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Comment by chinathrow | Hacker News Reader

> I’m pretty sure Russia will try very hard to attract foreign labor and immigration in the next years to fill some of the gaps that the country has to fill now.

Good luck...

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While Russia's reputation is in shatters in the west, I'm not sure if this is true for India, China, Pakistan and other countries. Also Russia's Wagner troupes are currently kicking out European ones in Africa, so I wouldn't be surprised if the reputation of Russia will be good enough for immigration in Africa either. This might very well be a solvable problem for Russia if they really want to.

Good thing Russia is known to be such a welcoming environment for people of colour.

The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Further the Russians tend to sympathise with subjects of racism as they for the most parts of the previous centuries were subjected to racism by countries to the west of them.

Oh, the great old anti-imperialism and victimhood of r-country. This story flies much better with people not exposed to russian language and prevalence of ethnic slur in it.

> The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin.

Wiki says his great grandfather was black. I am not sure how you jumped to the conclusion that Pushkin was black.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin

Isn't that the distinction used by at least some people in US - you're black if you had any black ancestors (at least in traced history)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

Not for 60 years or more. That's part of old slave laws and not popular with modern America except with the KKK crowd

Is this a joke in Russia, i.e. people referring to him as black in order to lessen the view of Russia's outlook to foreigners? I've never heard people refer to Pushkin as being black (and his parents indeed aren't), besides his great grandfather.

I guess you can tell us the percentage of someone’s blood that has to be black for them to be black. What is the percentage?

In America it seems to have more to do with culture than ancestry. I would bet that there are lots of people that think of themselves as white whose ancestors came over on slavers ships.

Of course if you could trace ancestry back far enough we are all black.

The South Africans used to have a colour chart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moor_of_Peter_the_Great

> The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin.

Is this using the Elizabeth Warren native american logic ?

Yup, and so am I. I'm also a Viking, when it suits me (I look more like a Viking although it's much further back in my ancestry than my Native American great grandfather. I get to be a French Gaulois and a Romney Gypsy too. The real question is how can I profit by what I identify as...

> ever was black

1/64th black…

Nobody says that Obama is half-black...

Yeah, because they talk about racial identity, not just ancestry.

Is there any evidence that Pushkin identified as black, rather than being selected as the historical “black friend” to dismiss criticism of a modern state that is actively sponsoring global white supremacy?

In this piece[0] "Пушкин - Юрьеву"

He refers to himself as "a disfigured descendant of negroes".

"А я, повеса вечно праздный,

Потомок негров безобразный,

Взращённый в дикой простоте…"

Also, here's an interesting article about Pushkin with some African Americans claiming him to be one of their own, with examples from 1929 and 1983:

https://www.livelib.ru/articles/post/63022-kak-pushkin-stal-...

[0] https://ilibrary.ru/text/182/p.1/index.html

EDIT: There's also this article exploring his African heritage:

https://daily.jstor.org/how-alexander-pushkin-was-inspired-b...

His grand-grandfather came from Ethiopia... Isn't it 1/8th?

Yes, your’e right..

My math was terrible

That's a laugh riot, as a Russian I've heard plenty of racist crap from other Russians unfortunately.

And the greatest Russian rock singer was Korean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Tsoi

Just like Alexandre Dumas...

Russia isn't known as welcoming to Central Asians either, yet they still (used to?) come there to work. Money talks.

Tbf, it’s not welcoming for everyone. The issue you pointed out is of little to no importance for educated people. For uneducated - yes, but mostly in “the center”. If you understand russian names, you may see yourself in TFA that most of those interviewed aren’t even of slavic origin, at least by father (neither am I, if that’s important for some reason).

If all you require a warm bodies to do menial tasks or low- to no-skilled labor? Sure, Pakistan and Africa will be happy to provide these.

If you are trying to rebuild your high-tech industry, however, you require educated people.

And why would these go to Russia if they can go to Europe or the US? Immigrating to Russia with possibly be easier, but it’s still Russia…

Nigeria and Ethiopia are both brimming with tech workers that are happy to relocate for money and better prospects. Whether a post-war Russia can offer either remains to be seen.

> If you are trying to rebuild your high-tech industry, however, you require educated people.

If Russia makes it easier with visas and the salary is good enough, many Indians would happily move there.

Russia's attractivity to foreign workers depends the availability of convertible money (sending money out of Russia is currently probably a bit of a problem and will stay so for a long time) and their security (which is probably not a given, with the rise of fascist state the security of foreign workers will not be the highest item on the list). So while everyone likes oil money, not many people will be likely to immigrate to Russia for that.

2/3 of world's population won't have any issue converting currency to yuan if BRICS decide to use it for mutual commerce (though I doubt a WW3 won't happen before this happens).

India will never agree.

Is it because of occasional skirmishes in Himalayas or something else?

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