Life in rural Russia, the reality
We have all seen those videos on YT and Telegram insisting life in Russia is great after the sanctions and the sanctions and de-valuation of the Ruble have changed nothing.Videos of actors walking through shopping malls that seem to mostly be full of shoppers and only a few people carrying goods they have brought. We are told there are very few unemployed people in Russia and we are shown videos of well stocked supermarkets in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, and if you point out in the comments that while the videos do show stocked shelves the shoppers at the check out have very few items (not meat or fish) in their carts immediately some Russian (troll) will write that is because the market is surrounded by high rise buildings and Russians see no need to buy lots of food for their refrigerators and cabinets with the stores being so close and any impression that those shoppers have no money for the expensive food items is totally false. We should believe Russians love having to go to the supermarket every day to buy 2 or 3 potatoes and a carrot, rather than just by a 2 kilo bag of potatoes and a bunch of carrots so they don't have to come back every day.Yes, in Moscow and Saint Petersburg there are lots of jobs. But that is just two cities of many cities and towns. What about the towns where the factory closed for lack of supplies and the town has been abandoned by governement? There are hundreds of such towns in Russia. Here is a video a brave person made about what it like for residents in one of those towns this week.
Comments (11)
0.0090 Swiss Franc
10 Aug, 22:42 UTC ·
I vacationed in upper Wisconsin. Went on the Mackinaw island by excursion boat. Landed on the coast and walked the main street. Looked like the tourist town by me, rows of shops filled with fudge and t-shirts. I got bored, went down to rock hunt past some fancy homes on the water. Saw a sign, horses for hire. The man said follow the trail. If you get lost, give him his head, he knows the way back. I ended up over the hills and came the back way into the REAL town. I thought I was IN Appalachia! Barefoot dirty kids playing in the dirt street in front of ramshackle houses. When I got back I talked to the man. He said except for the shops and hotel, all jobs are on the mainland. Either they own or share boats because the shuttle boats cost too much. Groceries are on the mainland. They like when the lake freezes cause they run across with snowmobiles. Main street is paved not anywhere else because no cars are allowed. Now the average tourist sees that and the historic hotel that still had black livery men at the entrance to help people out of carriages. Wow, what a nice place to live.
Russia is filled with tiny villages that live in the 1900s. The advancements of the country are in big cities, they can't reach.
Same as North Korea. Pyongyang IS the country. The rest is poverty and people living in a century past.
It is like driving along a road and seeing Holstein cows and saying oh, all milk cows are black and white.
How many more videos he can post before the FSB notices him is anyone's guess.
How long before the penny [ruble ] drops and the average Russian wakes up.
When you have an enemy like the USA, sanctions do not disappear in a day or a year or a decade, they (USA) have long malevolent memories. Witness Cuba, 60+ years already.
My Russian students do not speak of discomforts and lacks. Sensibly, they do not openly complain,
but in fact except for those who speak with their feet they seem to feel life is liveable.
When you have an enemy like the USA, sanctions do not disappear in a day or a year or a decade, they (USA) have long malevolent memories. Witness Cuba, 60+ years already.
My Russian students do not speak of discomforts and lacks. Sensibly, they do not openly complain,
but in fact except for those who speak with their feet they seem to feel life is liveable.
Life may be liveable but it doesn't necessarily make it acceptable. My own life is comfortable but there are many in this country and indeed other countries who struggle to make ends meet and much of that has to do with this war and it's effect on everyone's economy.
This man is an official representative of Russia's government. Everything he says is scripted and approved in advance of broadcast at a government level close to the top. We see here that rather than admitting the War and the failure of Russia to produce goods that could be exported for sale (instead of cannon shells to be fired in Ukraine) the tactic is to play the blame gang and blame everyone but the Kremlin and Putin. Clearly he wishes the Russian Minister of Finance to have Harry Potter's magic wand. LoL
The propaganda is RICH on both sides.