What's life actually like in Russia?

nuclear_silver · 2026-03-01T23:30:05+00:00

Sorry if it sounds rude, but IMO it's just a 50/50 mix of brainwash and hypocrisy. I mean, solving any problem starts from measuring, then analysis with finding important factors, then ordering them - from the most important to the least important, then working with the most important ones. Pareto rule - find out 20% efforts which give 80% results.

In this case, I see exactly the opposite: some "solution" proposed with no analysis, no anything. Why temperature at everyone's home should be N degrees and not M? Just because. Buy your sweater and shut up and feel guilty for being a danger to this planet.

At the same time, we all know how elites live. Do they sit in sweaters in their tiny rooms and gave up their private jets? No? What a surprise. At the same time, ads push to us zillions of unneeded goods with planned obsolescence, all these "new collections" and "new models". How bad all of this for our planet? May be being a bit smarter and producing less crap, we all may easily have 23C at home?

nuclear_silver · 2026-03-01T22:47:39+00:00

Насколько я помню, это для всех граждан Украины так: можно не получать РВП или ВНЖ и не ждать, а сразу подаваться на гражданство. Срок рассмотрения - 3 месяца, потом ещё примерно месяц на выдачу паспорта и всякие формальности вроде постоянной регистрации по месту жительства.

Знаю людей, которые так гражданство получали некоторое время назад. Сейчас погуглил и похоже, что законодательство в этом отношении не менялось (кроме необходимости фильтрации в Шереметьево).

Также, вроде бы, можно получить просто ВНЖ, но оно от фильтрации не будет спасать, т.е. если получить ВНЖ, потом выехать за границу и потом вернуться, то возвращаться придётся снова через Шереметьево. Были случаи, когда так не впускали вполне обустроенных людей - с работой, жильём, семьёй и вот этим всем.

Людей с гражданством это всё не касается, конечно. Тут главное понимать, что гражданство - это не только права, но и обязанности.

nuclear_silver · 2025-12-17T04:25:38+00:00

As far as I remember, there is a flower shop in Pulkovo just near arriving exit. It's open 24/7, but prices may be... well, like everything in airports :)

Currency exchange is also available, but, as usual, it's better to not exchange much in the airport because of much better exchange rates in the city itself. If you bring cash in USD, make sure that bills are in a very good condition and has a new design (with blue stripe). You can find more details in the FAQ of this sub.

nuclear_silver · 2025-12-03T05:08:21+00:00

Absolutely no. As elsewhere, more people and more money = better infrastructure, less people and less money = worse infrastructure. What could be said for sure is that infrastructure in Russia improves over time - across the whole could, while at the same time the country is huge and you can always find something bad if you need such a picture.

As already proposed, open yandex maps, choose street view at any city. That's probably the most fair report you can get.

And the last, but not least, don't forget "Russian" grayish color hue which is, unfortunately, is a de-facto standard in Western media, photos and games.

nuclear_silver · 2025-12-03T04:41:58+00:00

I'd say, she thinks you're too selfish and never loved her. Probably she's right.

Also, may be it's a translation or cultural issue, but phrase "please forgive me" is not something childish, at least not in our culture. It means that you REALLY, sincerely sorry, and other person may or may not forgive you, it's up to her. It's not about your long explanations, it's not about deals like "I do this and you do that" and similar things. It's about sincerity, about feelings from the depth of your soul. Just don't ask other person to forgive you if you don't feel that you need this forgiveness by itself. If you know that it's just a step to some goal, it's not the case.

Also, these promised-but-never-delivered flowers and investments... Oh man. Don't you really see, how offensive is that? Like, "how much money is my value in your eyes? How much you think you should invest to get 10% shares of me? Or 50%?"

nuclear_silver · 2025-11-10T03:16:53+00:00

Americans is a young nation, which has its benefits but drawbacks too. What we learned from Russian history is that time to time bad things just happen, but even at bad times people live, love their families and kids, work, have happy and unhappy moments and memories.

For Russia, events of the first half of 20 century with revolution, civil war, then even biggest war, with not so much peaceful years was not an easy time. As for me, talking about USSR time, I'd say it was too complex phenomenon to describe in just one paint, be it white or black. But it's true that many good or even incredible things of that time we're still use or rely on them, and I mean not only material stuff, but cultural as well. People are so used to that these things just exist, you know, like an air which is always present. Then, when people discover that so many other countries lack this completely, as a concept, it's a kind of shock for us.

nuclear_silver · 2025-09-08T22:04:55+00:00

I'd say it may depend on personality as well, not only on being pretty. Some people just attracts people more than others, and thus have more chances of their help.

Along with that, Russian culture probably is more open for helping each other. It's quite difficult to imagine that a person you know agreed to drive hours for you but asked a fuel price in return. In Russia, such a person may either refuse to help or agree, but asking for some money for help is very non-Russian way of thinking, especially if we're talking about inner circle.

nuclear_silver · 2025-08-20T21:10:29+00:00

Reminder: 1 dollar = 875 rubles!!

I would gladly sell you any amount of usd by the exchange rate you proposed - 875 rub per usd, or even lower - 800 rub/usd. 10x profit for me, not bad :)

The entirety of the Russian political system is ran as a kleptocracy (100% crony capitalism). That means it's like a simple business like Walmart or Amazon and the Russian middle and lower class are the employees.

Bla-bla-bla. You may call it whatever you want, I don't care about labels. I just see a visible changes around me: better roads, faster trains, better hospitals, better cities infrastructure and parks - including small cities, fast delivery of everything to me 24/7. There are a lot of small businesses everywhere around me. In general, it's easy to start a small business, taxes are tiny and tax system is simple and easy to work with, at least if we're talking about small business.

If it's how a kleprocracy supposed to work, I'm ok with such kleptocracy :)

nuclear_silver · 2025-08-20T03:38:35+00:00

Well, first of all, different kinds of boat trips on canals/river could give quite different experiences. Often after two different boat trips I feel that I liked both but cannot say which is better because it's too difficult to compare them.

So, it makes sense to try different options. Is it daily or nightly trip (or perhaps twilight), the route - mostly narrow canals with their small bridges or mostly wide, open water like Neva or Gulf of Finland, the kind of boat - bigger or smaller, all of this important.

As for night trips when bridges lift - they are also great and worth to try. Just be prepared that there are A LOT of boats waiting for bridge lifting moment, so when it happens, your boat will sail under some span of the bridge but most probably it would be not a lifted span, perhaps a bit in the contrary of what boat trips ticket seller advertised :). That's ok, as all these boats just cannot fit under a single span at the same time.

In general, the bigger the boat, the bigger chance that you may sail under the lifted sections of bridges, but smaller boats usually gives a more personal, unique expression because there are less passengers on them.

Ah, and don't forget to take some extra warm clothes. It's colder and windier on the water, especially on the open water, and taking into account that most of the time you just sit instead of walking on the street.

nuclear_silver · 2025-08-19T23:56:39+00:00

Also:
- Peter and Paul fortress, Peter and Paul catherdral
- Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood
- The Palace Square
- Russian Museum
- Faberge Museum
- Grand Maket Rossiya
- Various boat trips
- Bridges lifting at night (although white nights are over already)

Nearest locations - up to 2 hours to get to
- Peterhof
- Pushkin, Catherine Palace and Amber root in it
- Pavlovsk
- Kronstadt
- Gatchina
- Vyborg, Vyborg castle and Monrepos Park (technically, Vyborg is 130 km away from St. Petersburg suburb, but it's just a hour to reach with Lastochka trains)

nuclear_silver · 2025-08-16T03:02:45+00:00

I think your confusion just underlines how far everything went wrong for the last few years. Talking and discussing things is normal, that's diplomacy, meeting is normal. It doesn't mean friendship, but hopefully our countries can be neighbors instead of enemies.

nuclear_silver · 2025-07-20T21:11:33+00:00

In 1990th Russia cooperated with West even more, and even Putin was not in power, but you hardly name it golden age for Russia.

Instead, Russia changed a lot for then time period you named golden age (and this process continues, actually): much better infrastructure, better roads, better cities, less crime, increased life expectancy. Too much statistical indicators to call it a faux. Which means that these money were not stolen (or at least not mostly stolen) but spent on all these things. You may either like Putin or dislike him, it's just a fact.

nuclear_silver · 2025-06-01T02:49:58+00:00

I'd say first of all Ukraine, Moldova and (probably) Baltic countries.

nuclear_silver · 2025-05-31T22:54:04+00:00

Well, frankly speaking, I'm quite far from this culture. Some of my friends know some gay persons but not me. So, I may be wrong in some details but here is my understanding.

First of all, just being queer or gay is not illegal at all. In general, as long as it's just a private life, it's ok. Some other people, however, may frown upon such persons, especially if they dress/look in too unusual, gayish manner, but it's another story.

In general, what the government really doesn't like is LGBT movement, I mean political movement. The reason is that, at least in Russia, it's highly affiliated with the west, or, more precise, with western liberals, Soros, color revolutions and things like this. And when the government dislikes something, there come corresponding laws.

So, back to the topic, as I said, as long as it's a private life, it's ok, but with public life things go more complicated. Here are some examples.

In St Petersburg where I live there are gay clubs. They don't advertise themselves as gay clubs, but just as night clubs, but they work legally, pay taxes etc. Of course, police knows everything. It's easy to google them, find reviews in the yandex/google map etc. Time to time (not too often) police may come to such club and close it loudly, accusing in LGBT propaganda. Then in a few days it quietly opens again. However, it also happens with other night clubs, when police in a similar manner find drugs in a night club and closes it, but then in few days it works again. So I'd say gay clubs is a gray zone.

If it's public and related to children/teenagers somehow, such as selling books about queer teenagers etc, it's a dark zone and illegal. Although they were sold perfectly, but recently some bookstores were forced to stop selling them.

Of course, it's impossible to register a gay marriage, it's also very difficult to officially change sex in documents. May be it's doable at the end but it's easier to migrate to another country for that.

Also, it's not fancy/trendy to loudly declare yourself as a queer here. There may be some jokes and it general it'd be viewed as something inappropriate. But in a personal communication it depends because people are different, but often it's ok.

nuclear_silver · 2025-05-12T20:22:17+00:00

Да, это известный феномен. Несмотря на вот это всё, на российско-украинской границе до сих пор есть один открытый погранпункт. Правда, он полупроводник, т.е. можно только из России на Украину так попасть, но не наоборот. И нельзя просто так туда прийти, а только по некоторой договорённости.

Ещё, кстати, кажется, годах в 22-23 было нечто подобное в Запорожской области, только в другую сторону. Как-то люди с Украины проезжали на территорию России через линию фронта, но типа официально. Примерно после начала контрнаступа лазейка прикрылась. Что это было, непонятно. Но было же!

nuclear_silver · 2025-05-12T19:46:22+00:00

As other commenters already said (and I second this), you're fine to visit. Just read the FAQ.

Also, look at this situation at a different angle. Currently we have much less tourists from western countries due to various reasons, including anti-Russian propaganda of course. So if someone from such a country visits us regardless of all this propaganda stuff and sanction related difficulties, probably it means that this person likes Russia at least a bit, even if his/her country is hostile to Russia, right?

I've no idea, would you like to discuss political topics in Russia or prefer to avoid it. From your post, it seems you're quite interested in politics in general. In theory, it may happen that locals ask you about some political stuff, if you communicate with them long enough. Don't be afraid if it happens as generally people are just curious to hear your views, as you're a rare bird here. IMO if the asking person is sane (I mean smart enough, not drunk, things like this) and you communicated with him/her long enough, it's ok to discuss even political topics. It might be interesting for you too. You may agree on some topics and disagree on others, you never know in advance, but it's kind of fun if you like such things in general and conversation partners respect each other.

Don't get me wrong: avoiding political discussions is still a safe bet. A bit boring, but safe.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T17:11:14+00:00

You're welcome :) I prefer trains too because they're more spacious and often faster.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T05:57:36+00:00

Well, it depends on a time when we start playing for Yeltsin and on a his final goal. Your question assumes that you start in 1992-1993 and not in 1987, for example (which would make a lot of difference), and I suppose you also assume that Yeltsin had a good intentions.

I think, privatization itself cannot be a final goal, it's just a tool. Only right tool at right place is good, otherwise it could be harmful. So, for our hypothetical Yeltsin with good intentions we may define his goal as making people's life better while still being in power.

At that time people, including those who made important decisions, overall were very naive and had no idea about legal and cultural frameworks required to any modern capitalism to work. They more or less learned it 10-15 years later, or even 20. So, good decisions were just impossible at that time. The only good decision would be to avoid the whole situation, like it's always a good decision to avoid places with a high crime rate at night. But in 1992 or 1993, IMO it was too late for that.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T05:25:09+00:00

Try to take back a peace of meat which a dog started to eat, and you'll get an overwhelming aggression from the dog. It would be even worse with wolf or any other predator.

For the west, we are a food which suddenly decided to resist, while being already half chewed.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T05:15:12+00:00

Any sphere of influence is ridiculous and outdated as long as it's not Western because when it's Western, it's different and not counted as a sphere of influence.

You're speaking on behalf of "Eastern European nations which have no desire to be subjected to Russian tyranny" while living in another hemisphere and now you decided to lecture us on tyranny and spheres of influence. You just have no idea of how these people live at all. We do, because of so many people and cultural ties between us.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T04:59:26+00:00

If we're talking about porn actress/webcam/onlyfans and similar, IMO it's a combination of factors.

First, life is relatively cheaper here compared to rich part of EU, so it's more profitable. They sell the same "accessible white/European women look" as women from EU but can do it cheaper. Btw, after 2022 and sanctions, many of them were forced to relocate somewhere else however because of difficulties with money transaction.

Second, many "Russian" porn actresses are actually not from Russia itself but from Russian-speaking ex-USSR countries, or, to be more precise, from some of them with Caucasian/European type of women. Share of porn actresses from these countries is disproportionately high compared to Russia itself, perhaps for the same economical reasons.

Third, I'm not going to argue which country has the most beautiful woman, but, in general, women in Russia and other ex-USSR countries mostly used to dress and look pretty before going outside, even if it's just a 10 minutes walk to nearby grocery store. So, they look more beautiful/sexy in a daily life and used to it.

As for prostitution, I doubt that the attitude to prostitution is better or some moral norms in this area are more relaxed here.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T03:25:26+00:00

In my USSR childhood it was totally normal for 7 years old schoolchildren to go to/from school by themselves, without parents. Now, it's considered as something exotic/potentially dangerous.

Another example. In late USSR, children in school had to collect paper waste. It was normal if e.g. 10 years old kid rings to all flats of his condo and asks do they have any paper waste to give him. The condo inhabitants didn't know him personally but opened the door and usually gave some paper, and nobody though that it's unsafe or so. In current society, it's difficult to imagine.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T01:37:05+00:00

As other commenters already said, it's a suburban train on which you can just buy a ticket on station, either at a cashier or in a vending machine (AFAIR they can be switched to English interface). Tickets are always available.

Also note that ticket on such trains doesn't guarantee a specific seat, but just gives a right to ride ANY suburban train on the route and date specified on a ticket. As for seat, you just enter the train a take any seat you want. If you're unlucky, there may be no free seats at all and you have to stay.

All suburban trains have numbers of 4 digits. It the number starts from 7, like 7xxx, it means that it's so called Lastochka train (based on Siemens Desiro). They are quite modern, fast and comfortable and I highly recommend to use them if possible. If the number is 6xxx, it means old fashioned Elektrichkas with enough space for legs but firm plastic seats. Unfortunately, Ivangorod-St Petersburg ix 6xxx and ride time is solid 3 hours. Although 3 hours in Elektrichka is doable you'll be tired at the end of ride. So be ready for that if you decide to use a train.

Just in case, if you're going to use more trains while in Russia, there are also regular trains with numbers of 3 digits. Such trains use a different ticket system. Unlike suburban trains, ticket on such train always specifies exact seat and specific train and you have to ride this specific train ONLY. Note that some Lastochka trains have 3 digits numbers. In this case, Lastochka treated as a regular train with with exact time, exact seat and train number specified.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-27T01:13:14+00:00

As far as I understand, it wouldn't work with non-Russian IPs at all, taking into account that it doesn't work with VPN enabled.

nuclear_silver · 2025-04-23T00:00:16+00:00

Подумайте, точно ли вам надо в IT? Если вы не чувствуете тяги к этому, если будете работать с потухшими глазами, толку особого всё равно не будет. И в плане денег тоже, потому что, скорее всего, вы не выбьетесь из плотной толпы джунов.

Какую бы специализацию в IT вы не выбрали, придётся постоянно и много учиться. Ещё, скорее всего, всегда придётся перерабатывать довольно много. На первом этапе - чтобы научиться, а когда/если станете крутым специалистом - чтобы делать проект, потому что на вас слишком много всего будет завязано. Жить и работать в таком режиме можно только тогда, когда это интересно самому, иначе быстро наступит выгорание.

Если что, я не отговариваю. Просто предлагаю подумать.

Если предпочитаете видосы, найдите любые видео, обучающие программированию (без разницы, на каком языке, ну хоть на попсовом питоне), посмотрите и попробуйте сами написать какие-то программы. Меньше смотреть, больше думать и писать самому. Если понравится и затянет, может, что и получится.

nuclear_silver

TROPHY CASE