What are the possibilities for an average russian citizen to leave russia and start over somewhere in the west? How about visas? Does anyone know?
I emmigrated in 2019 to work with an international startup in Montenegro: and ended up being ostracized and harassed by my manager from another country (won't point fingers to avoid unnecesary nationalism) on a cultural/ethnical basis; was forced to leave after a year and a half.
After that, in 2021, I was offered to come to US by a fellow colleague with Ukranian roots: worker visas were denied to Russian citizens at that point, and most of the embassies were either closed or worked in a limited capacity (also due to pandemic).
My last attempt (again in 2021) was to apply for PhD in EPHE institute of France (I have an MS degree in a programme related to medical tech, computer vision, and brain-computer interfaces): I got nothing in response.
Since then I have been holed up in my hometown. Another friend of mine proposed some time ago to come to Vietnam: but with the entire world openly opposed to my nation, I doubt that will ever happen.
Russia can de-escalate by withdrawing. The only way for 'the west' to de-escalate at this point is to tell Ukraine to just roll over and get annexed. Is that preferable?
And once Russia controls Ukraine, then what? Everybody's happy, and they'll just leave it at that? What is Putin's goals after Ukraine?
I'll admit I'm not educated in international politics, I've just pivoted from an armchair virologist to an armchair politician / military expert on the internets.
Having studied this situation a bit, my conclusion is that both sides are to blame, with Russia being considerably more culpable due to choosing the violent option. Geopolitics isn’t simple and thinking that one side is entirely to blame is just naive and falling for propaganda.
By escalation I’m referring to the giant effort to exclude Russia from everything, including liquor stores and name registrars.
Oh they sure did, and all of them were of the militaristic and imperialistic variety.
> Having studied this situation a bit, my conclusion is that both sides are to blame
How can Ukraine/the West possibly be responsible for Russia launching an imperialistic annexation war? Nothing can excuse that.
Again, as I said in my initial comment, most of the blame here is on Russia. Nonetheless, the world isn’t black and white.
Russia is not justified, which is why there has been such unification in the West and silence from Russia's powerful allies. Putin made a mistake.
The Russian narrative swings from fear of future deployments of American missiles in Ukraine, as if nuclear ballistic submarines can't show up in the Bering sea in a matter of days. And de-nazifaction as if the Kremlin regime is a pillar of freedom and democracy.
Both arguments are rather flimsy at best. It looks to me the main issue is Ukraine's democracy, it looks like the Kremlin cannot tolerate bordering a democracy not run by some kind of autocratic vassal.
It kind of make sense since there is a large Russian/Russian-speaking community in Ukraine. What the Kremlin can't tolerate is a neighbor with greener grass on their side of the fence. Because if the Russian people witnessed a blooming economy and growth in Ukraine after the popular deposition of their then Russian-adjacent president, they might get ideas. So days after the event Russia invaded crimea and labeled the Ukrainian government Nazis.
Simply because the Russian people had to see that popular revolutions only lead to misery.
Sure, you can advocate using the Winter War robbery of East Carelia and Vyborg from the independent democratic nation of Finland as a model if you want. Two questions about that, though:
1) How much did that help? Didn't exactly sate the Soviet Union's appetite for acquisition and oppression of satellite states, did it?
2) Advocating an appeasement model seems (at least to me) to imply endorsement not only of the temporary calm it might buy, but also of its moral and ethical justice. Care to expound on how you do that?
They want Russia out of the way so that they can focus on taking down China. Most of all they want to avoid a Russia-China military alliance.
It might be worth the struggle in case of a sincere relationship, but not just for the sake of saving my sorry ass.
Most people here will apply the colloquial definition which is more or less another word for xenophobia. An academic racial analysis could help understand why someone who's seen as white and foreign is often treated better than someone born here, but someone trying to do that as an explanation for why you shouldn't care about a Russian immigrant's feelings would be rightly seen as a jerk.
There might still be some prejudice, as analyzed in this classic stand-up bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OB72GZOS4c
Well, that's hardly surprising, and it's not because you're Russian, in France it's hard to get any institution to ever reply you by mail, let alone if (I guess) you wrote to them in English.
If you want to work or do a PhD in France (in English) I can offer some support and pointers for my region, you can hit me up at the email on my profile.
To clarify: I contacted one of the professors directly, whom I visited, who was aware of my background (my employee at the time introduced us and wrote an informal letter of recommendation), and who collaborated on a startup project I mentioned.
Not to sound like an ass, but if that's your limiting factor and you're making anywhere near the salary you listed as average, don't worry about it. If you can figure out a way to get yourself to a better position, I'll figure out a way to get you 400 USD / year.
Are you sure about that? Even now it's pretty hard to send money to Russia - SWIFT is not working for most banks, Wise stopped RUB transfers, etc.
In 1-2 weeks time there would be no legal way to send money to your family back in Russia, I'm pretty sure.
[1] https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/southeast-asia...
I think most people understand that this is Putin's war, not the war of the "Russian people". And many people I have spoken to in various demonstration against the war (in Germany), protested against Putin, not Russia. I did not see a single banner with "Stop Russia" - all referred directly to Putin.
There are a few issues here:
1. Anyone who goes against the ruling power and stands up as a leader of opposition gets forcefully silenced and thrown into jail: the most popular example is Alexey Navalny. Simply put, there's not enough organizational force (i.e. absence of charismatic leader) to bring masses together.
2. The majority of Russians are in their 40-ies, have families, have government jobs, and won't risk losing the only source of income they have by opposing said government. One can call it cowardice, but to me, this is a basic survival instinct of a person who never knew a better world, who is facing a total collapse of daily systems he took for granted, and who stoically enjoys a ride into prolonged stagflation: e.g. right now bank rate is up to an all-time high of 20%, electronic prices rose by 30%, some industrial companies and small/mid-sized businesses are tanking [1] — and all of that after suffering thru the pandemic with the rest of the world.
3. There are no democratic elections in Russia (we call it "дерьмократия" in our patois, which roughly means "shit-o-cracy"). Our president's regime basically self-sustains itself, thanks to a deeply rooted corruption in upper circles and fake votes. A similar situation was in Montenegro from 1990 up until 2020, when the ruling party was overthrown because they couldn't buy enough support from abroad due to pandemic restrictions — and even that pales in comparison to what we have here.
4. The question is up in the air: even if all "goes well", who will come after Putin, and will they be able to fix this mess — not just in Russia, but in the countries their predecessor damaged? I don't know of any strong candidate capable of dragging us back from what is essentially imposed 90-ies and zeitgeist of post- Soviet Union collapse. It's like an existential fog of war all over the Earth.
—//—
[1]: As a case in point: England denied shipment of certain electronic components to Russia; a city-forming enterprise in my small hometown is a factory that produces fire-resistant materials and relies on these components. These materials are made from basalt, a certain type of volcanic rock abundant here in the Ural region — and this stuff (esp. when mixed up with other minerals) can be quite toxic, causing breathing problems and allergic reactions (I as a teenager had a part-time job on the factory, and had ulcers open up on my skin that contacted basalt dust particles). Basically, if something breaks there right now, no one will be able to fix it; and not only people will lose their jobs, but this may end up in a local ecological catastrophe.
By the same token, the neighboring town is Sverdlovsk-45: a closed city housing a plant producing uranium-238. Imagine if something goes boom there because of the disrupted infrastructure/supply chain. I understand that this sounds quite exaggerated — yet I cannot but keep "entertaining" myself with such thoughts since last week, all while being ashamed of myself for simply being born in this place.
FWIW: about those 40 year olds with families that can't do anything: they can, it's just that the perceived price is too high. But think about it from another perspective: how are you going to explain to your kids that you stood by and did nothing knowing full well what was going on? That is the question that is keeping me up at night right now.
I would disagree. I vividly remember August 1991 coup attempt in USSR against Gorbachev when ordinary people surrounded the "White House" (governmental building of Russian Federation) while a tank battalion surrounded the people. There were quite a few 40+ people in the crowd defending the White House. This standoff lasted for quite a while and then the coup collapsed. The whole thing lasted about 4 days [0] despite the fact that the junta had formal control over military, KGB, police, national guard (interior troops), border guards, etc. Junta summarily lost and Yeltsin became the de-factor leader of USSR with Gorbachev playing a role of British Queen for a short few months before USSR expired.
The real difference then and now is that in 1991 there was an alternative center of power (Yeltsin, government of russian federation, russian parliament). putler made sure that there is no any organized structures left that could potentially challenge his power. This is a real problem, not the 40+ people conservatism.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat...
Most people definitely are not opposed to Russia, they are oblivious to international events.
I wonder what it'll take. Given that currently the Russian economy is getting decimated, I wonder if it'll take a few weeks or months of not getting paid. But that might just make them more ruthless and make them start extorting people for money, since they still hold power.
If police stop getting paid, while having to battle thousands of protesters each day, I expect their loyalty to change very quickly.
It is a civil war kind of situation we're talking about.
They've sanctions that would even make it impossible for normal people to do a bank transfer in their "new" country.
Then think about the fact that is cold now and, additionally, that the border with Europe is full of military.
Now that you consider all tell me where they're supposed to go.
and then to Georgia even as we speak, 1 by train, another by plane.
Luckily these people are not working in position of power. Aren't they right? Right? :)
First flying to the other half, or taking land transport (at least for the border crossing part).
Easy to cross it like you're doing a walk with your dog. Not to mention that is cold... But yay lets go and take a walk to the border lol