When I read about how well Russia is doing, I understand why western leaders don't want their citizens knowing about it.
I confess to some jealousy.
What do we get in the west? Crumbling infrastructure, skyrocketing cost of living, austerity, propaganda and our taxes shovelled to the rich and the NATO war machine.
I find the problem with emigration is roots and commitments to family which make it difficult to leave, particularly when your old like me. But I can't complin too much about my personal situation. State and Federal policies, most definitely merit high condemnation.
Excellent coverage. Key point, a requirement for national development is that commercial banks are owned by the government. This was key to both China's and Russia's accelerated development.
Also, key industrial sectors like energy, transportation and housing. Key is eliminating the Class War between Labor and Capital and get them to work together along with the state.
These are outcomes from having a strong governance structure that hasn't been subordinated to an oligarchy. The US tried, but ultimately failed. The current global leaders - China and Russia have moderated oligarchy which seems at present under control. Both have strong scientific/technological capabilities to mobilise the global majority towards equitable development.
The Russian economy is truly confounding. It's not only growing despite the economic fatwa waged against it by the West, it's growing despite Russian banks having a 19% lending rate! Moreover, despite that lofty interest rate people and companies are borrowing heavily, and not just for bricks and mortar stuff but for investment as well. That latter fact is the paradox that Gref and Putin are highlighting. It appears to mean that Russians currently believe that their country's economy will grow so much that it warrants borrowing even at a high interest rate in order to reinvest the capital!
When you say 'special' mortgage rates can be as low as 2%, can you provide some detail about that? Mortgages for whom? Where can we get these mortgages? (genuine question on behalf of friends and relatives)
At the moment, one of the obvious problems with this analysis is that property prices are high, mortgage rates astronomical and many people are being forced to pay high rents. This is certainly the case in Moscow - I don't know whether other cities are as badly affected or not.
I find it difficult to justify a base rate of 19% - perhaps this is partly aimed at luring capital back to Russia?
As Gref notes, the growth rates he lists are difficult to understand given such a high cost of borrowing.
You'll note the program began in 2019. There are many different investment programs that are funneled through Russia's budget that were announced at the various investment summits at St. Petersburg and Vladivostok over the past several years, also at business roundtable talks and other related venues. Putin's Leap Day speech that outlined Russia's goals to 2030 included most of those programs and is a very important primary document you can find in the archive.
Today's discussion that will eventually get posted revolves around exports and provides further evidence of how Russia's political-economy works.
'"School 21" is the training of the best engineering personnel on the market. What's good about it? Free education, no age restrictions, no education restrictions. The most important thing is a high motivation to get a digital engineering degree.
Vladimir Putin: What year did you start this project?
G. Gref: We started in 2016 and invested a lot of money in creating the Shkoly 21 platform itself.
Since visa conditions have been relaxed for western immigration, and given that many of those people will be bringing significant capital into the country, what effect will that have on investment, housing prices and demand for goods and services, given that most will start out, and perhaps settle in either Moscow or St. Pete?
Ania from Poland (who's also moving to Russia) read the entire list on her YT channel just the other day - 47 countries! Canada made the list which didn't surprise me, but so did Japan, which did. Not sure on what basis they made that determination, but it helps us as my wife is Japanese. I can't see too many Japanese people taking advantage of the opportunity though. Reading between the lines, is that so they don't get accused of racism? Japan is definitely in the western camp, but I haven't seen anything amounting to the kind of dissent one sees in the West. Puzzling.
A bit of a comical moment occurred a few years ago in one of Putin's press conferences. A journalist from Sweden who was immigrating complained about the requirement to own property in order to become a citizen. Putin's response was classic. "Just buy a dacha. They're very affordable."
I lived in Vancouver from 1981 to 2018 and saw the entire mad run-up in housing prices due mainly to external factors such as immigration and foreign investment. I have to wonder if something similar might happen in Russia and if the govt. has anticipated this and taken steps to keep a lid on housing prices. Urban Russians live well on less income than in the West, but housing could quickly become an issue if left entirely to market forces. Has anyone done this sort of analysis?
Another factor to consider is the current exchange rate. Right now, if we moved there, we'd be considered wealthy even though we're only middle class here in Canada. I've looked at what we can afford in the Novorossiysk area and it's much better than what we have now, and that's in a small town, while Novorossiysk has 1/4M people and is in a very favourable location.
Despite all the contingencies, the future definitely looks bright for Russia. I'd have thought you mad if you'd told me 20 years ago that one day I'd be considering moving there, but there it is.
I wonder if they'll let us keep a bear, like this couple?
On Japan, its policy is mixed as it refuses to cut its access to Russian energy and maintains its investments in Sakhalin. Apparently, there's diplomatic action that doesn't rise to the level of news that aides Japan's case. On housing, I'm still attempting to ferret out Russian policy as it seems the state still builds the greater portion of housing--apartments--whereas dachas are usually 100% private sector. There're several articles in the archives related to construction and housing, and there's a Ministry that's responsible which is where I will go when I get the time to make inquiries. Employment depends on your abilities and your aims. My preference is to become part of the logistics chain of the North-South Corridor at the Northern end of the Caspian Sea where the Volga enters, but many options exist. But as I answered Diana, I've got commitments here that don't allow for relocation unless the state comes after me.
Thanks. I'll check out your previous articles as I'm new here and haven't yet found the time. Back in 2018 we were planning a visit to size up the potential for relocating. Then the pandemic and war got in the way of those plans. The idea was to start a small trucking company in Novorossiysk and haul freight between there and Krasnodar, so as well as being self-employed I'd also be employing one or two locals. I did my homework and it seems feasible, but several years have passed already and I'm no spring chicken, so maybe simple retirement is a better idea, although I'm not the sort of person who can sit still for very long.
Incidentally, I tend to be a bit long-winded, and I've drawn some heat for that on other sites, so please let me know if I'm cluttering up the place. The last thing I want is to be a nuisance:)
I have no problem with long comments that have meaning. Yes, logistic companies are easy starting, the market has plenty of room. Russia makes some awesome trucks. The problem would be labor with unemployment at 2% or lower depending on the region.
Thanks Karl. I'd probably start with just one truck with me driving, so I'd only need one driver for my cross-shift at first and see where it goes from there. Yeah, Kamaz makes some awesome trucks. I'd go work for them but I don't like cold weather and Kazan gets its share of that.
True enough. That's when you hop the ferry and spend the winter in Türkiye. If you want to keep warm there just cruise the villages looking for weddings and join the halay!
If I were 20 years younger, I would explore with great vigor. A luxurious dacha outside St. Pete's sounds awfully romantic...alas, I have read too many novels. 😍
Personally, I am curious about the tolerance of faith...specifically, I wonder how those in control of the major faiths see this influx. Specifically the Orthodox tradition or this is all a whitewash as well. One must make sure one is not walking into a bear trap 🤣 especially if it's really about mammon.
Russia prides itself on its being multi-religious and tolerant. The only issue I've seen raised is with migrants who don't attempt to assimilate to some degree, meaning learning Russian and its major cultural traits. Some of the best places to live are in the Muslim majority regions like Tatarstan. One main feature of Orthodoxy I've seen is the utter lack of prosthetalization. Last year, Patriarch Kirill gave speeches at two conferences aimed at discussing the migrant labor issue that spoke to the basic issues I noted above. Putin also spoke at one of those events which was reported as follows:
""Immigrants who come to work and live in Russia must comply with its laws and respect its customs and traditions, including learning the language, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
"Putin addressed the issue at a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, traditionally held in early December.
"“We need to attract such labor resources that meet the interests of the Russian economy,” the president said. “This means that [these] people must be prepared from a linguistic, ethnocultural point of view. They must know our traditions and so on.”
"The interest of Russia and its citizens “must be put first,” the president insisted. All immigrants and visitors also “must comply with Russian laws,” Putin clarified. “And, of course, we, as a civilized country, must also ensure their rights.”"
One solution is the establishment of schools teaching Russian in those nations where most of the migrants come from, something that should've been done 20 years ago, or not discontinued as many migrants are from former Soviet states that are now CIS members. IMO, the culture and language are easy to learn. The reaction of migrants behaviorly is nothing new historically. The key is with the individual--do they want to be an immigrant or remain a migrant? Either way, learning Russian is a no brainer, while reespecting the culture also ought to be obligatory since the migrant is a guest whose conduct ought to reflect that fact.
"IMO, the culture and language are easy to learn."
The culture, yes, but the language? That's not been my experience at all, although granted if you're immersed it's going to be easier than learning from outside as I'm doing. I speak French, Spanish and Japanese, plus I've also studied Punjabi (not fluent). Russian is tougher than any of those IMO. Six cases and everything is inflected! And all those damn pronouns put the LGBTQ crowd to shame! I'm curious, can you actually carry a conversation without having to think in your head, what word ending should I use here? If so, how long did it take? I still have to think about it, and I often get it wrong.
Germans will have an easier time of it since their language is case dependent too, but a westerner whose never studied a foreign language is going to have some tough sledding I would say.
One thing that's been very useful for me is to listen to songs, especially by female vocalists who have higher pitch than men, thus easier to distinguish sounds. Songs tend to repeat verses which burns them into your memory, even if you don't know what they mean. Find the lyrics online, translate them and print them along with the original. Then sing along! Works like a charm. I've even done this with Tajik and Uzbek songs. I have no idea what they mean, but I can sing along just like a native.
An example of a pop singer with clear diction, Olga Laki.
Russian isn't as hard as English when you remember you don't need to use an article--a, the--plus word choice is often context dependent. Soft and hard signs and how they influence diction are something to worry about after learning basics. Mastering some of the consonant combinations can be challenging but once accomplished become easy, much like learning Nahuatl--the language of Mesoamerica prior to Europeans.
I have no problem with the Cyrillic alphabet or pronunciation. The issue for me is the convoluted grammar. You've probably noticed that some Russians make mistakes, similar to the type of English you hear in working class areas like Liverpool or Manchester. I don't want to sound like that. Heard enough of it growing up.
One of the things that can ease the transition for newcomers is a translation app, where you speak into your phone and it translates for you. As long as you don't become dependent on it, it can definitely help. For me though, being a musical person, I like listening to songs. A lot of pop songs are about love, so you get past, conditional, and future tenses all in a 3 minute song, and the repetition burns it in. For clarity of diction Nyusha is great. No blurring or slurring, you can make out every word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n__e1MhQA6k
Same goes for Naadia, Otava Yo and Serebro. Easy to make out the words.
<edit>
For students of the Russian language, when you can understand Masha, you know you've arrived!
No matter how hard you try, you'll always have a foreign accent to your Russian. Even native speakers have regional dialects. As long as you can hold a mutually intelligible conversation, then you've succeeded.
Russia is a big place, so you'll find a lot of variety in social conditions and people's attitudes. What passes as acceptable in one area is out of the question in others, such as Chechnya which has a fairly strict Muslim culture - not like Iran, but definitely more conservative than Lebanon or Syria, for example. When talking about Christian faith in particular, my impression is there are more people who identify as Christian than in the west, but that doesn't necessarily mean they practice the faith. It's more about cultural identity I would say.
As much as the govt. tries to instill a sense of traditional values, which in the Orthodox culture means larger families, the birth rate is still well below replacement, which reflects some of the factors present in the west, such as a high cost of living in the cities and a more career vs family focus of young women. I have to wonder if the recent policy of encouraging western immigration isn't at least partially aimed at offsetting that decline.
One thing I would recommend for anyone considering moving there is to check out the various towns and cites using Google Street View. Russia is widely covered on Google Maps and you'll see what conditions are like outside the big cities, which may come as a bit of a shock, given how most of the coverage reported by foreigners tends to focus on Moscow, or St. Pete. The condition of the roads will jump out at you right away, as will the number of abandoned buildings and Soviet era factories. Like the USA, Russia has its own 'Rust Belt.' The difference is they also have a lot of modern factories, they just haven't gotten around to tearing down the old stuff yet.
Not trying to discourage anyone, I still think Russia is in an major uptrend despite all the obstacles. Just trying to insert a note of realism is all. The main obstacle anyone moving from the west will have is the language. Russian is probably one of the hardest languages to learn. As a Russian friend pointed out to me, where western students hate math, Russian students hate grammar. Frankly I wonder how something so convoluted ever evolved, but it is what it is. You have to learn it to live there, as outside the big cities most people only speak Russian.
This young lady is one of the best on YouTube for showing us what Russia is like, both the good and the bad. I plan to seek her out once I'm there and treat her to a fabulous dinner!
One of the construction and social issues is dilapidated housing and emergency housing which is always mentioned during construction talks. Roads are another huge project area for the state and its regions. Moscow was just voted the most livable metropolitan city on the planet, which is the product of its longstanding Mayor and others. One of Putin's mantras is making localities attractive to people, particularly young people. The Muslim, Buddhist and native peoples have the highest birthrates. Putin in promoting 2024 as the Year of the Family has addressed the thorny issue of female professional development and the core family maker. Also, the issue of abortion while not the divide and rule cultural war tool as used within the Empire is still a significant issue that's currently declining. Here are two long articles from the archive you'll find interesting as I'm assuming you haven't read them before, "Russia Vs. Wokism: Declares 2024 Year of Family" which mostly covers other matters of interest, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/russia-vs-wokism-declares-2024-year and "Year of Family Opening & Meeting with Participants and Winners of All-Russian Family Competitions," with this title being 100% accurate, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/year-of-family-opening-and-meeting
Some of Putin's conversations with students reveal his attempts to finesse the issue of family versus career. Ideally, a woman would marry young, start family, use Russia's awesome childcare services and state support to continue school to obtain the career education, embark on career, and then return to having one or more children before 35. I'll be very curious to discover how this year ends while the emphasis continues.
Just read your posts and thanks for the information. Karl Denninger wrote a lengthy piece on the topic (he's even more long-winded than me!). I think he nailed it.
He gets into the cost of housing as a major determining factor, which I totally agree with. My view of that is that housing should not be treated as an investment but as a capital good, with a depreciation allowance built into the mortgage or property tax. Also, the idea of foreigners being able to purchase residential housing is just absurd. That was a major factor driving Vancouver home prices. We lived in the British Properties for 8 years (US equivalent to Beverly Hills) and the number of unoccupied homes was noticeable by the lack of maintenance. Rich bastards couldn't even be bothered to pay to have the lawns mowed! Residential real estate should always be a local market, tied to the kind of incomes available in the local workplace. Anything else and you just price people out, especially the young who might form new families if they weren't facing the kind of challenges Denninger highlights.
Regarding Gref I found this here: https://www.proekt.media/en/portrait-en/german-gref-eng/ … is this just misinfo? If not, Gref seems so untraditionalist, corrupt, unpatriot and westernized that I wonder why Putin would still remain closer ties to him.
Typical hit piece on one of Russia's most sanctioned people. He was supposedly akin to Kudrin, who was slowly exiled from government as neoliberal. I've seen nothing but positive actions and ideas coming from Gref. Both Gref and Putin were in Sobchak's circle in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. The School 21 project is excellent. IMO, it's clear from his record that German Gref serves Russia and has foiled neoliberal attempts to subvert Russia and its government.
No mention of Victoria (F the EU) Nuland or John McCain addressing the crowds on the Maidan. Since when is it appropriate for foreign diplomats to pick a side in an internal crisis? No mention of Kolomoyskyi or the Azov brigade. No mention of the Trade Union massacre. No mention of the $5B distributed to various NGOs. This might as well be a Ukrainian site. Maybe it is? How can I tell?
The first rule of journalism is 'consider the source' so the first thing I look for when I see a new source is, who's behind it? Who's on the board of directors, who are its editors and most importantly, who's financing it? At the very least I'd expect a declaration of anonymity with a reasonable explanation of why that's necessary.
Nope. Nothing that I could find. I also notice that Bellingcat gets cited in that article which for me is a giant red flag. Not exactly what I'd call an impartial source.
Nothing is ever black and white, and certainly personal motives came into play on both sides of the initial conflict, but these are instances taken out of the larger context which goes back to the 1990 reunification of Germany and withdrawal of Soviet forces from eastern Europe. Promises were made at that time regarding NATO's advancement into Eastern Europe which were almost immediately broken, and Russia warned about the consequences of that on multiple occasions. You only have to ask yourself how the USA would respond if Russia placed missiles on the Mexican border to understand Russia's response. The US and NATO threatened a sovereign nation, and as is typical of all empires, they overreached and underestimated the resistance to their imperial ambitions. The rest is just he said she said. You can argue about that until the cows come home, but the facts speak for themselves.
Why don't you try reading the entire archive here. learn something, and then post an informed comment for all you're doing is babbling Western misinfo talking points, while adding inanities.
Responding to ad-hominem with more ad hominem only undermines your case. Instead, how about making a case for why we should trust the source you cited?
I made a criticism of that source, maybe you could respond to that, bearing in mind the big picture, which as I said goes back to 1990 and the subsequent breaking of the promises made to Gorbachev at that time. IMO, everything since then stems from that initial fact, and it's impossible to analyze subsequent events without referencing it.
For me, Ukraine is just one in a long series of attempts to disrupt the emergence of Russia as a truly sovereign state, and install western banking interests in its place to the detriment of the Russian people. The fact that certain powerful Russians, who through their advantaged position managed to become extremely wealthy as result of those circumstances, simply speaks to the kind of opposition that proekt.media seems typical of. They have an obvious agenda, but who is behind proekt.media? Who funds it? Can you tell us please? I think it's kind of important to know.
No you are wrong. I remember he specifically referred to Karl's commentary as being like that, not Karl personally. It was a critique of the text content and approach not the person. I lol when I saw it. :-)
When I read about how well Russia is doing, I understand why western leaders don't want their citizens knowing about it.
I confess to some jealousy.
What do we get in the west? Crumbling infrastructure, skyrocketing cost of living, austerity, propaganda and our taxes shovelled to the rich and the NATO war machine.
I find the problem with emigration is roots and commitments to family which make it difficult to leave, particularly when your old like me. But I can't complin too much about my personal situation. State and Federal policies, most definitely merit high condemnation.
I'm fine personally, Karl, but I'd love to live in a society that had so much to offer, and where people weren't feeling so desperate.
Understood. There's a lot of good vibes within Russia even with the SMO. Keeping that spirit going is one of the challenges facing Russian governance.
Excellent coverage. Key point, a requirement for national development is that commercial banks are owned by the government. This was key to both China's and Russia's accelerated development.
Also, key industrial sectors like energy, transportation and housing. Key is eliminating the Class War between Labor and Capital and get them to work together along with the state.
These are outcomes from having a strong governance structure that hasn't been subordinated to an oligarchy. The US tried, but ultimately failed. The current global leaders - China and Russia have moderated oligarchy which seems at present under control. Both have strong scientific/technological capabilities to mobilise the global majority towards equitable development.
The Russian economy is truly confounding. It's not only growing despite the economic fatwa waged against it by the West, it's growing despite Russian banks having a 19% lending rate! Moreover, despite that lofty interest rate people and companies are borrowing heavily, and not just for bricks and mortar stuff but for investment as well. That latter fact is the paradox that Gref and Putin are highlighting. It appears to mean that Russians currently believe that their country's economy will grow so much that it warrants borrowing even at a high interest rate in order to reinvest the capital!
When you say 'special' mortgage rates can be as low as 2%, can you provide some detail about that? Mortgages for whom? Where can we get these mortgages? (genuine question on behalf of friends and relatives)
At the moment, one of the obvious problems with this analysis is that property prices are high, mortgage rates astronomical and many people are being forced to pay high rents. This is certainly the case in Moscow - I don't know whether other cities are as badly affected or not.
I find it difficult to justify a base rate of 19% - perhaps this is partly aimed at luring capital back to Russia?
As Gref notes, the growth rates he lists are difficult to understand given such a high cost of borrowing.
In my previous reporting about families and SMO issues, the programs were mentioned many times. Here's one of many items obtained via a Yandex search, https://www.akm.ru/eng/news/demand-for-far-eastern-mortgages-in-vtb-increased-by-20/
You'll note the program began in 2019. There are many different investment programs that are funneled through Russia's budget that were announced at the various investment summits at St. Petersburg and Vladivostok over the past several years, also at business roundtable talks and other related venues. Putin's Leap Day speech that outlined Russia's goals to 2030 included most of those programs and is a very important primary document you can find in the archive.
Today's discussion that will eventually get posted revolves around exports and provides further evidence of how Russia's political-economy works.
'"School 21" is the training of the best engineering personnel on the market. What's good about it? Free education, no age restrictions, no education restrictions. The most important thing is a high motivation to get a digital engineering degree.
Vladimir Putin: What year did you start this project?
G. Gref: We started in 2016 and invested a lot of money in creating the Shkoly 21 platform itself.
Capital and Human Capital - Impressive.
The program is great and open to anyone knowing Russian as that's the language of instruction. Graduate job placement rate is 100%
Another factor that enters the equation:
Since visa conditions have been relaxed for western immigration, and given that many of those people will be bringing significant capital into the country, what effect will that have on investment, housing prices and demand for goods and services, given that most will start out, and perhaps settle in either Moscow or St. Pete?
Ania from Poland (who's also moving to Russia) read the entire list on her YT channel just the other day - 47 countries! Canada made the list which didn't surprise me, but so did Japan, which did. Not sure on what basis they made that determination, but it helps us as my wife is Japanese. I can't see too many Japanese people taking advantage of the opportunity though. Reading between the lines, is that so they don't get accused of racism? Japan is definitely in the western camp, but I haven't seen anything amounting to the kind of dissent one sees in the West. Puzzling.
A bit of a comical moment occurred a few years ago in one of Putin's press conferences. A journalist from Sweden who was immigrating complained about the requirement to own property in order to become a citizen. Putin's response was classic. "Just buy a dacha. They're very affordable."
I lived in Vancouver from 1981 to 2018 and saw the entire mad run-up in housing prices due mainly to external factors such as immigration and foreign investment. I have to wonder if something similar might happen in Russia and if the govt. has anticipated this and taken steps to keep a lid on housing prices. Urban Russians live well on less income than in the West, but housing could quickly become an issue if left entirely to market forces. Has anyone done this sort of analysis?
Another factor to consider is the current exchange rate. Right now, if we moved there, we'd be considered wealthy even though we're only middle class here in Canada. I've looked at what we can afford in the Novorossiysk area and it's much better than what we have now, and that's in a small town, while Novorossiysk has 1/4M people and is in a very favourable location.
Despite all the contingencies, the future definitely looks bright for Russia. I'd have thought you mad if you'd told me 20 years ago that one day I'd be considering moving there, but there it is.
I wonder if they'll let us keep a bear, like this couple?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM0GEN_CNfI
Of course bears can be dangerous, so maybe not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM4xZy39kNE
On Japan, its policy is mixed as it refuses to cut its access to Russian energy and maintains its investments in Sakhalin. Apparently, there's diplomatic action that doesn't rise to the level of news that aides Japan's case. On housing, I'm still attempting to ferret out Russian policy as it seems the state still builds the greater portion of housing--apartments--whereas dachas are usually 100% private sector. There're several articles in the archives related to construction and housing, and there's a Ministry that's responsible which is where I will go when I get the time to make inquiries. Employment depends on your abilities and your aims. My preference is to become part of the logistics chain of the North-South Corridor at the Northern end of the Caspian Sea where the Volga enters, but many options exist. But as I answered Diana, I've got commitments here that don't allow for relocation unless the state comes after me.
Thanks. I'll check out your previous articles as I'm new here and haven't yet found the time. Back in 2018 we were planning a visit to size up the potential for relocating. Then the pandemic and war got in the way of those plans. The idea was to start a small trucking company in Novorossiysk and haul freight between there and Krasnodar, so as well as being self-employed I'd also be employing one or two locals. I did my homework and it seems feasible, but several years have passed already and I'm no spring chicken, so maybe simple retirement is a better idea, although I'm not the sort of person who can sit still for very long.
Incidentally, I tend to be a bit long-winded, and I've drawn some heat for that on other sites, so please let me know if I'm cluttering up the place. The last thing I want is to be a nuisance:)
I have no problem with long comments that have meaning. Yes, logistic companies are easy starting, the market has plenty of room. Russia makes some awesome trucks. The problem would be labor with unemployment at 2% or lower depending on the region.
Thanks Karl. I'd probably start with just one truck with me driving, so I'd only need one driver for my cross-shift at first and see where it goes from there. Yeah, Kamaz makes some awesome trucks. I'd go work for them but I don't like cold weather and Kazan gets its share of that.
it's very difficult to escape cold weather in Russia, even along the Black Sea coast.
True enough. That's when you hop the ferry and spend the winter in Türkiye. If you want to keep warm there just cruise the villages looking for weddings and join the halay!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epi8H0rScLM
(the lady in pink is a real honey don't you think? Why did I go to Spain (ex-wife) when I should have gone to Turkey?)
If I were 20 years younger, I would explore with great vigor. A luxurious dacha outside St. Pete's sounds awfully romantic...alas, I have read too many novels. 😍
Personally, I am curious about the tolerance of faith...specifically, I wonder how those in control of the major faiths see this influx. Specifically the Orthodox tradition or this is all a whitewash as well. One must make sure one is not walking into a bear trap 🤣 especially if it's really about mammon.
Russia prides itself on its being multi-religious and tolerant. The only issue I've seen raised is with migrants who don't attempt to assimilate to some degree, meaning learning Russian and its major cultural traits. Some of the best places to live are in the Muslim majority regions like Tatarstan. One main feature of Orthodoxy I've seen is the utter lack of prosthetalization. Last year, Patriarch Kirill gave speeches at two conferences aimed at discussing the migrant labor issue that spoke to the basic issues I noted above. Putin also spoke at one of those events which was reported as follows:
""Immigrants who come to work and live in Russia must comply with its laws and respect its customs and traditions, including learning the language, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
"Putin addressed the issue at a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, traditionally held in early December.
"“We need to attract such labor resources that meet the interests of the Russian economy,” the president said. “This means that [these] people must be prepared from a linguistic, ethnocultural point of view. They must know our traditions and so on.”
"The interest of Russia and its citizens “must be put first,” the president insisted. All immigrants and visitors also “must comply with Russian laws,” Putin clarified. “And, of course, we, as a civilized country, must also ensure their rights.”"
One solution is the establishment of schools teaching Russian in those nations where most of the migrants come from, something that should've been done 20 years ago, or not discontinued as many migrants are from former Soviet states that are now CIS members. IMO, the culture and language are easy to learn. The reaction of migrants behaviorly is nothing new historically. The key is with the individual--do they want to be an immigrant or remain a migrant? Either way, learning Russian is a no brainer, while reespecting the culture also ought to be obligatory since the migrant is a guest whose conduct ought to reflect that fact.
"IMO, the culture and language are easy to learn."
The culture, yes, but the language? That's not been my experience at all, although granted if you're immersed it's going to be easier than learning from outside as I'm doing. I speak French, Spanish and Japanese, plus I've also studied Punjabi (not fluent). Russian is tougher than any of those IMO. Six cases and everything is inflected! And all those damn pronouns put the LGBTQ crowd to shame! I'm curious, can you actually carry a conversation without having to think in your head, what word ending should I use here? If so, how long did it take? I still have to think about it, and I often get it wrong.
Germans will have an easier time of it since their language is case dependent too, but a westerner whose never studied a foreign language is going to have some tough sledding I would say.
One thing that's been very useful for me is to listen to songs, especially by female vocalists who have higher pitch than men, thus easier to distinguish sounds. Songs tend to repeat verses which burns them into your memory, even if you don't know what they mean. Find the lyrics online, translate them and print them along with the original. Then sing along! Works like a charm. I've even done this with Tajik and Uzbek songs. I have no idea what they mean, but I can sing along just like a native.
An example of a pop singer with clear diction, Olga Laki.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVdoQ2fmIYs
and Fabrika (One of my favourites. I know this song by heart)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuSf1UcFRq0
I began learning Russian at 41. I was somewhat fluent in Spanish before that. My experience with Spanish was helpful. In my Russian class, we used a BBC series that helped learn language and culture. It's introductory videos are here, https://archive.org/details/RussianLanguageAndPeopleEp15SchoolChildren/Russian+Language+and+People+Ep+01+Introduction.mp4
Some further looking and I found most of the series here, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt6NoCieiwOxN5_RzrFXffiy5eDQnRP7P
And another one that provides free lessons, https://mgu-russian.com/en/learn/courses/
Russian isn't as hard as English when you remember you don't need to use an article--a, the--plus word choice is often context dependent. Soft and hard signs and how they influence diction are something to worry about after learning basics. Mastering some of the consonant combinations can be challenging but once accomplished become easy, much like learning Nahuatl--the language of Mesoamerica prior to Europeans.
I have no problem with the Cyrillic alphabet or pronunciation. The issue for me is the convoluted grammar. You've probably noticed that some Russians make mistakes, similar to the type of English you hear in working class areas like Liverpool or Manchester. I don't want to sound like that. Heard enough of it growing up.
One of the things that can ease the transition for newcomers is a translation app, where you speak into your phone and it translates for you. As long as you don't become dependent on it, it can definitely help. For me though, being a musical person, I like listening to songs. A lot of pop songs are about love, so you get past, conditional, and future tenses all in a 3 minute song, and the repetition burns it in. For clarity of diction Nyusha is great. No blurring or slurring, you can make out every word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n__e1MhQA6k
Same goes for Naadia, Otava Yo and Serebro. Easy to make out the words.
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For students of the Russian language, when you can understand Masha, you know you've arrived!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuypMZ5-Its
No matter how hard you try, you'll always have a foreign accent to your Russian. Even native speakers have regional dialects. As long as you can hold a mutually intelligible conversation, then you've succeeded.
Russia is a big place, so you'll find a lot of variety in social conditions and people's attitudes. What passes as acceptable in one area is out of the question in others, such as Chechnya which has a fairly strict Muslim culture - not like Iran, but definitely more conservative than Lebanon or Syria, for example. When talking about Christian faith in particular, my impression is there are more people who identify as Christian than in the west, but that doesn't necessarily mean they practice the faith. It's more about cultural identity I would say.
As much as the govt. tries to instill a sense of traditional values, which in the Orthodox culture means larger families, the birth rate is still well below replacement, which reflects some of the factors present in the west, such as a high cost of living in the cities and a more career vs family focus of young women. I have to wonder if the recent policy of encouraging western immigration isn't at least partially aimed at offsetting that decline.
One thing I would recommend for anyone considering moving there is to check out the various towns and cites using Google Street View. Russia is widely covered on Google Maps and you'll see what conditions are like outside the big cities, which may come as a bit of a shock, given how most of the coverage reported by foreigners tends to focus on Moscow, or St. Pete. The condition of the roads will jump out at you right away, as will the number of abandoned buildings and Soviet era factories. Like the USA, Russia has its own 'Rust Belt.' The difference is they also have a lot of modern factories, they just haven't gotten around to tearing down the old stuff yet.
Not trying to discourage anyone, I still think Russia is in an major uptrend despite all the obstacles. Just trying to insert a note of realism is all. The main obstacle anyone moving from the west will have is the language. Russian is probably one of the hardest languages to learn. As a Russian friend pointed out to me, where western students hate math, Russian students hate grammar. Frankly I wonder how something so convoluted ever evolved, but it is what it is. You have to learn it to live there, as outside the big cities most people only speak Russian.
This young lady is one of the best on YouTube for showing us what Russia is like, both the good and the bad. I plan to seek her out once I'm there and treat her to a fabulous dinner!
https://www.youtube.com/@ElifromRussia
One of the construction and social issues is dilapidated housing and emergency housing which is always mentioned during construction talks. Roads are another huge project area for the state and its regions. Moscow was just voted the most livable metropolitan city on the planet, which is the product of its longstanding Mayor and others. One of Putin's mantras is making localities attractive to people, particularly young people. The Muslim, Buddhist and native peoples have the highest birthrates. Putin in promoting 2024 as the Year of the Family has addressed the thorny issue of female professional development and the core family maker. Also, the issue of abortion while not the divide and rule cultural war tool as used within the Empire is still a significant issue that's currently declining. Here are two long articles from the archive you'll find interesting as I'm assuming you haven't read them before, "Russia Vs. Wokism: Declares 2024 Year of Family" which mostly covers other matters of interest, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/russia-vs-wokism-declares-2024-year and "Year of Family Opening & Meeting with Participants and Winners of All-Russian Family Competitions," with this title being 100% accurate, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/year-of-family-opening-and-meeting
Some of Putin's conversations with students reveal his attempts to finesse the issue of family versus career. Ideally, a woman would marry young, start family, use Russia's awesome childcare services and state support to continue school to obtain the career education, embark on career, and then return to having one or more children before 35. I'll be very curious to discover how this year ends while the emphasis continues.
Just read your posts and thanks for the information. Karl Denninger wrote a lengthy piece on the topic (he's even more long-winded than me!). I think he nailed it.
'Demographics Is Destiny'
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=250038
He gets into the cost of housing as a major determining factor, which I totally agree with. My view of that is that housing should not be treated as an investment but as a capital good, with a depreciation allowance built into the mortgage or property tax. Also, the idea of foreigners being able to purchase residential housing is just absurd. That was a major factor driving Vancouver home prices. We lived in the British Properties for 8 years (US equivalent to Beverly Hills) and the number of unoccupied homes was noticeable by the lack of maintenance. Rich bastards couldn't even be bothered to pay to have the lawns mowed! Residential real estate should always be a local market, tied to the kind of incomes available in the local workplace. Anything else and you just price people out, especially the young who might form new families if they weren't facing the kind of challenges Denninger highlights.
The housing issue here in the states is a massive clusterfuck. I'll just leave it at that for now.
Regarding Gref I found this here: https://www.proekt.media/en/portrait-en/german-gref-eng/ … is this just misinfo? If not, Gref seems so untraditionalist, corrupt, unpatriot and westernized that I wonder why Putin would still remain closer ties to him.
Typical hit piece on one of Russia's most sanctioned people. He was supposedly akin to Kudrin, who was slowly exiled from government as neoliberal. I've seen nothing but positive actions and ideas coming from Gref. Both Gref and Putin were in Sobchak's circle in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. The School 21 project is excellent. IMO, it's clear from his record that German Gref serves Russia and has foiled neoliberal attempts to subvert Russia and its government.
I took a look at proekt.media. It's all hit pieces as far as I can see. The graphics alone tell you that. Take this one for example:
How Putin started the war against Ukraine in 2014
https://www.proekt.media/en/guide-en/putin-2014-en/
No mention of Victoria (F the EU) Nuland or John McCain addressing the crowds on the Maidan. Since when is it appropriate for foreign diplomats to pick a side in an internal crisis? No mention of Kolomoyskyi or the Azov brigade. No mention of the Trade Union massacre. No mention of the $5B distributed to various NGOs. This might as well be a Ukrainian site. Maybe it is? How can I tell?
The first rule of journalism is 'consider the source' so the first thing I look for when I see a new source is, who's behind it? Who's on the board of directors, who are its editors and most importantly, who's financing it? At the very least I'd expect a declaration of anonymity with a reasonable explanation of why that's necessary.
Nope. Nothing that I could find. I also notice that Bellingcat gets cited in that article which for me is a giant red flag. Not exactly what I'd call an impartial source.
Nothing is ever black and white, and certainly personal motives came into play on both sides of the initial conflict, but these are instances taken out of the larger context which goes back to the 1990 reunification of Germany and withdrawal of Soviet forces from eastern Europe. Promises were made at that time regarding NATO's advancement into Eastern Europe which were almost immediately broken, and Russia warned about the consequences of that on multiple occasions. You only have to ask yourself how the USA would respond if Russia placed missiles on the Mexican border to understand Russia's response. The US and NATO threatened a sovereign nation, and as is typical of all empires, they overreached and underestimated the resistance to their imperial ambitions. The rest is just he said she said. You can argue about that until the cows come home, but the facts speak for themselves.
Why don't you try reading the entire archive here. learn something, and then post an informed comment for all you're doing is babbling Western misinfo talking points, while adding inanities.
Responding to ad-hominem with more ad hominem only undermines your case. Instead, how about making a case for why we should trust the source you cited?
I made a criticism of that source, maybe you could respond to that, bearing in mind the big picture, which as I said goes back to 1990 and the subsequent breaking of the promises made to Gorbachev at that time. IMO, everything since then stems from that initial fact, and it's impossible to analyze subsequent events without referencing it.
For me, Ukraine is just one in a long series of attempts to disrupt the emergence of Russia as a truly sovereign state, and install western banking interests in its place to the detriment of the Russian people. The fact that certain powerful Russians, who through their advantaged position managed to become extremely wealthy as result of those circumstances, simply speaks to the kind of opposition that proekt.media seems typical of. They have an obvious agenda, but who is behind proekt.media? Who funds it? Can you tell us please? I think it's kind of important to know.
Well, you did call him "small minded, and extremely myopic and narrow minded and paranoid" so there's that.
No you are wrong. I remember he specifically referred to Karl's commentary as being like that, not Karl personally. It was a critique of the text content and approach not the person. I lol when I saw it. :-)
"The rest of your comment has nothing to do with me"
You're right. I was responding to Dud. Got the two of you mixed up. Sorry about that.