-or-a-bribe // https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42611 There is other history here: Payolla, ABSCAM, organized crime, etc. I love the US, but on the spectrum of corruption, it is closer to Russian than Denmark. I don't know where the line us, but I know in general the US just hasn't crossed it whereas Russia crossed it long ago.
Thanks for sharing! I think it's really important to understand each other, and this is some great insight! In my mind, it's the absolute best part of what sites like Reddit can be.
Would encourage you to watch some of the videos by Dr. Sarah Paine on youtube. I don't think the narrative is false at all, just a little more nuanced. Because Russia has always seen itself as a continental power, they continually want to destabilize their neighbors. That means propping up little states like Armenia, but also keeping states like Georgia and Azerbaijan down so they don't get any big ideas. If any of the countries in their orbit does get big ideas, Russia invades them. They've been doing this since the Tsars and now they are trying to do it to Ukraine because it refused to be a vassal.
Good God is that woman brilliant. I could listen to her talk for hours.
I have good news for you, there are several hours of her lectures up. In a fucked up way, her description of Russian history made me not feel so bad about the current predicament in the US. This is just what they do and the way to beat them is pure economics.
I was following a dutch youtuber who was doing some travels on his motorbike through Australia and he had an accident on one track and things went sour so he went home. Months later he surfaces with a new video saying he was going to Russia.... I called him a fool and unsubbed.
There's Zoef on the move, also dutch, who did the winter camping up to North Cape last winter, in a VW Up... He's now in Russia, headed towards Siberia.
It has been a few days since his last video.
I travelled to Azerbaijan about 12-13 years ago to visit friends working in Baku, We did a weekend camping thing way way out in the countryside and to this day I describe it as the most remote, isolated feeling I have ever had. Beautiful country and completely isolated from the outside world..or at least it felt that way.
Also, loved the fresh bread at the bakeries on the way.
I crossed russia for fun 20 years ago. I loved the experience but im not in a rush to go back. It is a hard country with some lovely people but certainly not for the faint hearted.
Armenian loves Russians, not Russia. The Russian government, as a matter of fact, supported Azerbaijan in the war in 2020. Just imagine your country is in a defence alliance with Russia, and is supposed to defend you when a war starts. Still, in reality, Russia cuts weapon supply for you and sells weapons to the country that is attacking you. That's what Putin did.
Yeah, to the country who's national motto is "And then it got worse"...
Oh no! Anyway...
[Jessica by The Allman Brothers Band starts playing]
I really need to go back and watch the old episodes.
Impressively Top Gear from start to finish still holds up today. It's a timeless show I feel.
When I first got introduced to it, I was like, oh its not really a car show, its just 3 friends that really like cars, and have a budget.
The earlier episodes were more car show. As the years went on they put more effort and budget into the three of them screwing around with cars.
I enjoy the later episodes better 😊
Right?!
I cannot fathom the abject stupidity on display by these people.
Sometimes the trash takes itself out
How can we get more magats to fuck off to russia? I'm all for it.
I mean it provides them all the things they seem to like.
You're allowed to say all manner of slurs and discriminate against LGBTQ, you can experience the wonders of being crushed by a kleptocratic autocracy in which a number of oligarchs you'll never meet (and who only answer to said autocrat) largely decide your fate, you get to have no right to healthcare, you get to enjoy being thrown into a glorified military meat grinder.
Why don't they just go there instead of trying to turn the US into it!
Because what they really want is national socialism, IE, a system that actually has social benefits but only grants them to members of the master race.
But they don't want it for everyone, just themselves. What they want is pure capitalism, but they are Elon Musk or Bill Gates. They want them to be the exception. No one else gets bailouts but them. No one else can have abortions but them. No one gets protected by FEMA but them. No one gets healthcare but them.
Tomorrow if the whole country was just straight white MAGA, and a hurricane hit NJ, Texas would still say "f**k them" and vote against aid to NJ.
During trumps first term, there was a farm subsidy for minority farm owners. A grant or something they could apply for. The right wing cult saw that “black farmers are getting money” as a bad thing while the white farmers get millions in subsidies.
Yeah, I think that's right on the money. What's a little NSDAP among 'friends', yeah?
Well that explains the sudden interest in welcoming Afrikaners.
Agreed. Notice that farmers voted for farm relief subsidies. Maga are also expecting doge money and tariff money. Other forms of help to others like snap and healthcare they're against, but not for them.
I’ll contribute to a GoFundMe to help them get there if that will help.
I wish more Russians did this, too. Specifically, those in Europe. It takes a special kind of stupid to live somewhere like Germany, constantly complain about the state of the EU, and profess your love for the mad dictator in Russia. Like, move there and enjoy yourself if you love it so much.
That's wild. Every Russian that I meet in the US absolutely hates Putin. I guess it takes more effort to get to the US from Russian than it does to get to western Europe.
I’m American. We have a Russian guy at work who was a massive Putin lover. Just wouldn’t shut the fuck up about him.
Any time somebody would bring him up he’d rage about how terrible the other world leaders are, how Putin saved Russia and made them strong again, etc.
During the Ukraine war, one of our divisions, which was based on Ukraine, moved some their staff out of Ukraine and into other places if they wanted. Three of them came to the US office.
Mr. Russia has, surprisingly, had the courtesy to not say shit about Putin in a couple years. He’s even shown the guys where they can buy food they like, hiking spots, other stuff to do on weekends. I wouldn’t say they are friends but Mr. Russia is being surprisingly civil for a guy who spent the last decade or so licking Putin’s boots.
Bigots are cowards if they don't have other bigots to back them up.
Is it bad that I want to send some folks the link to that web site?
The trash in my garbage bin doesn't.
But at least is can have a new purpose.
They must have watched Tucker Carlson's trip to Russia video.
Look guys! They have bread at the grocery store! Wow, bread! People are so wrong about Russia! Bread!
Yeah, what an idiot. And then he said how cheap grocery bills were, not taking into consideration what people earned there.
His „super cheap” week’s worth of food was 9481 rubles. The median monthly salary in Russia at the time was around 50k rubles, so basically a week’s grocery shopping was nearly 20% of the median person’s pre-tax salary. In purchasing power terms that is as if a weekly shop in US cost $850 at median salary of $51k a year.
By comparison: just punched the numbers into my phone’s currency converter and 50k Russian Rubles currently equals about €530 or $620.
Holy shit the median salary in russia is that low?? That's like '3rd world country that got its shit together' low.
You know how you never hear the phrase "2nd world"? The USSR was the 2nd world.
1st world: The US/Europe
2nd world: Russia & its vassal states
3rd world: Everyone else
Yes, the three worlds classification was a Cold War grouping of nations based on alliance.
More accurately, it was...
The association with economic prosperity was a byproduct, and not the purpose of, the classification system. This is why, when you look at which nations were included in each category, they did not all uniformly fit into the same level of economic development; South Africa, Brazil, Iran, and Thailand were all part of the 1st World, but none of them are highly developed economies.
This is also why we now use Developed, Developing, and Least Developed Countries. Once the Cold War ended, the three-world system no longer served its primary purpose.
It is a 3rd world country in a lot of ways. I think it was McCain that once described Russia as a gas station with nukes and that’s a pretty accurate description. It’s no super power, it hasn’t been in decades. And even when they were they were only militarily. Stuff like indoor plumbing? Forget about if you don’t live in the big cities.
[deleted]
Just give trump another few years and we'll be there.
How much can a banana cost?
$10?
It’s also hilarious because he basically went to a Russian Auchan that, although currently was being operated fully by Russian management due to sanctions, basically does everything the way Auchan in EU does, so really he was just shilling EU ideas unknowingly.
And the grocery carts are locked, but you just need a coin!
That's common all over Europe
Nono, in Europe, Tucker calls this communism and lack of freedom.
(Probably, he does reframing like this and the people who listen to him don't seem to realise.)
Definitely communism. In a capitalist system, you'd have to buy the trolley and throw it away when you're finished shopping. Then a business can come, collect the discarded trolleys, destroy them, recover the material, ship it to China, have a new trolley made and ship that back to America for another single use shopping trip!
Think of all the jobs and wealth created!
Yup, This way people will at least bring the cart back after they used it instead of leaving them in the parking lot.
It's like they're living in the faaaaar futuuuuure!
A totally different planet even! I know, we'll call it "ALDI" !
God imagine going there as an engineer and being used as cannon fodder. They don't care about you.
funny thing is the dude wasn't actually an engineer, so it makes the whole thing even dumber. dude thought he'd just waltz right into the cushiest assignment without any real training or experience by virtue of being an American. it's hard to feel sympathy for these people.
Cyrillic is famously easy to learn /s
Pish posh, surely they’d change everything over to English for his benefit.
If I understand correctly, for the Russian army. The one who is fighting a western ally. Maybe not fully a traitor but still despicable.
“Let’s just give this random guy from an enemy nation, defecting for no discernible reason, a high-level assignment with plenty of access to sensitive information.”
Yep, that’ll work.
That other murican that joined their army was horrifically tortured and raped before they finally mercy killed him. These mfers signing up to join the russian army are just signing their own horrific death warrants.
Imagine living in the states an deciding youre going to pack your family up and go join the russian army in their attack on Ukrain, regardless of the capacity in which you intend to serve.
FTFY
The entire video was far more interesting than the first three minutes about those western families moving to Russia.
Yeah the initial dumbasses are just a hook, there's a decent analysis of Russia's economy and the Ukraine/ Russia war later on.
Yep it was surprisingly good. The presenter just needs to lay of the video filter / makeup, theres some very uncanny smoothness going on with his face, which is offputting for someone covering a topic that's such a hotbed of misinformation.
I can't even imagine the level of brain rot you must have in order to move your family of five to Russia during a war and then think that the terms of whatever government contract you signed would be upheld 😳 uh yeah dude you're going to the meat grinder. There's a reason that the State department has a highest level 4 "do not travel" warning against Russia.
I'm not traveling, I'm moving.
The reverse Jamiroquai.
Virtually insane thing to do
That sounds about right. It’s basically the reverse side of the SovCit mindset about license plates.
"I'm not driving; I'm traveling. Wait, no, I'm not traveling either; I'm moving".
Whats the Russian equivalent of "Are you trying to create joinder?" Thats what he should have learned first.
Whatever happened to that guy?
Yes, inquiring minds want to know.
Dude apparently is in the Russian military, went back home multiple times to his family to make videos about how great life in Russia is.
He's not having a nightmare, he's convinced that everything's perfect.
Or he's being paid to propagandize. But yeah even so he probably thinks everything is great, and doesn't realize it's because he's a puppet.
"Paid" not with money, but by not having his wife and kids shot.
Converted into a washing machine
There's a short reportage about a swiss family trying to move to Russia.
They eventually give up when the husband realizes that in order to get a visa they would need to sign a document denouncing Europe and Switzerland.
https://youtu.be/zBzrpx_QmuA?si=VcQuve_rsrshCUra
It's quite interesting to see what the fuck is going through their minds.
Thank goodness for subtitles because the Swiss German accent ist ganz schwer. Oh my... I'm 15 minutes in and just *astounded* at how delusional they both are.
Well it's a dialect.
Exactly this. The headline for this video dos a disservice the actual video. It’s more of an overall update on what’s going on over there; it just starts with the morons who decided to move.
As an aside, you know we are deep trouble when Russian news is more accurate and truthful about their economic reality than what the WH is trying to spin about the US economy.
Never seen this guy but he is really well-spoken and informed.
Leopard ate my face
Its more like a Leopard pushed me out a window.
More like "I moved in with a leopard, which I realized was actually my own reflection, and ate my own face."
Leopard surreptitiously moved past me in a crowded space and stabbed me with an umbrella filled with novichok.
The guy from the US wasn’t too far into the war. Granted, anything after the initial push probably felt like an eternity for the folks who planned a lightning offensive that was supposed to take days.
Either way, beyond the obvious “haw haw” of the headline, and to the “Russia is starting to show cracks” of the video…it’s interesting that a foreigner from a western country, who reportedly had a useful skill, was immediately turned to the front and ground up.
Not saying that westerners’ have inherently more value. Pragmatically though, guys like that are a clear asset in terms of information operations. The value you’d get from him posting about how awesome his life is in Russia as a former westerner outweighs his value as a rifle on the front several fold. Especially in the earlier months.
When you consider how much time and effort Russia has put into sewing discord in the US, and how successful it’s been, it’s somewhat confusing that they fumbled this hard. Not a brilliant take, but hear me out. Makes me think that the machine isn’t quite so wired tight and there’s a huge disconnect between grand strategists and recruitment pipelines.
Because the people who need skilled workers and the people who decide where people have to go are different people, and it's not something unique to Russia. Once an organization gets large enough, individual talent is imperceptible through the churning of the machine.
Weird on Russia to miss that much of a propaganda piece like you say, but I guess given just how many ops they run in this space it's hard to keep track. I do wonder how exhausting it all is for the Russians to maintain the narrative / be constantly on the moral low ground. Maybe the psyches are so different to ours it's not difficult at all... Think Stanford prison experiment, at scale for several generations.
Russia has been the most corrupt, most genocidal, and most purged country amongst significant powers for centuries with brief respites of anarchy between revolutions into a new tzar. There is a deliberate ‘fu$& it all’ attitude that develops where you are sh&$ upon so much that anybody you can wreck who lacks protection from the elites gets to be robbed or even to be another body in a ditch. Bucha perps got medals specifically to rub it in to the world that this Russian government is committed top to bottom to the usual genocidal ways they have had for centuries. It is visibly hard for people in decent countries to comprehend that. Witness the many Euro leaders and even US presidents saying Putin changed. The hell he ever did. “Decent people shouldn’t come here, they’d be happier somewheres else” as Jack’s 1989 Joker said. Turns out even morons and traitors would be happier elsewhere. I was a Russian history major btw. The other operative quote of Russia was “and then it got worse.”
I can't believe I had forgotten "and then it got worse." from my college classes. Its like a memory treasure chest just opened for me.
They're chauvenists, they probably don't do that to non westerners.
In Russia, face eats you.
Leopard sent me to the Ukranian front lines.
Leopard pushed me into a battlefield meat grinder for easier digestion.
Yeah, no fucking shit.
I love the ridiculousness of it all. What do you hate most of all? Immigrants. What do you do? Uh... become somebody else's immigrant, and have the same set of balls when you get there that immigrants do when they come to your country by requesting, expecting, or demanding frankly anything at all from the folks whose home you just moved into.
Valuable learning experience. Feel exactly what immigrants in your country feel by being put through the same shit that you put them through.
In today’s episode of ‘fucking idiots do fucking idiot things!’.
Seriously, this is almost at the level of the Spaniards and Danes who moved to the califate to fight for ISIS.
How stupid can a person be?
One of the most bigoted and authoritarian governments on Earth is sucky place to live.
If you're anti authority, somehow Russia is perceived as being on your side because they're the "enemy" of your current authority.
As Americans are increasingly finding out.
In America, Russia is coming to you!
Fucking does my head in when people in leftist spaces start propping up Russia as this beacon of anti-imperialism when in reality it is this a hyper capitalist, fascist and extremely right-wing country.
And extremely imperialist to boot lol.
What kind of idiot would move to Russia from the West?
Somebody who feels threatened by pink hair dye.
Apparently.
People whose brains have been completely turned to mush by the right wing media
The kind of people who refuse to listen to anything they don't like and therefore end up fully immersing themselves in propaganda.
What kind of idiot would vote for the Russian asset to run USA?
They’re very scared of the gays and the trans and the thinking with their head cheese.
There is a dude in my electrician class that is obsessed with Russia and says he wants to move there. He's got to be the biggest dunce in the class. He's always late and fails assignments and labs left and right. At this point I just assume he has a crayon lodged in his brain from childhood.
I've seen these types of people who are fresh in east orthodox christianity, which has became a trend among young conservative American men (aka "orthobros"). A lot them prefer the Russian Orthodox Church over the Greek because of its "masculine" leaning aesthetics, so of course its influenced them to see Russia with rose colored glasses. They parrot the same rhetoric that the huffman family said about wanting to escape liberal america to paradise traditional white Russia. But now that I know there's a Russian Shared Values visa for people like them I'll pass forward to them lol
surprised pikachu face
"... If you're sick of seeing people with pink hair walking through the streets..."
I love that he phrases it like this. It points out that all of these people moving haven't ever truly experienced a worse life than one in Russia to make them need to move there. They've simply seen people with dyed hair in public and promptly lost their shit over it.
I walk around in public with unnaturally dyed hair. Never realized I was providing the public service of triggering the worst of folks badly enough that they self-deport.
I'll wait breathlessly by the mailbox for my peace prize.
I would play my smallest violin if I had one.
Despite the obvious clickbait title, this is actually a surprisingly informative and well researched video.
Guys, as a Russian even I don’t want to move to Russia. Why do people believe in these blatant lies that the Russian propaganda is trying to spread within Western countries? Really, I don’t understand. Even if you don’t know a thing about Russia from inside (like local news, for example), it’s still a lot of outside signs that the country is not livable for normal people. I genuinely don’t understand. I even started thinking about making a subreddit/X about Russian propaganda and explaining why it’s an obvious scam and how things truly are inside Russia
Be careful…. Stay away from tall buildings.
Ah yes, move to a country that is actively searching for men to fight a war nobody asked for except Putin.
From another youtuber's video, didn't that British guy just move there for love? Not exactly the smartest option, but that's far more understandable than the people moving there for "traditional values."
laughs in polish
I first thought don't. Report on this. Let the dumb go. Then I remembered they don't watch any actual news. So it doesn't matter.
I find myself not caring one bit.
Do you have to sieve your sugar in Russia?
He is sifting flour to aerate it and get rid of the lumps
That’s not a super uncommon thing for people who bake, no matter what country.
He was doing that so ineptly it was annoying the shit out of me.
We're not sending our brightest and best.
Wow I wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing the first time. Maybe he's got humidity problems in his home.
But like... pour this fucking sugar into the sieve.
That meta-commentary on the kinds of big brains these immigrants have is 🤌
Remember when this guy was an alt right grifter. His videos seem okay but his past is certainly esssh and eye opening.
https://youtu.be/sVx-UNHduho?si=LBQhxbezebydu7EU
Yep. He used to go to any kind of leftist protest and try to make people look stupid on camera. I confronted him about it once at a protest in Dublin and he ran a mile.
And the average IQ of Britain, America and Russia increased….
You have to be a special kind of bigot and stupid to be so bothered by “people with pink hair” to fall do this scheme
As someone who moved from Russia: LOL
History repeats itself: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/293668/the-forsaken-by-tim-tzouliadis/9780143115427
This book tells the stories of Americans who moved to the USSR around the time of The Great Depression following the promise of a better life, but wound up living in poverty, or in the Gulags or executed.
Why the fuck would you do that in the first place? Stupid fucks
I think few people care about these people getting this treatment from Russia, but it's incredibly sad that some of them bring children there. Those children have probably gotten their whole lives ruined by the idiocy of their parents.
Ohh I just remembered when bunch of people from Austria moved their families to Argentina or Chile because they didn't like the Covid restrictions. Shocked pikachu face when life was much shittier at their destination
Good.
Speaking as a Finn: If you ask any European (who has not been paid by Ruzzkies), Russia is a shithole, has been a shithole, and certainly right now, is a huge shithole. If you believe their government's lies, you have only yourself to blame.
If only this would stop the ignorance of men pushing for the Russiafication of America.
Nothing like experiencing conservative policies to show you why you want liberal policies.
I was not expecting this to be full on journalism but that lad is great, really well researched and structured report basically
Too scared to get a job at WaWa or Buckee's so now they're gonna be on a wet and cold battlefield in the Donets. Checkmate incels.
It's just counter-propaganda video. Overly dramatizing actions of stupid people who think that problem is in people around, not in themselves. They didn't even think about where they will work, somehow they assume they don't need to know language. Signing contract with army and not being able to read what you signing is beyond stupid.
So nothing of 'intellectual' value is being lost.
That’s an IQ test you failed
Bye!
Don't come back!
Best wishes!
Any grown western adult who's ignorant enough to move to Russia deserves whatever is coming their way.
How could any American want to move to Russia for a better life
Western societies will be much more healthy once they get rid of all those winners of Darwin prize.
How can you believe ANYTHING is better in russia? How can you be stupid enough to fall for their propaganda?
They must be a very special kind of stupid.
Russia has always been a repressive/regressive regime, dating back to the Tzars. They literally had serfs/peasants until ww2.