Has your relationship changed towards Russians ?

[Bod ...]

I bet your wife has experienced more since 2016

I had a customer who was Dutch -after brexit she got awful abuse from some close friends, when she made a critical comment about the govt one of them said "if you dont like it here you can fork off home"

Did she?

 

[transam]

A poll in Russia showed a large proportion of the population considered Joe stalin a decent stand up bloke

 

[Bod ...]

I've not met too many Russians.

One girl I met was on Koh Samui was one of the most beautiful girls in looks, personality and intelligence.

She escaped to Canada from the USSR aged 12 in the back of a lorry driven by her uncle.
She grew up in Canada and lived in Japan working for the Japanese government translating Japanese and Russian

 

[diy_fun_uk]

I frame this around the question 'how many Russians living in Russia really know what's going on with Ukraine?' Yes, there's an argument that if you really want to find something out, you'll find a way, however would it be a safe assertion to make that the majority (high majority?) of typical Russians get their news only from state media, so not exactly balanced. I know that (mainly younger?) Russians find ways to access media that originates from outside Russia, so they'll hopefully have a more balanced view to the whole affair. My point is many Russians that are living within Russia are maybe supportive of the conflict, however they're basing this on what they're being fed by the media. And of course, you'll get citizens that will support Russia no matter what, which is of course their right.

Sorry went a bit OT there. To the OPs point, I don't know any Russians so don't have a relationship with any as such. However knowing my nature, I suspect I'd get along fine with Russians if any were in my life e.g. work colleagues etc. As has been touched on, you can't blame individual citizens for actions that are decided on by leaders and their cronies. Having said that, if I did know any Russians and they made it pretty obvious they were supportive of Putin's actions, I'd be distancing myself from them as much as I could.

 

[Bod ...]

A poll in Russia showed a large proportion of the population considered Joe stalin a decent stand up bloke

Who could tell a joke or two

 

[Brigadier]

She escaped to Canada from the USSR aged 12 in the back of a lorry

A floaty lorry, by the sounds of it

 

[Bod ...]

A floaty lorry, by the sounds of it

I never asked her how or what route they took. It could have been by boat via the Diomedes Islands that are only 2.4 miles apart from Russia - Alaska

Or via any European country.

She had more oriental looks than the square jaw look.

 

[Dereekoo]

I believe all Russians are good especially the dead ones.Not really, only those who truly believe going over the border and killing your neighbours and their children is the way ahead. Death to Putin et al.

 

[Justin Passing]

I recall being outside the university in Moscow . A massive, Stalinist style building on a campus with hundreds of separate small buildings over a huge area. Anyway there is/was a formal sort of garden opposite, I was taking some pictures and a young couple of students approached apparently to practise their English, as happens a lot. They were chatty , I can't remember what about, but with the big edifice there I asked what they thought of Stalin these days. I don't remember what they said, but something like they didn't think about him. The moment passed, they moved on amiably and I stooged about the garden a bit.
Then I was approached by a more middle aged couple with English again, but a different attitude. They didn't get official (which happened quite a lot and still would) but the woman started lecturing me on how it was rude to criticise. They went back from the direction they'd come. That was before CCTV. Spooky.
Somewhere like St Petersburg (ex Lenigrad) you could be lucky and find a cabbie who spoke a bit of English. They're always drunk so once plied with a couple of packets of Marlboro or "ze gold ones" Bensons, they enjoyed being indiscreet.
A bit of jaywalking would get good-tempered interaction with the local plod. Lots of extended arms and sorry sorry (izveen iirc), and they weren't nasty at all.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

They're always drunk so once plied with a couple of packets of Marlboro or "ze gold ones" Bensons, they enjoyed being indiscreet.

Marlboro used to come in useful sometimes in that part of the world. In Poland in 1995 we asked the attendant to fill up our hire car then realised we only had half the zlotys needed to pay for the fuel. One of my friends had 200 duty free Marlboro in the boot which he lost as they were used as part payment for our petrol.

We also got stopped several times for speeding. The police wanted payment in cash immeditely. We found that by all of us getting our loose change out and offering it for payment the policemen lost interest and the fine was paid at a much reduced rate.

That same trip, we found that the fine (payable immediately, as usual) on the Prague underground or trams for travelling without a ticket was less than buying a ticket on the London Underground. Hence we dispensed with the hassle of buying individual tickets for a few pennies every time we travelled and just paid the fine on the rare occasions we got caught. This was 28 years ago though, and fines have gone up a lot. Advice now is to buy tickets.

 

[robinbanks]

wondering around the area where I live in big groups like they own the place

They could also be going around in big groups to deter some of yoir locals from setting upon them..

 

[algas]

We were in Russia for about a month in 89, the Russians were pleasent enough but guarded, Im sure we were followed more than once, on one occasion we lost our shaddows by going into the British embassy just across the river from the Kremlin in Moscow, I bet someone got into the **** for that. On holiday in Cyprus the Russians we met were rude arrogant and the Cypriots hated them , only tolerating them for the money they were throwing about like water, I met a couple of Russian builders in London when I was renovating my daughters flat, they were pleasent enough, I even managed to persuade them to do a dump run for me to the tip at Battersea as I only had a car. So some good some bad!

 

[securespark]

It's the millions still in the bowl, receiving their world view from Moscow State TV that I wonder about..

There are many citizens who have their eyes wide open and know exactly what's going on. Some admittedly are dead and some are in jail, but there are still many walking around.

 

[robinbanks]

when politicians can whip up the easily fooled into a frenzy with their lies!

Doesn't even need someone so educated and publicly present; paying Facebook to fill the advert feeds of identifiedly gullible morons with xenophobic horseshit seems to be all it takes

 

[securespark]

Removed.

On second thoughts, my idea of a humorous post may not be seen that way by others.

Or, as my Dad used to say "Keep your mouth closed, then you can't put your foot in it."