Facts about Russians through the eyes of a foreigner. This is how they see us from behind the “hillock”, or Russia through the eyes of foreigners

The food here is delicious

The greatest number of positive reviews about our country went to... food. Foreigners are satisfied with the food in general and enjoy eating both traditional Russian food and dishes from other cuisines that the restaurants of our Motherland can offer. They often mention large selection food in supermarkets, as well as its quite affordable price.

A tourist from the United States said on TripAdvisor that he likes Russian food and the large portions served in Russian restaurants.

The man noted the excellent soups and bread. He is also pleased with the goods in supermarkets and the moderate prices. In the review, the tourist wrote that in Russia you can choose tea, sweets, dairy products and vodka to suit every taste.

Human relationships

“Flowers on the streets of Russia attract everyone’s attention, they are sold even in severe frosts,” notes CNN. “Women with huge bouquets look quite familiar here.”

“Men present flowers to women on any outstanding occasion,” the publication adds. – Here this is not a sign of romantic interest, just traditionality in relations between the sexes.

Also, according to tradition, women are served first, and men's duty is to help them take off and put on outerwear, let yourself go ahead in the queue, and even in the elevator!” - the journalist emphasizes.

The publication warns that these features must be taken into account when in Russia, even for those who are not a supporter of “chivalry.”

But many sources say that Russia's famed "sullenness" may still be encountered.

“When I was buying chewing gum, I kindly asked the saleswoman: “Please, please give me this chewing gum, if it doesn’t bother you.” The seller, without even looking in my direction, continued reading something on her phone. After a considerable period of time, she turned her gaze to me and said gloomily: “Thirty rubles,” one of the tourists told this story.

But many have learned to deal with the “closedness” of Russians.

“It’s more of a stereotype that people in Russia don’t care about strangers. Sometimes this happens, but generally Russians are always ready to make new friends. It’s very easy to start a conversation with them, just choose an interesting area (checkers, making beer at home, at worst, black magic) and go to a thematic Internet resource where there are a lot of Russians. In just a few letters you will have new friend, tour guide and drinking companion for the rest of your life,” says the famous portal.

There are Russians who don't drink vodka

This was a surprising discovery for CNN. “Some Russians don’t drink at all! - says a student from Great Britain studying in Moscow. – True, if you have to attend a celebration with Russian friends, be prepared for a long series of toasts.

But if you refuse to drink, no one will force you.”

Weather

A tourist on TripAdvisor warns: “When traveling to Russia in winter, be sure to take warm boots. Snow and ice are usually removed very selectively, so when walking along the street you can slip. This seems to be a common occurrence for Russians and they are used to walking like bulldozers!”

CNN states that winter in Russia will most likely destroy any shoes, and you need to be prepared for this, even coming from a cold country.

“Mud, puddles and snow will be the last thing your new Manolo Blahnic will see, so take that into account. Many Russians are accustomed to such a winter and wear ugly but reliable shoes on the street and change their shoes at work,” the publication says.

The journalist was also shocked by the fact that Russians themselves freeze in winter.

“Despite living constantly in such a climate, many Russians do not tolerate the cold well. The rich find a simple way out of the situation and, with the onset of cold weather, leave for warmer climes,” says the journalist.

“Confirming the words of Napoleon and Otto von Bismarck, I will say: the first thing you should remember when going to Russia is the weather! It is better not to visit this country in March and November! In March, the snow begins to melt (and a lot of things accumulate under it during the winter), and the puddles look more like lakes. In November, a strong wind blows, snatching umbrellas from those walking along the streets, and rivers of water flow along the sidewalks,” writes a tourist who visited Russia.

But almost everyone who has visited Russia in the winter complains about the incredible heat inside the buildings.

“The rooms and cars are terribly hot. Staying in a hotel room is more like fighting for survival somewhere on the equator,” says an American on TripAdvisor.

A CNN columnist says that in winter it's hot as hell in Russian houses, and it's polar cold outside. But, in his opinion, this difficulty can be overcome if you put on layers of clothing correctly. The observer noted that this is not possible the first time, but comes with experience.

Difficulties with visas and other officialdom

For many foreigners, it seems difficult to obtain a visa to Russia. But those who have previously undergone the procedure say that there is nothing difficult about it.

Journalist and traveler from the United States Veronica Hackethall shared recommendations with newcomers: “Anyone who plans to stay in Russia for more than three days needs to go through the procedure for registering a visa and migration card. Many hotels can easily do this upon check-in. If you are staying in Russia for less than three days, you can do without registration, but I still advise you to do it and keep it with you, because the police may ask for your documents on the street.”

“You can’t pay by card everywhere; traveler’s checks are rarely accepted. There are many ATMs in big cities, but sometimes they run out of cash,” says the journalist.

“Keep plenty of cash on you! Suddenly there won’t be an ATM on the road,” another tourist advises.

“When purchasing souvenirs, think carefully. Russia has strict rules on the export of objects representing “ cultural value" The “not for export” sticker can even be found on ballet slippers. Keep your eyes peeled and keep your receipts,” another traveler recommends.

Difficulties in everyday life

Tourists note that the quality of service has improved in Russia in recent years. Workers in the tourism industry know foreign languages ​​(at least English), the phone can be easily converted to GSM, you can use navigation in the metro of large cities, and calling a taxi with applications like Gett is now very easy. Many people like the convenient Aeroexpress trains that run from airports to the city.

But in some situations tourists still have difficulties.

“Save a couple of coins in case you need to use a public restroom. They may run out of toilet paper, so keep tissues handy. By the way, there may be no hand towels either. Toilets in small towns often look scary and smell bad. Stopping for gas in Tatarstan, I actually came across a cab with a hole in the floor! Be careful, don’t fall,” writes a tourist from the United States on TripAdvisor.

“Be prepared to spend a lot of time at the airport, even on domestic flights. You don't have to worry about safety, but the service here is very slow. People are usually taken to the plane by bus, where the Russians behave very persistently. You may have to fight for your place,” adds the traveler.

Other oddities

Some Russian features surprise all visitors. Among them is the habit of dressing up for any occasion. Many people find it difficult to understand the principle of house numbering and find the right one even with a navigator or map. The superstition of Russians is a separate issue. One traveler discovered that sellers believed bad omen give change in your hand, so they put the money on the counter or a special saucer.

Foreign guests are also surprised by other signs: for example, in Russia they don’t pass something over the threshold because they think it’s bad luck.

As a journalist from The Calvert Journal discovered, in Russia it is very good... to get sick.

“Where there is no restaurant or sushi bar, in Moscow there is a pharmacy. And Russians are also hypochondriacs: in pharmacies there are always a lot of potent drugs that can be bought without prescriptions. After the intensive bombardment of such medicines (many of which are probably banned in the EU), the cold will go away in no time!” - says the observer.

Culture

“Art lovers will receive a lot of indescribable impressions in Russia. The country hosts amazing festivals (such as “White Nights of St. Petersburg”), you can attend wonderful ballet and opera at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, and I’m not even talking about active parties in Moscow clubs,” says Ms. Hackethall. “Yes, Russians do not greet you with a smile, but when they show their cordiality, you can rest assured that it is sincere.”

Tourists often visit museums and exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg and enjoy walking along the streets. Guests of Russia note that the sidewalks and public transport are clean. Many people talk about long distances: a tourist from the United States was surprised that you can’t just walk between Moscow metro stations.

Previously, the issue of attracting tourists to Russia was discussed at the round table “Know ours: the main trends in inbound tourism in Russia”, dedicated to the exhibition “Recreation 2016”. Sergei Korneev, deputy head of Rostourism, said that Russia has many competitors who have been more successful in the tourism industry.

“Our country has every chance to take a leading position in the global tourism market. Foreign guests, first of all, appreciate the high level of security and a lot of interesting attractions in Russia. But these advantages are not known to everyone,” says Mr. Korneev.

Employees of Visit Russia offices also took part in the discussion and spoke about the problems of attracting foreigners to Russia. The main one is the lack of information among tourists about our country and the underdeveloped infrastructure of Russia, which is unable to satisfy so many clients.

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In the “about us” section of the resource it is stated that “All facts are verified and have reliable sources.” But, for people living in Russia, or who know our country well enough, some facts may seem strange, or even funny.

So, 34 facts about Russia!

Russia is bigger than Pluto.

The territory of Russia is larger than the entire territory of Pluto.

77% of Russia is made up of Siberia.

77% of Russia consists of Siberia.

And the remaining 23% are bears and ballalaikas? :)

Each Russian consumes 18 liters (4.8 US gal) of alcohol per year, doubling what experts consider dangerous.

Each Russian consumes 18 liters (4.8 US gallons) of alcohol per year, double what experts consider dangerous.

What do these experts know about the danger? Well, you can, of course, argue about “every Russian” with our fashion for a healthy lifestyle.

In Russia for 9 million more women than men.

“Because according to statistics, for every 10 girls there are 9 guys”...:)

Russia & America are less than 4 km apart at the nearest point.

Russia and America are located less than 4 km from each other.

More than 500,000 alcohol-related deaths occur in Russia every year.

Yes, they have a huge Wikipedia article dedicated to alcohol in Russia! And this link is indicated as a reliable source. It’s strange to use in an article about Russia.

In Russia it's now Illegal to tell kids Gay People Exist.

In Russia it is now illegal to tell children that gays exist.

Well, it’s not that it’s illegal... Propaganda is prohibited in Russia, not “talking to children about gays.” So it’s really better for children not to know about them...

A Russian woman in the 1700s gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets in just 40 years with the same man.

In Russia, a woman in 1700 gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruplets in just 40 years of marriage with one person.

This is genetics! This mother is a heroine!

In 1908 the Imperial Russian Olympic Team arrived in London 12 days too late for the games because they were not using the Gregorian calendar yet.

In 1908, the Russian Imperial Olympic team arrived in London 12 days late for the games because they were not yet using the Gregorian calendar.

Traditions are everything to us. Even if it doesn't play into our hands :)

The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867.

It’s better not to remind us about this :)

Stalin didn't start learning Russian until he was 8. His mother tongue was Georgian

Stalin began to study Russian only at the age of 8. His native language was Georgian.

For us - nothing surprising. The USSR was still the most multinational power, and not only a native Russian person could be at the head.

The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown in Russia from 32,000-year-old seeds.

The oldest plant ever regenerated was grown in Russia from 32,000 summer seeds.

Japan and Russia still haven"t signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the Kuril Islands dispute.

Japan and Russia have still not signed a peace treaty to end World War II over the disputed territory of the Kuril Islands.

Well, the Russians don’t give up, everything is classic!)

Gorbachev recorded an album of Russian romantic ballads in 2009.

Gorbachev recorded an album of Russian romantic ballads in 2009.

The guy turns out to be talented! How did he hide this for so many years?!

Beer was not considered an alcoholic beverage in Russia until 2013.

Beer was not considered an alcoholic beverage in Russia until 2013.

Wow, my surprise knows no bounds here :)

Foxes are domesticated like dogs by Russian scientists since 1959.

Foxes were domesticated as dogs by Russian scientists in 1959.

I want a fox, can you domesticate me another one? :)

During the reign of Peter the Great, everyone who had a beard paid the “Beard Tax.”

What if this tax were introduced now? :)))

There is a museum(s?) in Russia that hires cats to protect works of art from rats.

So we're all in business :)

The word “vodka” comes from the Russian word “voda” that means “water”.

The word "vodka" comes from the Russian word "voda", which means "water". (literal translation)

Again - doubtful. Vodka is an independent word that is not derived from anything, what are you guys doing?))

Lake Karachay in Russia is the most radioactive and polluted lake in the world

Lake Karachay in Russia is one of the most radioactive and polluted lakes in the world.

I don’t know anything about Lake Karachay, leave me alone.

25% Russians die before reaching the age of 55, compared to just 1% in the U.S., and Vodka is to blame.

25% of Russians die before age 55, compared to 1% in the US, and vodka is to blame (I can't resist Google translate, "vodka is to blame" - very funny).

Vodka is to blame...

It is a criminal offense to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.

In Russia it is a criminal offense to drive a dirty car.

Yes? Seriously? Tell this to my neighbor :)

It is believed Russia has at least 15 secret cities with their names, and locations unknown.

It is believed that Russia has at least 15 secret cities with unknown names and locations.

Damn, how did they know this then?!

A third of all Russians believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

A third of all Russians believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

Is this not true?!

Wealthy Russians hire fake ambulances to beat Moscow's traffic.

Rich Russians use fake ambulances to avoid traffic jams.

Hmmm... I need to get rich urgently...

In Russia, during times of economic disparity or high inflation, teachers can be paid in Vodka.

In Russia, in times of economic inequality or high inflation, teachers can be paid with vodka.

Yes, my grandmother’s pension comes from vodka. And as I remember now, my first salary was 3 bottles of “little white”, mmm...

“Too often the truth about Russia is spoken with hatred, and lies with love.”
Andre Gide

A guide to survival in the fight against the Russian administration

When I arrived, both foreigners and Russians asked me the same thing: why did I come? What do I like and dislike most about Russia?

The most unbearable thing for me was the climate. My first winter was a real challenge. After eighteen years of living in Africa with my parents, I moved to France and settled in Bordeaux, in the southwest of the country. This is where most Europeans would like to retire. Bordeaux almost never experiences sub-zero temperatures, and good weather lasts six months of the year. In mid-March, you can sit on the café terrace and sip an aperitif while basking in the sun. Moving to Moscow changed everything, and we spent our holidays in Karelia, where it was even colder. But since then I have adapted to the Russian winter and the lack of light. Now, when I am asked what I hate most about Russia, I answer without hesitation: the administration and bureaucracy.

Russians believe that it is difficult to obtain a Schengen visa. They didn’t try to get Russian!

To travel to Europe, a Russian citizen needs to collect a lot of documents, but their list is on the website of all visa centers and the requirements are absolutely clear. Obtaining a visa to Russia is a completely different kind of problem. You encounter inconsistencies before you even arrive. Do you need an AIDS test? Do you need insurance, and if so, what kind and for how many days? Consulates interpret the rules as they wish. And as often happens with official regulations in Russia, no original information can be found.

As soon as you land in Russia, the bureaucratic pressure begins with filling out a migration card. The form is usually, but not always, given on the plane, or can be found at the airport. Often there is nothing to write on the tables with forms, so you need to (as always!) stand in line - this time for a pen.

Moscow has prepared a wonderful surprise for a visiting foreigner: he needs registration! To be honest, I don’t understand the point of registration if in Moscow at every step they offer to do it fictitiously. An honest citizen like me, of course, will register with his friends, through whom he can always be found. But I doubt that a malicious bandit who can buy a registration can be so easily found in an apartment with twenty guest workers. For many foreigners who are forced to leave Russia several times a week on business trips, registration was such a difficult issue that no one processed it. How many times have I met people who said: “I have been living in Russia for four years, and I have never registered or deregistered.” For my part, I decided to carry out the tedious procedures meticulously, but I knew that I would not regret it in the future.

Until mid-2008, for any foreigner who wanted to work in Russia, there were two ways to stay in the country. Obtaining a work visa was a legal and official method. To do this, the company had to first make a request and obtain permission to hire a foreigner. It should also receive a quota for attracting foreigners by country and type of job position. But at the same time, it was easy to get a business visa, which allowed you to stay in Russia 365 days a year. The most surprising thing is that these paid invitations to obtain a business visa were issued by a hypothetical company, which, as a rule, no one has ever visited. Many companies used business visas for their employees to work either completely “black” or for a fairly long period. The companies then decided whether or not to begin the long and expensive process of obtaining work permits for these specific professionals.

In November 2007, the geniuses of the European Commission adopted an unfair law against Russians, preventing the issuance of business visas to Russian citizens for a stay in the European Union for more than 90 days within six months. Russia responded in kind for the Europeans. Obviously, the number of Europeans working in Russia on a business visa was in the tens of thousands, and the number of Russians working in Europe was very low. The European Commission has once again discriminated against its own citizens. The most amazing thing is that a few months later, when I started working in Russia, the financial crisis broke out. Economic consequences It was not long in coming, and Russia took protective measures in relation to the labor market, which was very reasonable and justified.

It has become very difficult for companies to obtain a Russian work visa for their foreign employees. As a result, the majority of Europeans already working in Russia became illegal immigrants with no real opportunity to improve their situation. Many companies then hired foreigners who arrived in Russia without knowing the law or who were fired due to the crisis and were looking for new jobs. These companies said that they had the opportunity to obtain a work visa, but paid meager salaries. Of course, no one received any visas; the foreigner was paid a “black” salary and could be fired on the same day, which is very useful for the employer during a crisis. When companies were able to obtain work permits, employers entered into another scheme: they tried to officially declare a tiny portion of their salaries in order to pay less taxes and thus supposedly cover the costs of obtaining a work permit.

Some Russian French acquaintances of mine wrote to the French tax service. In order to confirm their resident status in Russia, they were forced to attach to their letters an official tax certificate from the employer, for example 2NDFL, with wages two or three hundred dollars a month. Such amounts were ridiculous even during the crisis (for comparison, renting a one-room apartment on the outskirts of the city cost from eight hundred to a thousand dollars). In addition, there was additional problem for those employees who were forced to renew their business visas for three months once a quarter. Transportation costs consumed a significant portion of their salaries.

As for me, Russia allowed me to get married, and in this sense I became a privileged person, not only as a man who has found the love of his life, but also as a Frenchman who can obtain a legal temporary residence permit (and subsequently a permit to residence) as the spouse of a Russian citizen. My Russian friends warned:

O-la-la, FMS! You have no idea what it is! There are good and bad, but overall they are very corrupt. It would be better if you contact a specialized company that will issue you a permit for a fee.

One friend even told me that it was impossible to obtain documents from the FMS without a bribe.
- Why do you want a residence permit in Russia, Sasha? - Timur asked me. - Are you an extremist or crazy?
“I just want to live in Russia,” I answered. - I want to have “documents” that will allow me to live here peacefully. I want to not have to leave the country every three or six months to apply for a new visa.

I had a very vague idea of ​​what FMS is and how it works. When I was at Moscow State University, they somehow managed to register me. Then my employer legalized me. And when we moved, the owner of our apartment offered to register Evgenia at his home in Balashikha.

Only those who were in this FMS department in 2008 can understand me. We went there one morning. What a surprise! You had to sign up for the queue on a sheet of white paper held by a migrant worker, who was de facto appointed responsible for order. The building was closed, and when it was opened, a dense and disconnected crowd moved chaotically through the single door. Empty offices awaited us. Evgenia knocked on the door, a man opened it, dirty, unshaven and in military uniform. He looked at the crowd of people and shouted: “Come tomorrow!” I thought he was joking, but the depressed faces of the migrant workers and others convinced me that it was true. On the way out, I stopped to look around - the room was dirty and so neglected that it is almost impossible to describe in words. It was impossible to even sit on the waiting benches.

I went out and said to Evgenia:
- This is impossible.
“Yes, it could be worse,” she answered calmly.

This is what I learned about the Federal Migration Service when I naively but warily began to receive the coveted temporary residence permit in Russia.

First, I had to find a place to register for three years in advance. Obtaining a residence permit with a limited validity period was a feat in itself. But my God! I could not imagine that even after I found a person who would deign to register me, I would become dependent on the Federal Migration Service in his area and my documents would have to be processed there, even if in fact I live in another place. More prosaically: I don’t understand why it is so difficult to find someone who is ready to register. We asked all our Russian friends, acquaintances, and then just acquaintances whether they would agree to register me for three years at home. And that’s it, absolutely all of them answered negatively! It was at this time, in October 2009, that I began to understand the Russian registration syndrome and everything connected with it. There is nothing like this in Western countries.

No, not a single Russian will register either a foreigner or a Russian, not even his relative, in his home! Nothing helped, our friends looked at us with horror, apparently expecting that as soon as I was registered, I would probably take away part of the apartment from them. Maybe they do that, but I just needed to complete the paperwork!

And finally, our friend Irina, out of the kindness of her heart and, probably, out of her own carelessness, agreed to register me in the south of the capital, that is, relatively far from our area. During my first visit to the FMS, on which I now depended, Evgenia and I asked for a list of documents required to obtain a temporary residence permit.

The FMS office is located on one of the main streets of the capital, but quite far from the metro. We first had to drive through the entire city, and then find a minibus that took us to a place where there was nothing but an ocean of new buildings - like almost everywhere else in the south of Moscow. In the middle of this ocean stood the FMS building.

A colorful and noisy crowd of people wishing to receive documents huddled in front of the counters where the inspectors, all women, sat. It was almost impossible to get through to the inspectors (as well as for them to get outside). Wanting to leave the office, the inspector screamed, the crowd moved apart, and then, letting the official lady through, closed in and again blocked the office doors.

Zhenya eventually slipped through it all; when she asked about the documents, the inspector wanted to look at me. I wonder why she needed this? Did she think that I was an old lecher who married a naive girl? So I walked through the crowd and came up to show myself - and then we finally received the list of necessary documents. They had to be requested from France, translated, certified and apostilled; I also needed a medical examination and the coveted registration, or at least an agreement from the owner of the apartment about my registration, certified by a notary. In the end, it seemed more or less feasible.

Documents were collected and filled out, contracts were signed. It was necessary to provide an extract from the house register and a financial and personal account less than two weeks ago, documents with short term actions for the FMS - but they were processed only once a week. Collecting documents was not easy, but, being completely law-abiding, I did what was required. Of course, this took time - I’m especially sorry for the time I spent with the notary for countless certifications and translations (if I had been Russian, I think I would have enriched myself by opening a network of notary offices). Irina, who agreed to register me, lived an hour and a half drive from my home and also an hour and a half drive from my office. I rode this road - without exaggeration - forty times. For documents, for a registration contract (it was redone three times because there were no corresponding papers for the apartment), for a financial and personal account, and so on and so forth. I spent those hundreds of hours on paperwork, taking them away from work; I accepted this as a necessity - my employer was still unable to issue a work visa.

It took three months to gather everything needed and apply for a temporary residence permit valid for three years. Only Russians or foreigners who have also gone through this process can understand what it is. Collecting documents is one process; submitting them to the FMS is completely different.

Where to begin? Is it necessary to make a personal visit to the Federal Migration Service, which is located an hour and a half away from your home or work? With stupid demands to “check in on the list”? With the need to sign up for the same lists a day in advance and constantly be nearby so that no one crosses out your name? Tell me about the “roll call”? I don’t know, I don’t understand the madness that reigns in Russia at this level. I think I hate these queues more than anything in the world. As soon as you get in line, the person standing in front of you or standing after you asks you to “remember” him - and steps aside. I will never understand this Russian habit of constantly running away. Why can’t they sit still, just wait, not go somewhere else to do something else? Why does paperwork need to be so complicated and unorganized?

I cannot fully explain what I felt - I, a foreigner who speaks almost no Russian - other than global loneliness among the gray high-rise buildings at the beginning of the Russian winter. Evgenia walked with me all this time: my knowledge of the language was not enough to answer questions, understand the process, and especially to fill out the application form. Those who have been to the FMS in the south of Moscow will understand my suffering.

The Federal Migration Service is overwhelmed with requests, Russia is attracting more and more migrants. Maybe that’s why I was rejected seven times without accepting my perfectly completed, absolutely legal documents? TRP, temporary residence permit, as I was later told, is a kind of test for immigrants. Maybe there are instructions that require interfering with applicants, or maybe this is an attempt to create a filter for tens, or even hundreds of thousands of requests that pass through the Moscow FMS? Don't know. I cannot explain the seven-time refusal to accept my documents and the habit of Russian bureaucrats to find fault with little things. Either the form was filled out incorrectly, then the names were in the wrong order, then there were commas, then an index... At the same time, there was no uniform sample completed documents. Of course, each time it was necessary to request a new extract from the house register and financial and personal account, since their validity was expiring. But time did not stand still, and the documents received from France and the apostille on the police clearance certificate were valid for only three months.

How lovely! I had to be rejected seven times and leave seven times disappointed with the waste of time and the insanity of the bureaucratic system and the complete disorganization of the process. But what infuriated me most of all was not the refusals, but the repeated submissions of documents. Each time I arrived at the FMS building at 6.30 in the morning to go before the inspector in the afternoon. Overworked, the inspectors, instead of providing didactic clarity on how to fill out the paperwork correctly the first time, made the situation worse by yelling at visitors and humiliating them. People made mistakes, came back, increasing the crowd...

We had to wait. First on the street, near the still closed FMS building, then in the corridors, constantly “checking in” on the lists. At noon, the FMS building closes for lunch, and those without cars must wait outside, rain, snow or wind. I was very lucky: among the gray high-rise buildings I found a grocery store that sold bread and cheese. A year earlier, one of my good friends, who also submitted documents to the Federal Migration Service, did not find anything similar near his branch and simply stood outside. While suffering, I realized that I was not in the worst situation. And in the evening we heard the fateful: “That’s it! Come back tomorrow!" - and crawled home to wait again the next day, wait, wait... Each time I left exhausted from the fight with the FMS, as if after a boxing match. Chaos reigned in my head. There was no sense, no strength, no time, no logic in the words of the FMS inspector.

Honestly, I don’t understand what prevents the inspector from talking normally with visitors. Of course, this may be a matter of era. I was told that in France in the sixties of the last century, officials were even grumpier than in the Russian Federal Migration Service today, but I find it hard to believe it.

The inspector spoke to me as if I were a dog or other animal. I love animals and never speak badly to them; It's about a general attitude. Never in my life has anyone treated me like the FMS inspectors. Of course, I understand that inspectors take out their anger and bitterness on foreigners. But by fundamentally not following logic, without explaining anything, without creating simple and understandable templates, they greatly complicate their work and create more more problems. You can’t understand Russia with your mind, and especially you can’t understand the FMS.

One day I witnessed an amazing scene. The Ukrainian, who lived in Butovo, an area in the south of Moscow, slammed his fist on the table as if it were a bar counter and said to the inspector:
- I need residence documents for five years, not three years.

I looked at him dumbfounded. It was these idiots who were the source of irritation, fatigue and, in general, the behavior of all FMS inspectors. But I didn’t do anything like that - and I was again sent to stand in line for eight hours a day.

When we tried to submit my dossier for the seventh time, one document was missing a city code, but there was a place to sign it. The inspector could have just given us the six numbers that were missing. But no, she crossed out two pages of the form with a red pen and wrote in capital letters: INDEX. I looked at her without moving. It was five o'clock on Friday evening, we had been waiting since early morning and now we had to rewrite everything again. Hell appeared before me. And what would I do if I had a job that didn't allow me to waste so much time?

Again I had to go, catch a car to get to the metro, drive fifteen stations home and prepare for a new week of trips to the Federal Migration Service, tell my boss that I would be leaving for the whole day again, and Evgenia should also ask for time off from work, and that day no one will pay us. How much I hate this period of my life and its impact on our salaries! Tell me, what do Russians do when they are often forced to do various papers?

One day, an old Georgian ran into a young inspector wearing low-waist jeans and a navel piercing who tried to explain to him that the Soviet Union no longer existed. I don’t know whether it was a joke or not, but then I was once again denied acceptance of my dossier because I put quotation marks where, according to the inspector, they should not have been. And then unprecedented disappointment and anger hit my brain. I remembered a scene from a comedy series - an elderly couple comes to the FMS again and again, and each of their visits ends with a phrase from the robot inspector: “You don’t have enough certificate from...” On the fifth or sixth time, they gave the inspector a grenade instead of a dossier, first pulling out I check from it. Funny and radical, but most importantly - quite adequate for someone who has been to the FMS.

On the eighth time, my documents for a residence permit were finally accepted. Almost six months later, in March 2010, I called the FMS and they told me that the document was ready. The next day I ran after him and found out that he was ready, but not quite. I must register and provide new documents.

“All this will be in the district FMS, and not in the district one,” the inspector said, putting a temporary residence permit stamp in my passport.

After examining the stamp, I saw spelling errors in my name.
- You have seven days to register! - the inspector barked.

It was Tuesday. I rushed to the regional Federal Migration Service to find out how to get the coveted registration. I was greeted by a young, phlegmatic, large, blond inspector named Yuri, almost buried under a pile of documents piled up on his desk. He read me a list of documents that I had to bring to him, he was even able to adapt to my imperfect Russian.

That day I witnessed an amazing scene. After meeting with Yuri, I sat in the corridor and wrote down everything he told me so as not to forget a single document. At that moment, Yuri left his office and quickly moved towards the exit of the building.

He returned accompanied by a dozen young Asians (apparently guest workers, probably arrested because they were undocumented). He shouted orders loudly and led them into a cell outside his office. I couldn't believe my eyes. In Russia, an FMS inspector can put twelve grown men in a cage solely with the sound of his voice and the fear it inspires. This is impossible in France. Twelve foreigners would lynch an immigration inspector, no questions asked, and it would take at least twelve policemen to stop them. But, obviously, Yuri felt his own impunity.

The FMS did not work on Wednesday; Friday was the last day when I could get an extract from the house register. Monday was the March 8 holiday; Tuesday was the only day I could register. I collected all the documents and an hour before the opening I came to the regional FMS, accompanied by Irina. She had to be present and sign the official documents of the interested parties. A young mother, she had to spend the whole day with me in a crowded Federal Migration Service. Yuri was not there during the opening. All morning his assistant periodically appeared in the corridor, each time we asked him about Yuri and received the same answer: “Yes, yes, he will be there soon.” Then it was time for lunch. After lunch, the corridor filled with people, some lost patience and left. At four o'clock in the evening the assistant came out and said dryly:

Lieutenant Yuri won't be here today.

I stood there stunned, terrified of the fact that I would have to redo the entire dossier.

Irina literally jumped on the deputy, explaining our situation. The phlegmatic comrade vaguely replied that he needed to come next Thursday, although the deadline for registration had already expired. Irina told me to follow her, and we went to the office next door, the office of the head of the Federal Migration Service.

It was twenty minutes to five, and this woman received us. There is Gioconda, there is Monica Bellucci, and there is also the head of this district FMS, who completes the trio. Nervous and sweaty, physically and mentally exhausted, I stood before her supernatural beauty. She didn't seem very busy, but her look spoke of her desire to leave the office and go home. Irina explained the situation:

We just need a stamp in the passport.

This beautiful creature looked at me for a few seconds, then with a dissatisfied look, she took out the seal. At that moment, her Vertu phone rang, she looked at the mobile phone, grabbed it - her neckline seemed endless to me, and a large gold cross was stuck to her right breast. Holding my breath, I looked up and saw a portrait of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, with a serious face and in a dark suit. Looking down, I saw that beautiful creation chatting on the phone, amazing body: long legs and beautiful shapes. Hanging with jewelry, the head of the Federal Migration Service seemed like an oriental princess. From the French point of view, she was the embodiment of corruption with a capital "C", evil at its best. But this evil stamped my passport, and I felt that I had made a pact with the devil.

I received my temporary residence permit and became, to some extent, a Russian citizen.

The stamp was given to me in the last legal hour of the last legal day of the permitted period. Very often in Russia everything is done in last moment when the situation seems completely hopeless. When I received a temporary residence permit, I learned that I needed a visa to leave the country. Paid. Can you imagine this? Even better: you have to wait two weeks for it! I didn’t need to leave the country often, and I was very happy about that, and soon the law changed, it became possible to get a multiple-entry exit visa.

It is quite strange to be forced to pay for the right to leave the country in which you live as a foreigner.

After the temporary residence permit, I needed to obtain a work permit - of course, on my own. A week later I went to the address where lucky residence permit holders could obtain work permits and received a “pleasant” surprise. The building, located on Arbat, was empty. Trying to understand where all the people had gone, I met a Russian who said that this FMS had moved to the north of the city. I returned to work and found the address to which I went the next day.

The new FMS premises were located in the north of the capital, halfway between the last stations of the two metro lines, orange and gray, that is, in an extremely inaccessible place. I got on the bus near the Altufyevo metro station, got off not far from the Federal Migration Service and asked for directions from an elderly Russian man, who instead of answering, spat on my feet. He didn't seem to be happy with the flow of foreigners...

The new building was dirty. When I arrived, several thousand people were waiting at the entrance, most of them Asian. Nothing was organized, and when I say that, I mean “there wasn’t even a toilet.” Those who waited all day urinated in the street around the building.

The line to the inspector's window took me four days. Four days. Ten hours of queuing a day to finally submit documents.

These four days seemed even more dramatic to me than waiting for a temporary residence permit. On the floor where I had to submit documents, the queue was disorganized between two windows: RVP without a quota and RVP with a quota. Despite the fact that two people organized two lists, everything turned into a post-Soviet mess, which has no equal on the planet. Some people waited for five days. In the afternoon of the fourth day of my wait, a fight suddenly broke out, people started shouting and swearing. In the end, everyone was quieted by the screams of the FMS employees, who came out of their offices.

When the doors closed, a young woman, an FMS inspector, literally went crazy: she stood in the middle of the hall and started shouting:
- You are all crazy, everyone, look, you are behaving like cockroaches, like a herd of cockroaches, I hate you, I can’t take it anymore!..

I decided to film this scene on my cell phone; some Russians, seeing this, did the same. One of the participants in the brawl asked me:
- No, but you’re not filming now, are you?
- Imagine, I’m not only filming, but I’ll also post it on the Internet today.

The concert of insults and brawl in front of the door continued until it was my turn to enter and then present my documents. Obtaining a work permit was done without a queue. That day when I left that office, the waiting room was almost empty, because I was almost the last one to pass.

Coming out of the dilapidated building, I felt for the first time that I was ashamed to be here and to participate in this. How did the authorities allow this to exist?

During those six months that I submitted my absolutely legal documents, issued a temporary residence permit and a work permit, did everything in accordance with the procedures, I probably spent a full month waiting, traveling back and forth, as well as various administrative procedures. How is this possible?

A new challenge awaited me when I received a work permit, a multiple entry visa and then could finally calm down.

After one year of temporary residence permit, you can request and receive a residence permit - the best document for a foreigner. This is not only a real passport for a foreigner, but also the ability to work legally, and it is valid for five years. A residence permit gives its owner the same rights as a Belarusian in Russia. If someone had told me, an eighteen-year-old surfer on the African coast, that in fourteen years I would want to claim the rights of a Belarusian in Russia, I would not have believed it. However, at the beginning of 2011 I decided to get a residence permit. The procedure was essentially the same as for a temporary residence permit, I just had to redo everything from scratch and draw up a new contract with the owner of the apartment - for five years.

Irina's previous property certificate became invalid, and she was forced to replace it and get a more modern version. Time passed and the validity period for some other documents passed. Several times we collected documents with a limited validity period. Once again I was consumed by stress: on the one hand, I was tormented by all these paperwork, and on the other hand, I was attacked by my angry employer. I reached such a state that I even thought about quitting my job in order to calmly submit all the documents. Sometimes I thought I was going crazy...

To obtain a residence permit, it was necessary to pass new medical tests, more in-depth and serious. They were done in different clinics, and I had to take them one after another in order to eventually receive a single summary certificate and present it when submitting documents.

The winter turned out to be especially cold. In the south of the capital, on Sevastopol Avenue, in one hospital they were doing x-rays, urine and blood tests. When I went to get tested, I hoped to get it done in one day, and then the doctor said I had to come back the next morning. I didn't understand everything in this speech elderly woman and asked her to repeat it, she got angry and threw my passport across the table. He fell to the floor, which didn't seem to bother the doctor at all. She turned her back to me. My French passport was lying on the floor. I thought about how I would again have to drive two hours home, call my boss and say that I needed another day off to get tested; the boss will be furious; I will again need to get up at five in the morning and trudge through thirty-degree frost God knows where in order to get there in time from seven to seven thirty. Add to this the fact that tests are taken on an empty stomach.

The next morning I arrived early, forty-five minutes before the hospital opened. The room was unlocked, but we had to wait outside. In the heart of an industrial zone, I had to stand outside for forty minutes in minus twenty-five Celsius! Maybe for some Russians this is not bitterly cold, but during the last twenty minutes of waiting I simply froze. And then it turned out that he was not only cold, but also caught a cold.

This day was one of the coldest of the year. I tried not to breathe, but starting to move, I froze even more. I was so eager to submit my documents on time that I thought with horror: “Will I really have to go back?!” I needed to be persistent, but I asked myself many times what I was doing here.

Finally we were allowed inside. The nurse took some blood from my finger, thanked me, and that was all. My finger was bleeding, but they didn’t give me anything to wipe it off - no cotton wool, no tissue. I put the glove directly on the bleeding finger and moved on.

I needed to take the jar of urine to the room where it was dark. I illuminated my cell phone screen and saw other jars of urine placed on the table, each one on top of a piece of paper with the patient’s name on it. Worried that my tests might be confused with the urine of a cannabis smoker, I decided to move all the jars of urine, about fifteen, to one end of the table, thus leaving half the space for my containers. And when I was diligently rearranging the jars in almost complete darkness, a voice asked me:

What are you doing here?

And suddenly the light turned on. The room was divided into two parts by a glass wall, and from behind the glass a nurse was looking at me in horror. I put down the jar of urine and said embarrassedly:
- No, nothing, everything is fine, thank you, goodbye!

Submitting documents for a residence permit was an even bigger nightmare than any I have gone through. It took me a week to submit the documents. It was an extremely cold March - it never gets that cold in France in winter. For some reason I was treated very strangely. The FMS inspector added more and more documents to the list: at first she demanded one, and then, when I brought it, after standing in line for about five hours, she ordered me to bring another, which was also not on the original list, then a third. For what purpose? So that I come back four times?

No problem! I am stubborn, and a residence permit became one of my key goals: I wanted final status, my grail, to become almost a citizen of Russia.

When applying for a residence permit, I simply could not fill out the form, it was too difficult. Near the Federal Migration Service they offered me to pay for filling it out, and I paid 1,500 rubles, saving myself a dozen hours of life and an incalculable amount of effort.

For unknown reasons, the number of my old passport appeared in the financial and personal account, and this was after I visited the housing office and asked to make changes. So I was forced to return to the housing office and “swear” there. The housing office employee clearly panicked because she had registered a foreigner incorrectly, and did the irreparable: he copied my new passport number with an error. I didn’t check whether she copied six numbers and three letters correctly, I took the documents to the FMS - the second mistake and the second refusal. I returned to the housing office again, checked the passport number, and now it was spelled correctly... But for an inexplicable reason, the housing office employee changed my name from Alexander to Alexandra. Why? Only God can explain.

It took me three attempts, three trips to the housing office and the Federal Migration Service and great self-control to receive and submit a financial and personal account. My God! my God! What a waste of time!

How is it possible that in Russia neither a notary nor employees, seemingly trained to work with documents, can copy dozens of data without making an error?

The most amazing thing was yet to come. The application dossier was quite thick, and I had all the necessary papers folded according to the list. It seemed to me that it would be more logical: the inspector would open the folder, take the list and check the documents one by one.

It was a busy day - Friday - and the gray mass of people wanting a residence permit was seething especially animatedly and chaotically. The inspectors were very bad mood. The one who took my file looked at me and shouted:
- Why are you standing here?

In his language it meant: “Give me your documents.” I walked up and handed over the folder, he grabbed it sharply - and all the papers that I had laid out on the list in order to make his work easier scattered. “Oh no, that’s it, now we’ll definitely have to go back to next week“, I thought. But no, the inspector picked up the documents and laid them out one by one, loudly complaining about his work and salary.

Exhausted by queues in the cold, a week-long wait for the right to simply hand over documents, I imagined how in France, in the same situation, I grabbed the inspector by the collar, shook him and said: “Stop tormenting me, do your job, or I will kill you on the spot.” Or maybe I would wait for him on the street and beat him up, like in Fight Club.

But I was in Russia, and I had to endure, with capital letters"T".

The inspector checked the form especially carefully, in which he found errors and inaccuracies - and wanted to return it to me, but I said that this document was filled out by their service center and that I paid for it. Visibly upset, the inspector finally decided to take my documents.

In Russia, of course, everything is possible.

I walked to the metro with mixed feelings. Of course, I insisted on my own, achieved something important with great difficulty, but if I choose to live in Russia, will I always have to suffer like this?

Fortunately, the FMS of Petrozavodsk restored my faith that officials can be normal people. In Karelia this system is well organized and works quickly. When Evgenia and I told how the Moscow FMS works to people from the corresponding organization in Petrozavodsk, they embarrassedly apologized to us on behalf of the Russian government. Is Moscow collapsing under the large volume of migrants?

When I received my residence permit, it was as if I saw the light and felt the warmth of the sun, just like during my first Orthodox service. The inspector handed me the document, congratulated me (!) and even smiled. It was like the appearance of the sun in the middle of the polar night.

In Moscow I went again to register. It was necessary to get a stamp in the passport, but Yuri went on vacation. And again, on the last legal day, after seven hours of waiting at the regional FMS, Yuri’s assistant stamped my precious residence permit.

It was about four o'clock on a beautiful November day in 2011. Yuri's assistant handed me the document and shook my hand. Having examined his neglected office and the bars of the cell located nearby, I sympathized with the people working here.

However, I think I've become a face-phobe. I get a nervous itch at the thought that I will ever need to redo any administrative document. The thing I hate most about Russia is the Moscow Federal Migration Service. One of my friends also applied for a temporary residence permit; We were driving in his car, talking - and I asked:
- Well, are you doing well?

My friend slowed down and parked on the side of the road.
- Why did you stop?
“You know,” he answered, “this topic infuriates me so much that I can’t drive and talk about it at the same time.”

It is obvious that the FMS created severe psychological trauma for large number foreigners in Russia.

But remember what various Russian and French friends told me when I started to legalize: “Even if everything is in order with your documents, you will not succeed, everything is corrupt, and you will have to pay.” This turned out to be untrue. The system is working. I have everything in my hands Required documents, although they were given to me with great difficulty, and not a single inspector during the entire procedure asked me for a ruble. In addition, outside of Moscow, this system can work quite normally: in Petrozavodsk, for example, you can make an appointment with the FMS via the Internet, there are no queues or chaos, and the inspectors are polite and friendly.

Epilogue: Is it time to leave?

In the cities, they noted the beauty of architectural structures, especially temples. Notes about Paris are even more curious: women's magazines, the zoo, the public nature of the court of first instance, the humanistic concept that led to the creation of the Hôtel des Invalides, the Palais Royal, the crowds on the streets of Paris and the hectic pace of life in the capital of France - that's what at that time attracted the attention of the Russian military. They were struck by how luxury borders on poverty, enlightenment on corruption. However, they noted the secularization and emancipation of public life, and undoubtedly these observations and contact with progressive Western Europe in comparison with Russia probably had a great influence on the formation of Decembrist ideas. This is the destruction of the Western and European dream that lies behind the disappointment of Russian soldiers who discovered France. These negative emotions arose in France after Russia left the process of Europeanization, begun centuries earlier by Peter I.

Among positive aspects Europeanization of Russia - of course, modernization and industrialization of the country, windows to Europe and the Black Sea. Among the negative aspects is the belief of Russians in their backwardness, which probably led to many complexes in Russia, including a permanent inferiority complex in front of Western Europe.

Many Russians I know are always surprised to see a foreigner who can enjoy the beauty of a Russian village, go to church services and love dumplings. They don't believe that we can truly appreciate "backward" Russia. My neighbor considers me an extremist - and what other reasons, from his point of view, could there be to love Russia and not doubt the choice of country?

Sasha, why don’t you live in France? - Timur sometimes asks me.
- Why don’t you move there if you’re sure it’s so good there? - I say in response.

There are Russians who believe that there will soon be a revolution and it would be better for them to leave the country before that. “It's time to get out” - you can read on many blogs and hear from protesters who believe that the world is a big village. Rest assured, I don’t want to leave and I appreciate the “lifestyle” in Russia, Moscow or Karelia.

I am far from the only foreigner in Russia who thinks so. What could really push thirty-five-year-old Caroline and her forty-three-year-old husband Frederic to one day leave France and settle in Moscow with their three children? What could motivate them to place three children aged 6, 9 and 12 in a purely Russian school when no one in the family speaks Russian? This rich family, who could easily live in France or pay several thousand euros per year per child for tuition at a French school in Moscow.

Why did my friend Elena, a forty-five-year-old Russian who lived twenty-two years in France, who had not returned to Russia since emigration and did not even have a Russian passport, one day put both of her daughters, 9 and 13 years old (who also had only French documents) in the car? and left for your historical homeland? They have French citizenship and are fighting with the Russian administration for residence permits and the right to stay in Russia.

What can we say about Lionel, who moved to Russia, lives in Khimki, opened an individual enterprise and teaches French cuisine to Russians in French? I don’t think that Khimki is the most attractive city in the country, but as Lionel himself said, “I feel so good here, what freedom, I do whatever I want.” How to explain this gap between the Russian "creative class" and the growing number of French people who are emigrating to Russia? Why are more and more French people ready to emigrate to “Putin’s Russia”, determined to build a “Russian destiny” for their children, while certain upper-middle class youth demonize the current system of power, holding it responsible for all the country’s ills?

Russians ask me: “So what, do you like Russia? And you don't want to go back to France? Don’t you think that Russia is a backward country?” The inferiority complex of some Russians towards Western Europe shocks me, I know that it is completely unjustified, and it is difficult for me to understand.

I see this complex as the main obstacle to the country's development. interferes with Russia obsessive desire imitate the Western model, not only take from the West what can be useful, and develop a unique and individual Russian system of existence.

More and more French people are now convinced that their country is not moving in the right direction, and they are also demanding alternative models, political, economic and moral. The processes of degradation are accelerating with the financial crisis, which undermined the Western liberal model, which was the envy of the whole world. The Moscow “creative class” must stop dreaming about the global Europeanization of Russia, forget about its inferiority and admit that the West has long ceased to be a model. While the French are getting poorer and the Russians are getting richer, it would also be useful to ask the right question: “Why?”

Almost a hundred years ago, the French accepted Russian emigrants who were expelled from their country and fled the dictatorship. It is possible that Russia in the near future may become a stronghold for immigrants from Europe in general and from France in particular. For many Europeans, the soft and cunning dictatorship of democracy has become a stranglehold, a system that the late Alexander Zinoviev clearly describes in his interview “Home to Russia.” He explains why he decided to leave the so-called democratic West, which for him is more like a totalitarian machine, and move to the “new Russia”. Can we assume that Zinoviev, who previously fled the Soviet Union, is mistaken? Thirteen years after his return to Russia, history seems to mercilessly prove him right.

Russia is now in a unique historical situation: it remains open. The Russian people must do right choice, realizing historical role, which the country will no doubt play in this century. Only now can the Russians avoid those historical mistakes which countries Western Europe accumulated since 1945. Geopolitical foundations are often invisible or inaccessible to most people, but they exist, and not taking them into account is suicide. Many Russians today are victims of an information war aimed at destabilizing their thinking, their country, their model of society, in order to prevent Russia from emerging as a sovereign pole.

25 myths about Russia

This is wrong. During Putin's rule, poverty has decreased significantly. The number of Russians living below the poverty line fell 35% to 23% from 2000 to 2004 and fell to 13.5% in 2008 (before the crisis).

2000 (Putin comes to power): 35%.
2004 (end of Putin’s first term in office): 23%.
2008 (end of second term): 13.5%.

Note that in 2007, 13.7% of the population lived below the poverty line in France.

2. Demographic trends in Russia are such that the country's population will decline to at least 100 million from the current 142 million.

Wrong. You can often read that Russia has a low birth rate and a high death rate, as well as a high number of abortions and suicides, as a result of which Russia loses 700 thousand inhabitants every year. But that's not true.

In 2005, the population of Russia decreased by 760 thousand inhabitants - an absolute record.
In 2006, the population decline was “only” 520 thousand people.
In 2007 - “only” 280 thousand.
In 2008, the population decreased by approximately 116 thousand.
And in 2009, the population increased by 12 thousand, the birth rate increased by 3%, and this despite the fact that 2009 was a year of economic crisis. That is, the measures taken by Medvedev in 2005 had simply stunning results.

Thus, Russia's demographic prospects look no more pessimistic than those of China or other G7 countries such as Germany.

3. Under Putin, Russia's human rights situation has deteriorated, more than 200 journalists have been killed, and Russia has returned to its totalitarian past.

But this point of view is shared by only 3% of Russians! During Putin's reign, unfortunately, 17 journalists were killed, but this is significantly less than under Yeltsin (30 journalists).

According to the CIA itself, Russia ranks 4th in the world in terms of the number of journalists killed since 1992, but is already 14th in terms of the ratio of journalists killed per capita, ahead of Israel and Algeria and just behind Turkey, which is vying to join the EU.

And in comparison with other post-Soviet countries, Russia is in 5th place (out of 13), right behind Latvia, an EU member state.

4. The Russian economy is based solely on raw materials, which was confirmed by the size of the recession in 2009.

No one has ever denied that Russia (along with other countries) extracts and exports raw materials. However, this is not why the economic crisis affected Russia: since it is a country with a relatively closed economy, domestic demand there has remained quite strong, and in theory this could support the economy.

But Western creditors, from whom Russian enterprises borrowed, greatly contributed to the fact that economic development the country was frozen. In addition, American calls for sanctions on Russia following the 2008 Georgia operation also caused increased economic instability, triggering capital outflows (mainly Anglo-Saxon) from late 2008 to late 2009.

5. Russia treacherously attacked Georgia in August 2008.

In reality, a few hours after peace was promised to all residents of Georgia on television, tanks opened fire on South Ossetia. Acting at the instigation of American, Ukrainian and Israeli military advisers, the Georgians were supposed to kill civilians and peacekeepers who were there under a UN mandate. Despite the flow of propaganda that Russia was the aggressor, it only gave a proportionate response. Moreover, most of the Georgian infrastructure (especially energy) was not damaged, and the capital Tbilisi was not affected either.

According to the results of an international investigation, the instigator of the conflict was Georgia - it was it that first opened fire on Ossetia.

And another question: why is no one concerned that opposition speeches are banned in Georgia, oppositionists are arrested and Georgian oppositionists are killed abroad?

6. Russian liberals and human rights activists cannot freely engage in politics because the Kremlin interferes with them.

This is not entirely true. Russian liberals have always had the opportunity to participate in elections, but their political popularity has been constantly falling: 12% in the parliamentary elections of 1993, 7% in the elections of 1995 and 1999, 4% in 2003, 2% in 2006...

Moreover, the Western model of society no longer attracts Russians who have traveled a lot (1/4 of Russian citizens have already visited Europe), they are more focused on preserving national sovereignty. And finally, the methods of Kasparov and his comrades - holding illegal forceful protests (they deliberately go for arrests) with slogans in English (which are undoubtedly addressed to the foreign press) do not inspire confidence in Russians.

7. Russians are racist, sexist and hate the West.

Russians are no longer racists insofar as they live in a multinational and multi-religious state. There are no more (if not fewer) racists in Russia than in other civilized countries (America, Germany, Ukraine...).

As for attitudes towards women, Slavic societies are matriarchal, and women play a leading role in the economy, and have long enjoyed suffrage and the right to abortion. Russian women started voting 30 years earlier than French women!

8. Russia is aggressive towards its closest neighbors.

Unlike other empires, Russia never conquered anyone by force of arms. By the way, many citizens of neighboring states would agree for their countries to once again become part of Russia.

9. There is an AIDS epidemic in Russia.

Everywhere they write that there is a huge number of HIV-infected people in Russia. In fact, testing of the population is almost complete, that is, most of the HIV-infected people have already been identified. The ceiling was reached in 2002, since then the number of patients has been declining, except for the risk group (injecting drug addicts, prostitutes, prisoners). Thus, although the AIDS epidemic remains an important factor (as in all developed countries), the situation in Russia is still very far from what can be observed in sub-Saharan Africa.

10. A people with a European birth rate and an African mentality has no future.

Why suddenly? The decline in fertility in the post-Soviet period is the result of the situation in the 1990s: the economic and psychological shock from the collapse of the USSR. Since then, the birth rate has risen to the current European level (see point 2), and nothing tells us that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it will not become even higher.

As for the extremely high mortality rate, it is now also decreasing and affects only older people, which does not affect the birth rate in any way, because they already have children and even grandchildren.

11. The level of social inequality is approaching Tsarist Russia and is exacerbated by widespread corruption. With Vladimir Putin coming to power, these trends have only intensified.

The Russian economy is quite unique - it cannot be called either absolutely liberal or absolutely authoritarian. This is a semi-open and semi-closed economy, its distinctive feature is a strong state presence and a fairly high level of corruption - no one denies this.

However, with the arrival of Vladimir Putin, a successful war against the oligarchs began. In the 90s, the Western press denounced the oligarchs, but switched to Putin as soon as he began to fight them. Why?

As one economic security expert said during a forum in the French Senate, “The days of bad guys in black jackets knocking on the door ended in 1995.” In the 2000s, racketeers were replaced by administrative resources (police and former intelligence officers). At present, the Russian market has come very close to civilized standards.”

12. Russia suppresses Chechen independence fighters in the most brutal way.

It is not true. After the first Chechen war (1995) and the retreat of the Russians, the Chechens de facto gained independence. The situation worsened sharply: the newcomer Islamists (Wahhabis) began to terrorize the local population and organize armed raids into neighboring regions in order to destabilize the entire Caucasus and create an Islamic caliphate there independent of Russia. Since Chechnya is inside Russia, most Chechens do not want independence, but peace. After the end of the second Chechen war, Ramzan Kadyrov kept a tight rein on the republic, but peace and legality were restored in the region.

13. Soviet space program was created by the hands of German prisoners of war.

Unfortunately for Germany, the Soviet space program was created by the Russians (like Korolev), nor did they have a Marshall Plan to help them rebuild the country after World War II. But captured Nazi scientists worked in the United States, one of the most famous was Wernher von Braun.

14. There were no democratic elections in Russia - Putin installed the puppet Medvedev in his place.

Putin is regularly mistranslated, loosely interpreted, and often called a dictator and an opponent of democracy. After Medvedev was elected, the press convinced us that he was nothing of himself, would quickly resign or change legislation so that Putin would lead the country again. In the end, nothing like that happened. There is no talk of any resignation. The duet of Putin and Medvedev has existed since 2000 (for 10 years now).

15. The Far East is colonized by the Chinese, the situation is simply catastrophic: soon all of Siberia will go to China!

Relations between Russia and China have never been bad, despite the claims of “Western experts.” To begin with, there is no Chinese expansion, which is so popular to talk about. A 2008 study produced a profile of the typical Chinese immigrant: 60% are male, 20% have a college degree (the Chinese average is 12%), 94% are employed, and the vast majority come from border cities. More than half are entrepreneurs.

The main question is: how many are there? According to the Federal Migration Service, in 2006 there were 200,000, in 2007 - 320,000, many of them seasonal workers. Of course, this does not take into account illegal immigrants, but so far, despite the cries of some (Latynina, Golts), not a single Chinese millionaire city has yet been discovered in the Russian Far East. Most likely, in the Far East, for every 5 million Russians there are about half a million Chinese (2/3 of whom are legal migrants and seasonal workers).

Even if we assume that the Chinese decide to leave Asia (which is unlikely) and go into conflict with Russia (which is even more unlikely), then Russian military superiority (especially nuclear) will quickly dissuade them.

16. Russia has shown itself to be an unreliable partner, especially when it comes to energy supplies (see gas supply disruptions).

If we try to properly understand and understand who started it first, it turns out that everything is just the opposite. How should the Russians react to NATO's expansion to the east, to the recognition of Kosovo's independence, to the attitude towards the Russian minority in the Baltic countries, to Georgian aggression, to the color revolutions sponsored by the CIA, etc.?

The same is true with interruptions in gas supplies, which were provoked by Ukraine, which did not pay Russia for gas and began to “take” gas from its territory.

Russia has been supplying gas to Turkey for a long time (since 2003 via the Blue Stream gas pipeline), and there have never been any problems - this proves that Russia cannot be considered an unreliable supplier and partner.

17. Discrimination against Russians in Estonia and Latvia is a gross exaggeration.

No, many European human rights associations pointed their fingers at the terrible situation of the Russian minority. Russians are subject to administrative obstacles, their language is discriminated against, employment is prevented, etc.

As a result, a quarter of the population of these countries is deprived of the right to education and even the right to citizenship! Not all of them are Russian (but with Soviet passports), and they become stateless, stateless, treated as second-class citizens, all in the heart of Europe.

In the same countries, marches of SS veterans are tolerated, but Soviet symbols are prohibited. Russians are being killed, but the EU is silent.

18. The Russian army is completely outdated, as is its military doctrine. Russia will not be able to withstand a blow from China or NATO.

In reality, everything is different: currently Russia is actively developing high-tech weapons - fighter planes, heavy bombers, tracking systems, as well as weapons of mass destruction (Bulava missiles, Voivode missiles), etc.

The war with Georgia proved superiority Russian army over the army of the country, which was helped by NATO for 5 years.

The new military doctrine is quite modern and linked to the “strategy 2020”; the Kremlin’s recent proposals for a new European security strategy are very reasonable and fruitful. And the plans to modernize the army are impressive.

19. Civil society was destroyed under Putin, all judicial system"under the hood"

In fact, the number of lawsuits has increased significantly since 1999. Over the past 10 years, their number has increased 6 times! Russia has undergone judicial reform, and plaintiffs win 71% of cases against the state. There are also free legal consultations.

The idea that non-governmental organizations are oppressed in Russia arose after Freedom House was expelled from the country in 2004 because the NGO did not pay rent. But we know that such NGOs participated in organizing the Orange revolutions, so it is quite natural that the authorities took the first opportunity to ban them.

20. Khodorkovsky was arrested and unjustly convicted because he was an effective manager, Westerner and liberal.

Khodorkovsky was convicted of fraud (corruption, bribery, tax evasion). More than half of Russians believe that he was convicted fairly (54% in 2006).

Khodorkovsky jeopardized Russian national interests because he was going to sell Yukos to Exxon, that is, he was going to sell Russian raw materials that did not belong to him to an American company, and all this on the eve cold war. Moreover, after his arrest, his personal funds were transferred to Rothschild, and this is quite natural, since Khodorkovsky is associated with American neoconservatives close to Bush.

21. Yeltsin was a true democrat.

He even climbed onto a tank along with those who shot at the Duma, where deputies (communists) opposed his liberal-corruption reforms. Then, without preparation, he declared war on Chechnya and lost. He appointed incompetent thieves as ministers, the oligarchs got rich while the people became poor, and the Caucasian mafia seized control of the country.

22. Russia uses its energy resources to keep its neighbors in line and benefits politically from energy expansion.

The supplier has the right to set tariffs, and customers have the right to pay or not. If any country uses energy for political purposes, it is America, which allows itself to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan.

23. Russia is ruled by neo-communists, Eurasians and nationalists who hate the West and Europe most of all.

Russian politic system very different from European. The political spectrum is very wide, even within the same party. However, it is true that Russians are very patriotic, and this shows in parties of both the right and left.

When Vladimir Putin was asked what ideology he adheres to, he replied: “Don’t you think that ideologies have already caused enough harm?” Recently Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is part of European civilization.

24. By 2050, Russia will become an Islamic caliphate.

The reality is completely different: ethnic Russians make up 80% of the country's population. According to a 2006 survey, only 6% of Russian citizens consider themselves Muslims, confirming the proverb: “In Russia, the Koran was dissolved in vodka.” Moreover, even in traditionally Muslim regions of Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) “Russians of Slavic origin” make up more than 50% of the population.

25. Berezovsky allowed Putin to come to power, and then they quarreled, and he was never allowed to return to his country.

General Lebed said: “Berezovsky is the apotheosis of abomination at the state level: for this representative of a small clique that finds himself in power, it’s not enough to just steal - he needs everyone to see that he steals with complete impunity.” The swan died in a plane crash.

Forbes magazine journalist Paul Klebnikov wrote the book “ Godfather Kremlin Boris Berezovsky, or the History of the Plunder of Russia,” in which he spoke about Berezovsky’s connections with the mafia. Paul Klebnikov was killed.

Berezovsky was involved in many dirty deeds and unsolved murders. Warrants for his arrest have been issued in Russia and South America. It is not surprising that many in the West literally defended this “great democrat” to the death. Berezovsky died under mysterious circumstances.

Metro How museum, non-professional racers behind driving strange yellow buses, armed men V trading centers Whichsees Moscow foreigner? About this, and Also O how behind latest years changed Moscow,knowrelty.ru asked tell Carla White - an Irishman who visited for the first time V Russian the capital almost 10 years ago and regularly returns here.Illustration: Anastasia Timofeeva

ABOUTfirstimpressedAndweather

My first trip to Moscow took place in December 2008. For a long time I did not tell anyone about my intention to visit Russia. I had several reasons for this: at first I didn’t want to be dissuaded and twisted with a finger at my temple, and then I wasn’t at all sure that the trip would take place - getting a Russian visa turned out to be much more difficult than I imagined. Before departure, my mother insisted that I turn on roaming: “If the border guards don’t let you out, be sure to call us, we’ll get you back!” But I didn’t have to call; I was easily let through passport control.

Of course, I knew that it was cold in Russia in winter, but I didn’t think it was this cold. I took the most warm clothes, which I had, but it was not enough. I extremely regret that I did not choose the ski suit that I bought for the trip. Although, if compared, it is, of course, strange that ski resort warmer than in a metropolis. In Moscow I stood out very much. And not because, but because I always wear white sneakers. In the subway, everyone is looking at the floor, and then suddenly a pair of white sneakers catches your eye, and even in the middle of winter. In the country black shoes I felt like a black sheep. But, I must say, in 2017 the situation has changed a little, and now I see a lot more clothes and shoes in bright colors on the streets.

ABOUTscale

First of all, Moscow surprised us with the number of people. There are many more of them in one city than in the whole of Ireland. I was also amazed by the number. In Ireland we tend to live in houses rather than apartments. But even if we do live, our houses are very low, not like those in Moscow. Although I have been to other big cities, for example, New York, I have never had such a densely populated feeling. Everything here is huge. If the statue is the size of a skyscraper. If it is a building, then it has an uncountable number of floors. Wherever you go, wherever you look, everything around reminds you that you are in a very large country. Well, whatever the country, such is the heritage. It would be strange if such a large state did not have huge monuments, buildings and memorials.

ABOUTRussians

Russians, in general, are very friendly, but that's only if you dig deeper. In appearance, no one talks to anyone, everyone is constantly frowning and muttering about something. It always seems that they are keeping some secrets from strangers. You talk to them, and they shy away from you, as if you had come to find out their deepest secrets. Although towards us, foreigners, they are much kinder and more welcoming. This is especially noticeable in tourist areas, where they smile at you and even support you in small talk. But they are colder to each other, perhaps, stricter.

ABOUTwhatit is forbiddenunderstand

I will never understand why everyone is called either Masha or Katya. It’s a joke, of course, but in Russia there are actually a lot of Mashas and Katyas. What I will definitely never understand is why Russians always take care of everything in the house, but do not really value public areas. You come in and there are drawings everywhere, graffiti, even trash. But behind a heavy iron door with eight locks, each apartment has a beautiful renovation, luxurious sofas, and carpets. And I also don’t understand why Russians have such a wild desire to quarrel and show everyone their place. You swear everywhere - at the post office, in the store, at the tire shop. We Irish just give up on a lot of things. Russians have a temperament that constantly requires some kind of clarification of relationships and disputes.

ABOUTlanguage

Russians are so emotional when communicating that one gets the impression that they are constantly arguing. Only the creators of The Simpsons could best describe and show how a foreigner sees a Russian. Every time I’m in Russia, I remember this episode.

Russian language is difficult for me. The sounds seem very hard, growling, there are no such sounds in English. In Russia they also speak very quickly. I sometimes catch some words, but, as a rule, they have nothing to do with their real meaning. Russians are strange and love monkeys very much, for some reason they often talk on the phone about “gorrilaz” (“Agreed.” - Primech. auto). And they always tell you something on the phone terrible secrets, secrets or shocking news. All you can hear is: “Come on! Is it true?" I can read Russian, but I don’t know what these words mean. I learned the Cyrillic alphabet on my very first visit, which was very useful to me - this way I could find the right metro station on the map or even read the sign. The main thing is that someone pronounces this word to me syllable by syllable, and then I can find it myself.

ABOUTMoscoweyesforeigner

The center of Moscow is incredibly beautiful, but the street names are very difficult. On this trip I noticed that maps appeared in English. There are not enough of them yet, but I can imagine how difficult it is to take and implement an innovation in a short time. I think that in a couple of years the entire center will be equipped with new signs, signs and maps in both Russian and English. I really like the Moscow metro - it’s a real museum! Each station is special, unlike the other. The system is simple and easy to understand. There are, of course, several stations where I still didn’t understand how to find my train (Kitai-Gorod station with a cross-platform transfer. — Note. auto). Many cities have long since introduced payment for the number of stations, and I don’t like this system; it is not designed for people who don’t know where they need to go and how many stations to go through. But in Moscow there is no such thing, and it’s really great: you pay for the entrance and walk around the museum, ride as much as you want. The only negative is that despite the fact that metro stations have begun to be announced in English, none of the metro employees still speak English. And just buying a ticket at the window becomes problematic. In general, it would be very difficult for me to figure out Moscow on my own and, probably, even a little scary - the police, the army are walking everywhere, everyone with weapons. This is how you come from shopping center, and a company of armed men will meet you. I have never seen anything like this, because our Garda (Irish Police. — Note. auto) is not armed. Besides the army, these little white and yellow buses (Marshrutkas) scare me. — Note. auto). It seems that their drivers are recruited from a pool of non-professional racers. There is no need to talk about safety precautions at all - some of the passengers are sitting, and many are standing. Moreover, they hold onto the ceiling with one hand, and hand over money with the other. Often they choose a chief, this “chief” collects money and gives out change. You don't see this in Ireland.

ABOUTtypicalMuscovite

Did I already mention that in Russia everyone’s name is Masha or Katya? Seriously, I cannot distinguish a Muscovite from a resident of another Russian city. In general, people in Russia are gloomy, stern, and love to drink and eat. They say Italians are very loud. But, it seems to me, only those who have not seen Russians say this. Russians are very noisy, loud, and love to attract attention and show off their wealth. At the same time, in families they are completely different: they make friends in a completely different way, they have much warmer relationships, they are responsive, friendly, and hospitable. You can’t come to a Russian person’s house and just drink tea. Any meeting ends with a feast. We don't eat that much in Ireland. Russians are also very touchy, it’s easy to get under their skin. Therefore, when visiting, you need to be careful what you say.

ABOUTchanges

Moscow is becoming more and more like others European capitals. It becomes cleaner and more beautiful, more atmospheric, or something. On my last visit, I was amazed by the city center: the roads around Red Square had been repaired, lanterns and benches had been installed - it was beautiful. I personally really like Red Square and Victory Park. But I always remember that Moscow is the capital, and one cannot judge all of Russia by the main city. I think that there, outside the concrete city, it is wild in places. It's a pity that there is never enough time to travel to other regions.

PreparedMariaWhite