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I have a Russian friend who is adamant that I would really enjoy and have a great time in Russia. IIRC he tells me to go to St Pete more than Moscow. But I can

by swozey 2y ago

I have a Russian friend who is adamant that I would really enjoy and have a great time in Russia. IIRC he tells me to go to St Pete more than Moscow. But I cannot imagine doing that as an American. It kind of makes me wonder if he's messing with me but he hates Russia and Putin and I don't know why he would. I feel like I would be so unsafe. I'm a very "American" looking person and I only know a handful of Russian words. Well, I guess I look more German, blonde/blue eyed. Maybe just very different apprehensions when it comes to travel. He seems to be willing to go to literally anywhere. Ironically I always expect an American to start shit with him when I'm out drinking with him so I sometimes deviate conversations away from him having to talk about being Russian at every bar we're at. He's only been in America a few years so as soon as he speaks the entire bar knows he's Russian.

vzaliva 2y ago
If you go to russia there is a chance of you being arrested on made-up charge just to be used as exchange fund for russian spies or arm dealers arrested in the west. Look up Paul Whelan, Brittney Griner, Michael Calvey, Trevor Reed, and most recently Travis Leake.
- travismark 2y ago
  or Evan Gershkovich. St Pete was a wonderful city to visit before the 2014 invasion, now I think it's too risky
- swozey 2y ago
  Oh yeah I know all about our people over there. Not a chance I'd go post 2014 unless a revolution happens. They're all sad stories but there's a ballerina who lived in California for decades and was a US citizen (If you were ever Russian, Russia doesn't recognize your new state, you're always Russian) who was arrested last year when visiting I believe a grandma. Her charge was that she donated $25 to a Ukranian refugee fund. She had a few articles last year but not much keeping her in the news. She's going to have a tough time being an immigrant from Russia who donated to Ukraine. I don't think she has a chance of getting out and the women penal colonies like IK-14 are essentially slave factories. The Ukraine war has taught me a lot about how Russia treats peope, especially women. Field Wives, et al. Now they're releasing female prisoners to Storm Z groups to go to the front line. https://nypost.com/2024/03/04/world-news/ksenia-karelinas-letter-reveals-conditions-in-russian-prison/ https://nypost.com/2024/03/04/world-news/ksenia-karelinas-le... https://www.rferl.org/a/notorious-russian-women-s-prison-hell-tolokonnikova-mordovia-ik-14/29788168.html https://www.rferl.org/a/notorious-russian-women-s-prison-hel...
cafard 2y ago
> He's only been in America a few years so as soon as he speaks the entire bar knows he's Russian. Because Americans are so good at distinguishing Slavic languages by ear in a noisy room? I live near a Russian Orthodox church. People complain about the congregants, but mostly about their parking. A house opposite the church as a Ukrainian flag prominently hung; on the other hand one of the congregants has a sticker of the Ukrainian flag with the don't-tread-on-me rattlesnake. I don't think most Americans care enough to be rude to Russians. We visited St. Petersburg some years ago, probably 2012. I very much enjoyed the visit. Everyone seemed to be much too preoccupied to give a damn where we came from. The cases of Griner, Gershkovich, and the NCO in Vladivostok do make one wonder about the prospects of American tourists.
- agent281 2y ago
  > Because Americans are so good at distinguishing Slavic languages by ear in a noisy room? There is a simpler explanation: Russian is probably the only Slavic language most Americans know about.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    Unfortunately it's just due to the number of people. It's unlikely a random person could tell a difference between Polish and Russian, much less Ukrainian and Russian.
    - dralley 2y ago
      I doubt many Russians can tell the difference between Ukrainian and Polish either. I unironically think that some of them convinced themselves they were fighting Polish mercenaries just because they heard western Ukrainian accents.
      - stychos 2y ago
        I doubt most of Ukrainians knows Ukrainian language.
ludwigschubert 2y ago
I imagine your friend is genuine. During undergrad/before 2014 I attended a summer school (https://www.jass.school https://www.jass.school) in St. Peterburg. I found the city to be welcoming, almost European in ambiance, with friendly university students. It never felt too foreign or unsafe. In my experience, St. Peterburg is as distinct from how I imagine Moscow as San Francisco is from Dallas, Texas. (edit: I have no idea how it’d feel nowadays, and won’t visit Russia atm either.)
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  > almost European in ambiance It should. SPB is in the European part of Russia.
  - dragonwriter 2y ago
    So is Moscow. So is the vast majority of the population of Russia.
- imp0cat 2y ago
  I'd skip Russia and Ukraine right now for obvious reasons. But I have a friend who managed to visit St. Peterburg before the current war and was quite impressed.
kleton 2y ago
They won't know you're American until you open your mouth. There is such a wide variety of phenotypes in SPB that people will just assume you are a Russian. Russians these days mostly have friendly excited reactions to foreigners speaking English in public.
- generic92034 2y ago
  > Russians these days mostly have friendly excited reactions to foreigners speaking English in public. That does not need to be a good thing, though. :D
- swozey 2y ago
  I'm OP you're replying to. I've lived all over Europe, mainly Germany. You can absolutely tell Americans from other crowds by clothes/style and mannerisms. Just like I can easily tell if someone is British or Australian (not that they look the same, but easy to discern which is which usually). An Italian once; "Americans walk confidently in the wrong direction."
_zoltan_ 2y ago
St Petersburg is beautiful and quite lovely. Or well, I don't know now, but it was before the war. To be honest I've watched a ton of Russian YouTube content and on these videos the Russian cities doesn't seem affected. Just forget your visa/mastercard
- sam_lowry_ 2y ago
  > St Petersburg is beautiful and quite lovely. You've been to the city center. The outskirts are dull even by Russian standards. Because of the soil there, they tend to build high-rise residential buildings spaced by 500m to 1km. Streets run in-between, there are occasional malls and that's it.
trustno2 2y ago
Russia is a lot like west if you stick to the big cities. Sometimes it's "more western than the west", some people just eat in fast-food chains. Well, at least when I was there before the war.
pjc50 2y ago
It's a shame. I'd love to visit St. Petersburg, but the window of history where I could do that in relative ease and safety is closed. Many years ago a friend went to Syria in its brief window of peace, and visited some of the incredibly well preserved Roman sites. I hope they're still OK.
- taneliv 2y ago
  I went, too. Unfortunately at least some sites are not okay: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150901-is... (2015).
keybored 2y ago
> But I cannot imagine doing that as an American. It kind of makes me wonder if he's messing with me but he hates Russia and Putin and I don't know why he would. I feel like I would be so unsafe. I'm a very "American" looking person and I only know a handful of Russian words. Well, I guess I look more German, blonde/blue eyed. Now I’m imagining a flat with some Russian friends where they take turns throwing darts at pictures of Biden. Or Obama. I don’t know why you think that Russians or whatever else would make an American unsafe. I mean what would they even care/have against you. > Ironically I always expect an American to start shit with him when I'm out drinking with him so I sometimes deviate conversations away from him having to talk about being Russian at every bar we're at. He's only been in America a few years so as soon as he speaks the entire bar knows he's Russian. Well talking about your country of origin is the most natural thing to do in those contexts.
- swozey 2y ago
  > Well talking about your country of origin is the most natural thing to do in those contexts. Someone out enjoying their night with friends doesn't want to constantly have to explain that they're from Russia, where in Russia, no not Moscow, 3 hours from Moscow, no I don't like Putin, no I don't support the war, etc etc over and over to random drunks. I am glad that most (if not all) of the people we encounter aren't rude and assume he supports Putin/war, etc. That's usually what I expect to come out of someones mouth once they find out he's Russian.
ossobuco 2y ago
It's funny but personally I'd feel less safe traveling to the USA. The chance of finding myself in the midst of a mass shooting terrifies me. Also being robbed, being involved in a road rage accident. If I was black I'd add to that the possibility of being subjected to police abuse. Without considering the chance I'm for some reason snatched and imprisoned in Guantanamo for the rest of my life without any legal process.
- swozey 2y ago
  Yeah it's like Mad Max over here. I'm sure Russia doesn't have tons of road rage (wait, didn't the dashcam trend start there?), may have less guns but rape and domestic violence is absolutely insane (and dv is legal now), and Russia absolutely treats black people with respect (oh wait now the battlefield is full of dead minority conscripts hmm). Maybe the USA just has a lot more news outlets. We don't have Oblasts or little shanty towns full of drunk war criminals committing rapes and crimes that don't get reported because the Oblast/town has no local news agency and everything they learn on the news is filtered through VK. There is a university on the border of Ukraine (30mins or so in I believe) where they kicked out ALL of the students living there and filled it up with village evacuees and men who are in between going to the front line. They basically took over an entire college and were sexually assaulting/harassing the young students. There is one news article about it off of telegram and it's never been updated, happened a year ago. Not a single American thinks about Guantanamo Bay in their day to day life that isn't a public defender. I'm on a LOT of Russian telegram channels since they started the war. Nearly all Russians get their news off of Telegram or vk and it's basically all community sourced news. If the gov doesn't want you to hear about it you won't. A LOT of stuff goes on that you only hear about if you go to that specific telegrams news channel (often for an Oblast/city/town). A LOT of people don't report any news at all because they don't want to get harassed by the government. Funny comment though. Curious where you're from.
  - racional 2y ago
    Do share a few links to stories about the border town rampage and any other particularly notable incidents, if you can.

by swozey 2y ago

vzaliva 2y ago

If you go to russia there is a chance of you being arrested on made-up charge just to be used as exchange fund for russian spies or arm dealers arrested in the west. Look up Paul Whelan, Brittney Griner, Michael Calvey, Trevor Reed, and most recently Travis Leake.

travismark 2y ago
or Evan Gershkovich. St Pete was a wonderful city to visit before the 2014 invasion, now I think it's too risky
swozey 2y ago
Oh yeah I know all about our people over there. Not a chance I'd go post 2014 unless a revolution happens. They're all sad stories but there's a ballerina who lived in California for decades and was a US citizen (If you were ever Russian, Russia doesn't recognize your new state, you're always Russian) who was arrested last year when visiting I believe a grandma. Her charge was that she donated $25 to a Ukranian refugee fund. She had a few articles last year but not much keeping her in the news. She's going to have a tough time being an immigrant from Russia who donated to Ukraine. I don't think she has a chance of getting out and the women penal colonies like IK-14 are essentially slave factories. The Ukraine war has taught me a lot about how Russia treats peope, especially women. Field Wives, et al. Now they're releasing female prisoners to Storm Z groups to go to the front line. https://nypost.com/2024/03/04/world-news/ksenia-karelinas-letter-reveals-conditions-in-russian-prison/ https://nypost.com/2024/03/04/world-news/ksenia-karelinas-le... https://www.rferl.org/a/notorious-russian-women-s-prison-hell-tolokonnikova-mordovia-ik-14/29788168.html https://www.rferl.org/a/notorious-russian-women-s-prison-hel...

cafard 2y ago

> He's only been in America a few years so as soon as he speaks the entire bar knows he's Russian. Because Americans are so good at distinguishing Slavic languages by ear in a noisy room? I live near a Russian Orthodox church. People complain about the congregants, but mostly about their parking. A house opposite the church as a Ukrainian flag prominently hung; on the other hand one of the congregants has a sticker of the Ukrainian flag with the don't-tread-on-me rattlesnake. I don't think most Americans care enough to be rude to Russians. We visited St. Petersburg some years ago, probably 2012. I very much enjoyed the visit. Everyone seemed to be much too preoccupied to give a damn where we came from. The cases of Griner, Gershkovich, and the NCO in Vladivostok do make one wonder about the prospects of American tourists.

agent281 2y ago
> Because Americans are so good at distinguishing Slavic languages by ear in a noisy room? There is a simpler explanation: Russian is probably the only Slavic language most Americans know about.
- viraptor 2y ago
  Unfortunately it's just due to the number of people. It's unlikely a random person could tell a difference between Polish and Russian, much less Ukrainian and Russian.
  - dralley 2y ago
    I doubt many Russians can tell the difference between Ukrainian and Polish either. I unironically think that some of them convinced themselves they were fighting Polish mercenaries just because they heard western Ukrainian accents.
    - stychos 2y ago
      I doubt most of Ukrainians knows Ukrainian language.

ludwigschubert 2y ago

I imagine your friend is genuine. During undergrad/before 2014 I attended a summer school (https://www.jass.school https://www.jass.school) in St. Peterburg. I found the city to be welcoming, almost European in ambiance, with friendly university students. It never felt too foreign or unsafe. In my experience, St. Peterburg is as distinct from how I imagine Moscow as San Francisco is from Dallas, Texas. (edit: I have no idea how it’d feel nowadays, and won’t visit Russia atm either.)

throwaway2037 2y ago
> almost European in ambiance It should. SPB is in the European part of Russia.
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  So is Moscow. So is the vast majority of the population of Russia.
imp0cat 2y ago
I'd skip Russia and Ukraine right now for obvious reasons. But I have a friend who managed to visit St. Peterburg before the current war and was quite impressed.

kleton 2y ago

They won't know you're American until you open your mouth. There is such a wide variety of phenotypes in SPB that people will just assume you are a Russian. Russians these days mostly have friendly excited reactions to foreigners speaking English in public.

generic92034 2y ago
> Russians these days mostly have friendly excited reactions to foreigners speaking English in public. That does not need to be a good thing, though. :D
swozey 2y ago
I'm OP you're replying to. I've lived all over Europe, mainly Germany. You can absolutely tell Americans from other crowds by clothes/style and mannerisms. Just like I can easily tell if someone is British or Australian (not that they look the same, but easy to discern which is which usually). An Italian once; "Americans walk confidently in the wrong direction."

_zoltan_ 2y ago

St Petersburg is beautiful and quite lovely. Or well, I don't know now, but it was before the war. To be honest I've watched a ton of Russian YouTube content and on these videos the Russian cities doesn't seem affected. Just forget your visa/mastercard

sam_lowry_ 2y ago
> St Petersburg is beautiful and quite lovely. You've been to the city center. The outskirts are dull even by Russian standards. Because of the soil there, they tend to build high-rise residential buildings spaced by 500m to 1km. Streets run in-between, there are occasional malls and that's it.

trustno2 2y ago

Russia is a lot like west if you stick to the big cities. Sometimes it's "more western than the west", some people just eat in fast-food chains. Well, at least when I was there before the war.

pjc50 2y ago

It's a shame. I'd love to visit St. Petersburg, but the window of history where I could do that in relative ease and safety is closed. Many years ago a friend went to Syria in its brief window of peace, and visited some of the incredibly well preserved Roman sites. I hope they're still OK.

taneliv 2y ago
I went, too. Unfortunately at least some sites are not okay: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150901-is... (2015).

keybored 2y ago

> But I cannot imagine doing that as an American. It kind of makes me wonder if he's messing with me but he hates Russia and Putin and I don't know why he would. I feel like I would be so unsafe. I'm a very "American" looking person and I only know a handful of Russian words. Well, I guess I look more German, blonde/blue eyed. Now I’m imagining a flat with some Russian friends where they take turns throwing darts at pictures of Biden. Or Obama. I don’t know why you think that Russians or whatever else would make an American unsafe. I mean what would they even care/have against you. > Ironically I always expect an American to start shit with him when I'm out drinking with him so I sometimes deviate conversations away from him having to talk about being Russian at every bar we're at. He's only been in America a few years so as soon as he speaks the entire bar knows he's Russian. Well talking about your country of origin is the most natural thing to do in those contexts.

swozey 2y ago
> Well talking about your country of origin is the most natural thing to do in those contexts. Someone out enjoying their night with friends doesn't want to constantly have to explain that they're from Russia, where in Russia, no not Moscow, 3 hours from Moscow, no I don't like Putin, no I don't support the war, etc etc over and over to random drunks. I am glad that most (if not all) of the people we encounter aren't rude and assume he supports Putin/war, etc. That's usually what I expect to come out of someones mouth once they find out he's Russian.

ossobuco 2y ago

It's funny but personally I'd feel less safe traveling to the USA. The chance of finding myself in the midst of a mass shooting terrifies me. Also being robbed, being involved in a road rage accident. If I was black I'd add to that the possibility of being subjected to police abuse. Without considering the chance I'm for some reason snatched and imprisoned in Guantanamo for the rest of my life without any legal process.

swozey 2y ago
Yeah it's like Mad Max over here. I'm sure Russia doesn't have tons of road rage (wait, didn't the dashcam trend start there?), may have less guns but rape and domestic violence is absolutely insane (and dv is legal now), and Russia absolutely treats black people with respect (oh wait now the battlefield is full of dead minority conscripts hmm). Maybe the USA just has a lot more news outlets. We don't have Oblasts or little shanty towns full of drunk war criminals committing rapes and crimes that don't get reported because the Oblast/town has no local news agency and everything they learn on the news is filtered through VK. There is a university on the border of Ukraine (30mins or so in I believe) where they kicked out ALL of the students living there and filled it up with village evacuees and men who are in between going to the front line. They basically took over an entire college and were sexually assaulting/harassing the young students. There is one news article about it off of telegram and it's never been updated, happened a year ago. Not a single American thinks about Guantanamo Bay in their day to day life that isn't a public defender. I'm on a LOT of Russian telegram channels since they started the war. Nearly all Russians get their news off of Telegram or vk and it's basically all community sourced news. If the gov doesn't want you to hear about it you won't. A LOT of stuff goes on that you only hear about if you go to that specific telegrams news channel (often for an Oblast/city/town). A LOT of people don't report any news at all because they don't want to get harassed by the government. Funny comment though. Curious where you're from.
- racional 2y ago
  Do share a few links to stories about the border town rampage and any other particularly notable incidents, if you can.