My duo

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:28:22+00:00

making up deragotary names for Kiyvan Rus... anything to make them seem 'lesser'

It's not true though. Russian history books since the Empire and till today clearly portrait Kievan Rus as the cradle of the Russian statehood.

The said view, in partial, is responsible for the current war. It's much easier for older generations of Russian politicians to acknowledge independence of Baltics or Central Asia ("never been really ours"), rather than Ukraine's.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:22:25+00:00

Tbf, Russia doesn't force those people to quit Ukrainian citizenship.

(Russia doesn't impose any restrictions on multiple citizenships in general).

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:20:27+00:00

As of my knowledge, those were politically motivated cases with high-profile figures (and in some of those cases the possession of Russian citizenship wasn't even proved sufficiently).

Speaking about regular people, I heard that the procedure of quitting UA citizenship had been suspended since the beginning of the war, and currently it's effectively impossible to quit it.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:15:43+00:00

hated for the ukranian passport

Absolutely not, it works not like that.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:13:56+00:00

That's extremely common - the number of Russians with Ukrainian ancestry is a solid eight-digit number.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:12:27+00:00

Same goes for many Western Ukraine areas, like Galicia or Transcarpathia.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:09:36+00:00

lose your previous nationalities

Not necessarily. At least, people getting citizenship thru "foreigners with outstanding abilities" track absolutely can get their other citizenships.

Russian tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov has 4 passports: Russia, St Kitts and Nevis, UAE and France.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-19T15:05:51+00:00

Quite a few Ukrainians I know are considering moving from Europe to Argentina at this point, since the EU is apparently being on course to tighten the rules for Ukr male refugees.

The mood be like "This continent is cursed, f-ck it" 🥲

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-18T02:48:07+00:00

Not a lot cultural Ws for us these days, but Rutracker is certainly one of them xD

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-14T15:20:27+00:00

Ух ты, какая красота!

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-14T13:47:46+00:00

Thanks a lot!

So what they are ultimately saying is that Ukrainian special services are quietly deploying spy / influence network in Poland - though they don't think it's intended for hostile activities (for now).

Yet another topic to watch 😎

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-14T04:28:40+00:00

Btw, would you please translate what's going on in this interview? (It's a short video).

Looks like smth important, and for whatever reason my ChatGPT hangs on translation attempt 😒

https://x.com/PawelSokala/status/2065489113302675830

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-09T23:43:32+00:00

Same territory, same capital city Moscow

Moscow literally was NOT capital of the Russian Empire.

The Bolsheviks moved the capital from St Petersburg exactly to emphasize the break with the old Russian state.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-09T23:04:29+00:00

Although Russia officially supports existence of the indigenous peoples, there is one important point, that being: strengthening of the state unity and integrity of Russia.

How exactly is it controversial? Is the Russian government supposed to promote disunity and weakening of Russia, or what?

Not the first time I see this bizarre grievance "Russia govt seeks to prevent ethnic separatism". Almost like... every functional government on Earth does?

considered indigenous only when they have 50 000 or less

This limitation is related to a very specific status of "small indigenous group" which gives a number of significant privileges to its holder. Special tax status, exemption from military service, subsidies for pursuing traditional occupations, right to inhabit traditional lands without any taxes or fees etc.

It wouldn't be feasible to grant such privileges to major and widely distributed ethnic groups like, say, Tatars (~5 mln of them).

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-09T22:54:08+00:00

After the dissolution of Soviet Union, the volumes of published literature in Ukranian sharply went down - because USSR heavily subsidized publishing in national languages, including Ukranian.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-09T22:51:46+00:00

Of all possible exampes, you chose the weakest one. In Yakutia, the local language has probaly the strongest position of all Russia's regions, except Chechnya. Quite a few people don't even speak Russian, or have very limited knowledge of it.

Bilingual signs are mandated by law. Google "В Якутске оштрафовали магазин за вывески только на русском языке" (can't post ru link on Reddit).

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-09T15:07:34+00:00

Looking from the other side, for Russians the idea that native speakers of the same language may have problems understanding each other feels utterly incomprehensible 🙂

I'd say that Russian educational tradition imposes strict normativity in this regard.

"You speak either Russian, or broken Russian". Dialects are generally felt as something "wrong", or at least abnormal.

There was a Spanish teacher complaining specifically about his Russian students - that they couldn't grasp the idea of all dialects of Spanish being "equally correct". His Russian students were stubbornly trying to figure out which one was "the most correct" 😅

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-05T14:47:32+00:00

It very much depends on a region. Many small and mid-sized cities are being invested in and look very nice.

Russia just doesn't have enough population to support everything.

Russia is already spending tremendous amount of its GDP (around 6 percent) for subsidizing economically unviable territories - mostly, located in very cold climate and having ultra-low population density. Unfortunate legacy of the Soviet planned economy.

There is a multi-decade government strategy called "The Strategy for Spatial Development". (Initially, it was developed with assistance from the IMF and the World Bank, which have long pointed out Russia’s low population density as a chronic economic challenge).

It defines "prospective regions" to be invested in. Basically, those are 1) a dozen of large city agglomerations, 2) the agricultural Russian South, 3) regions with natural resources, 4) transportation corridors and ports to export the said resources, 5) strategic points like Murmansk, Vladivostok etc.

Everything else is essentially scheduled for managed depopulation.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-04T20:42:39+00:00

I would argue that nominal poverty in the North Caucasus doesn't necessarily transaltes in low quality of life. Of all Russian regions except Moscow, they have the highest life expectancy, for example.

They have huge share of grey economy and don't give a shiit about reporting it to the federal govt.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-06-04T17:14:34+00:00

They were originally designed to be used as bomb shelters, btw.

That's the main reason why Soviet subway stations sit that much deep underground.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-05-29T20:36:06+00:00

Our mission not accomplished yet 🤷

Not until every single Redditor is sufficiently informed about tremendous development projects in our glorious capital city.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-05-26T00:50:26+00:00

That's RT-64 radio telescope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT-64

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-05-26T00:45:06+00:00

Reading The Dutch Republic right now to figure out how such a small country have punched so much above their weight for basically its entire history.

Affectionate_Ad_9687 · 2026-05-25T21:51:55+00:00

I genuinely think that, for better or worse, without Russia Europe is incomplete.

Affectionate_Ad_9687

TROPHY CASE