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Comment by throwaway290 | Hacker News Reader

As a Russian I'd say this guy lives in some other country. Probably imaginary. Based on how little reality there is in the comment I would not believe comments about airplane brakes either...

Not a single person I know much less their kids has "foreign crypto virtual cards" etc. Ofc even if they had they would be locked out of transacting with any serious business that doesn't take crypto.

The exodus is real, ask Armenians, Kazakhs, Georgians Finns or by now probably Argentinians. 30% of all people I know left. The government declared amnesty for any criminal who agrees to serve in the army for some time, and people know that all those murderers and rapists are coming back to the streets and dark alleys when Russia is kicked out of Ukraine. (Some people want to leave but stay because in their head they think everyone abroad except China hates them for actions of Putler, which is part of Russian propaganda designed to slow down brain drain.)

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The Russians I’ve run into in Argentina, Indonesia, Thailand , Philippines, Japan, China, HK and other Asian countries all have crypto cards and use crypto very candidly. They also are filling up and creating demand for crypto services in these areas. I’ve seen Facebook posts and instagram pages marketing Russian crypto services and investment - real estate, business and the vector of payment transfer is crypto and second local bank accounts in these countries.

The exodus is very real, and documented via social media so vividly. You can even go to the local social media pages (e.g. Thais, Indonesians, Argentinian social media pages / language ) and get local perspective and demeanor vs the Russian and Russian adjunct countries. It’s so interesting that English has become a neutral language for business and marketing but all the real “work” is done in either or language.

Yes, on flip side Russian crypto peddlers are a dime a dozen and a scourge on public chat groups etc.

People I know tend to find proper jobs though, it's not impossible. But better do it in EU/US/AU etc, in Argentina even locals often resort to crypto due to economy

I am sure what you describe is your real situation, but there may be more complexity. Its not like 30% of russian population left, rather less than 1% overall. 1 million in 150 million nation is a drop in the bucket. I am pretty sure russian state is able to draft another few millions into meat grinder of Ukraine without a blink of an eye. 1 thing eastern Europe is good at is avoiding official rules and finding ways to get forbidden stuff, some historical experience there.

Also, you have places where russian propaganda (be it fsb, gru or subcontracted to wagner's troll farms) in past 2 decades was very effective in making non-trivial part of population firmly on Putin's side (and also anti-vax, anti-EU and so on in usual divide-and-conquer psyops manner).

I mean, back home in my backwater Slovakia some recent polls showed 50% support of russian invasion in their neighbour. In the nation which was enslaved for 4 decades and occupied for 2 decades by soviet union and damaged beyond repair due to this, with usual shooting/electrocuting people on the borders trying to just run away, secret police arresting non-conforming people, snitching etc. It's... mostly less smart part of population for sure, but still.

There is a lot of support of course, like in China. Remember TV is still the main media in Russia and it is strictly state controlled. Moreover the gov is not bad at online information warfare and even many Europeans, AU/US people support Putin (as indicated by downvotes I'm getting here and as I even sometimes hear IRL)

The 30% number is among people I have known in life (friends/acquaintances, those who actually left, not counting those planning to leave, that'd be like 70%). I have not checked other stats but I wouldn't be surprised

> crypto virtual card

The cards are not “crypto” — they are very much ordinary virtual (or even physical) visa/mastercard ones.

You use p2p crypto to top-up them with real dollars from RUB.

It takes around 5 minutes to get a virtual Visa card. And if you want to get a physical one (for traveling), there are a lot of countries (even NATO ones) where you can get one with no problem at all.

> any serious business that doesn't take crypto.

Again, you’re not paying crypto. You use ordinary cards to pay in any store that you like.

Turkey and others crack down on this regularly. Besides if you have the money to go to Turkey or pay extra to unscrupulous forwarders it means you are already well off, if the regime pays you well then good for you I guess. People in remote villages that supply new meat for the war don't have that luxury. They only have a TV that tells them everything is fine

Yes even in Iran people manage to buy foreign goods and find ways to work around sanctions. But if you say "Russia is becoming like Iran/North Korea" and "Russia is thriving" are the same then I rest my case.

> Turkey and others crack down on this regularly

Yeah-yeah. That’s why Turkey launched direct rouble to lira payment app just a couple of days ago :-)

https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/93267/

Not to mention number of banks in Turkey alone that have no problem opening accounts to Russians

Yeah, their banks also started charging monthly fees to drain tourist accounts and close them after that

Yes if you are at the top of the regime with a bunch of money many doors in unscrupulous countries worldwide open to you, not so much if you are a ordinary person, and guess what most people are more or less ordinary

I am curious, is that propaganda effective within Russian people?

Scarily effective with the older (millennials' parents) generations.

Sorry but i have to comment. Hackernews should not be political but still. In Russia there is currently an all time high support from the current regime. The small moscow bubble you are referring to isnt remotely representing the common Russians. Most of that bubble was anti regime before the war anyway. Braindrain? You know how many Indians and other nations are currently immigrating to Russia? Tech is booming right now in Russia. Factories are opening everywhere. The whole country is ramping up production. There seem to be unlimited funds (Chinese, Isreal) Investers are pumping a lot of money into the country. The country is in 100% war mode. It is convinced that it cannot lose the war in Ukraine. And they are probably right. And not everyone hates Russians btw.

I have never been to Moscow but I'd guess many of the shielded comfortable 0.1% who live there are people who care the least. They know what's happening is bad but they are "above politics" (that is, supporting the regime by default) and will be until s*t hits the fan. See prices for flights from Moscow to Tbilisi on the day of Prigozhin debacle...

And the other side is people elsewhere in Russia who are not above politics but whose politics are based on watching TV.

The remaining people may well be a minority. Perhaps more than half of people support Putin. That's why it's futile to change from below, if thinking people want revolution they would have to fight their own zombie neighbor first.

Ramping up production, factories every day, not gonna lose to Ukraine smells like another dose of fantasy agitprop itt but I'm v curious to hear more about Israel funding!

And you misread my comment, at least regarding Russian hate by Westerners. I do not see Western people hating Russians in any meaningful way. But I see Russians definitely thinking so. Because that's the image Putin wants them to have. Us vs them.

To be fair, Western _institutions_ do seem to dislike us, cf. the Czech president's infamous "WW2 Japanese Americans" comment [https://www.janm.org/press/release/janm-decries-remarks-czec...].

I think there is more hatred in former Warzaw Pact countries. But overall, I have seen very little in the way of demonising russians, especially those already outside of Russia.

I know the attitudes eg. Chinese people (even if from TW, not all westerners can tell) sometimes encounter and I think Russians are better off

In 100% war mode, but refuses to admit it's at war? More like in 100% lie mode.

> It is convinced that it cannot lose the war in Ukraine. And they are probably right.

Very much sounds like "fake it till you make it". But sometimes the facade goes down before you make it.

Btw regarding "unlimited Chinese funds" specifically, Russia gets less than even 1/10 of what China invests even in Kazakshtan for example.

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