Henry120:

What the hell man? You are very funny oh.

I'd also like to know if there are any russian comedians? Everyone looks too serious over there.......... Look at vladimir putin.

There are of course. For example we have thing called KVN where students from different universities make teams and compete for the funniest team, then they compete among universities and the final competitions are shown on TV. Though I don't know if there are any translations of that. Also TV channels host their own comedy programs like Comedy club with lots of comedians (there are mostly toilet and sex jokes though) or a famous comedian Zadorniy (whose humor is basically "haha look at how fat and stupid americans are and look at how cool we are", I dislike him but some people like). Even our classics were comedians, for example classic writer Saltykov-Schedrin. Read his History of a Town book or some of his short stories, comedy gold.

Elliotwiz1: You're so funny, What's your age range? If you don't think It's too impertinent*

Aren't people supposed to be rude and disrespectful on the internet? Or is it only the runet which is like that?
I'm 22.

Thanks a lot.
I'm actually enjoying this thread.

since_1914:

I think it depends on your level commitment and the intensity of the language program you are taking. I once took a 9-month intensive Russian language program in Kiev, and today, I do not only speak intermediate Russian but also read and write in Russian (even though, I was just an average student then). On the other hand, I casually took Italian classes while living in Italy for a couple of years, yet my Russian language skills is still twice better than my Italian skills.

some username:

Aren't people supposed to be rude and disrespectful on the internet? Or is it only the runet which is like that?
I'm 22.

lol. Funny you. Are russians fetish? Do they have indigenous religions?

since_1914: There seem to be a lot of anti-Russian sentiments amongst the countries of the old Soviet Union. As can be seen from the on-going bitter debate in some of these countries over the propriety of Russian language as an official language or even as a language of instruction in schools. Do you think their reservations towards Russia are unfounded? What does the average Russian think about people from these countries?

That's only prevalent among Baltics and Ukraine. Belarus and all *stans are pretty friendly, and all caucasian countries excluding Georgia are friendly too. Now that Georgian Saakashvili is gone and a new president elected we are no longer enemies with them too.
As for Baltics its understandable that they resent us since they treasure their sovereignty even though they were better during USSR than now (Latvian population rose twice during USSR years and fell by almost 30% during past 20 years after USSR dissolution).
But Ukraine is a special issue. During the 90s we were on the same path - we turned into a democracy, started economical reforms which ruined industry and opened country for foreign goods while selling them crude oil and living in poverty. But in the early 00s we turned back, government took control of industry again, we started to produce our own stuff, etc. Ukraine now has GDP (PPP) per capita of the same level as Namibia while Russia's GDP(PPP) p.c. is three times that, meaning average Ukrainian is approximately as poor as Namibian or 3 times poorer than Russian.
According to polls 70% of Ukrainians speak Russian at home yet they refuse to recognize russian as one of their official languages. In eastern majority russian parts of Ukraine and Crimea 100% of population speaks Russian.
Ukraine is desperately trying to get into EU even though Turkey which is in much better position didn't manage to get in and even though other than easier immigration there would be no benefits to it from joining. Ukrainian president himself said that if they join EU their industry will die, though he said that their agriculture and other low-cost production will flourish. Right now they have eased taxes on imports and with every month their production withers. Even their agriculture isn't as good as they expected and only 60% of the food is domestic made.
Ukraine looks like a stupid child, who would rather injure himself than go back to mother. And Ukraine does exactly that, they strangulate their economy which leads to the fastest decline in population after Baltic countries, fastest HIV growth rate among ex-USSR countries, problems with alcohol and drugs, etc. Yet they proceed to decline offers from our government to join the trade union and possibly CIS like Belarus and Kazakhstan did (and both their GDP(PPP) p.c. is twice as big as Ukraine's) which would allow them to buy cheaper gas and get better economy. The current Ukrainian president was elected on the promise of reestablishing relations with Russia yet he proceeds to go further away. Its like their government has gone insane or was bought by some forces who don't want any good for Ukraine.

^^Those forces sounds like those from the west.
Nice write-up.

Elliotwiz1: lol. Funny you. Are russians fetish? Do they have indigenous religions?

Yes. Yes. We a bunch of retards who think that jews are alien hybrids left by reptilians to control the theft of Earth resources and that ancient russians built egyptian pyramids to fight against them. They are harmless though, what they do is live in forests and worship wooden penis-like statues. There are of course lots indigenous religions like russian paganism (which is almost dead now), lots of native pagans on the North and in Siberia, some noncanonical Orthodox believers left from church split during Tsardom, but after materialistic USSR people rarely take any kind of religion seriously. Despite statistics saying that about 70% of people are religious majority says that only to point out that they celebrate religious holidays and wear crosses. Only 4% of Orthodox christians visit church regularly, I bet the same is with muslims and pagans. I celebrate Easter for example but have been to church only twice in my life, and only because those were two awesome churches in Moscow kremlin (just so you know, there are quite a few other kremlins in other cities).

Nomski0: I read in Elle that Russia has the hottest/sexiest models...... How true is this? Are all Russians like Irina and Sharapova?

I have no idea who that Irina is, my mom is Irina too. Of course there are ugly and/or fat girls but generally there are no such retarded things like american "fat acceptance" here so they all are trying to look beautiful and never say "I am ugly but you should say I'm beautiful because I am too lazy to really become beautiful". Sharapova is beautiful I think, but I've seen women more beautiful than her, they were all younger ofc . Here in uni I'd say among 10 girls 1 is super gorgeous, 2 are beautiful, 6 are average and 1 is ugly/fat. It all depends on your taste though. What saddens me is that too many girls use makeup heavily and it looks disgusting sometimes.

The west say your economy is totally dependant on oil and gas, and you run a completely corrupt and repressive government which stifles media freedom and free speech.


Are all these allegations correct or are they simply made up? Apart from oil and gas, and military equipment what else does russia export?

Under the leadership of Medvedev, I saw a Russia that was more Pro-west and a lot more liberal, but under Putin, it seems Russia has become a tad more authoritarian like it used to. Would you say Russians prefer a Medvedev to a Putin Presidency?
What do the average Russian think about, cases like the arrest of Greenpeace activists of even the detention and trial of Alexei Navalny? Are they scared that their civil rights could be threatened under Putin?

Do Russian see themselves as Europeans, Asians or neither?
Do Russian (older gen) think communist rule was better than the current system?

Why did Russia make such bad cars, while making great aircrafts?

I read a lot about Marshal Zhukov, and watched a lot of videos over the battle of Stalingrad. Your people are very brave.
Science wise I'm curious about the supremacy of Russia in aerospace. How did you manage to dominate all other nations in that domain?

Politics wise: Are Russians aware of Western negative interference in African countries domestic politics ? How can Africans
have Russia get involved and help stop this harassment? What would be the best way to lobby in Russia?

some username: We are ok with gays, but nobody likes public display of gayness (aka waving dicks and walking with naked butts). Almost nobody (except for the same radical neo-nazis and some religious crazies) cares if someone is gay as long as he doesn't publicly announce their perversions. Most people think about it as of coprophagia - nobody cares if you eat shit in your home, but you better not do it in public.
Also gays are associated with westerners here and most of the people hate or at least dislike west.

same with Nigeria, However the media blows thingz outta proportions

Do you think you can ever fall in love with sport. Football is nice and russia will be at the world cup. Nigeria will be there too. How popular is football in russia? Would you watch the worlcup?
Who do you think would win a russia vs nigeria football game? What other sports are popular in russia? Can a average russian like you that has no oilblock ar wealth by inheritace really hope to become rich in the future. Do average russians want to be rich. Are you open to other religions. Will you try to read the QURAN if i recommend it to you. Do you watch nigerian films? Have you watched any nigerian film? Sincerely, how many percentage of russians do you think have heard of Nigeria? How good do you think russian computer programmers are? The last russia-geogia war ehich lasted 8 days, how was russians feelings towards the way? Has there been any situation ever when russian oppose the russian government on a decision to fight a war? Do you think your government has political or economic interest in african countries? What do you think i can export from nigeria that is in short supply in russia?

Ok, lemme have your facebook name or link

We used to have a Russian guy in our group of friends at varsity, he used to always tell us stories about how everyone in Russia has to pay a protection fee to the mafia. Is that true?

Mr russian, I see you have been banned by the anti-spambot. To free your user I.D, go to the complaints thread on the main board of the politics section, lay a complaint to the MODs and your handle would be un-banned.

Henry120: Mr russian, I see you have been banned by the anti-spambot. To free your user I.D, go to the complaints thread on the main board of the politics section, lay a complaint to the MODs and your handle would be un-banned.

I wasn't in a hurry so I just waited through it. Thanks for advice though, I'll do if it happens again.

Henry120: The west say your economy is totally dependant on oil and gas,

It was very true until about 2003 but not now. Even though our budget still gets a huge chunk of it from oil and gas comanies like Gasprom and Rosneft we have other industries now and gas and oil prices changes won't cause any serious problems now. Also we control the gas market here and we set the prices .

Henry120: and you run a completely corrupt and repressive government which stifles media freedom and free speech.

Well, we had very widespread corruption among all government services in 90s, but since then conditions improved and now corruption happens mostly in the financial and bureaucratic sphere and not in police or road police like before. Government contractors stealing money and going bankrupt, some regional governors abusing their power and alike.
As you know Russia is ranked 133th among about 178 countries in perceived corruption index, behind countries like Mozambique and Uganda, polls show that 80% of people consider the level of corruption in Russia is high, about 12% average and 2% low, but the same polls show that 81% of people didn't have to deal with corruption during last year and another 12% said they had to deal with it once. ( http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=114572 ).

About freedom of media and speech - we have so far only ban on gay propaganda among minors, ban on calls to religious and ethnic based hatred and violence and ability to sue people who publicly accuse you of something which they cannot prove ( for example when one election candidate accuses another of corruption like it happened recently).

Though recently some crazies got a taste of banning things and they have pushed a law which allows them to ban sites which have things like descriptions of producing drugs or effects of using them, drawn porn with underage kids, instructions about suicide, sites which allow you to get access to banned content, etc. That seriously is too much and people are getting angry. Though as usual after introducing laws nobody cares to enforce them and you can still find even child porn or other content which is illegal everywhere on our main social network vk.com (clone of facebook).

Henry120:
Are all these allegations correct or are they simply made up? Apart from oil and gas, and military equipment what else does russia export?

Mostly resources like metals, wood and coal and their simple derivatives like pipes and billets. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russia_Export_Treemap.png , its old though, it uses 3 year old data right after crisis.

Hmmm apart from answering questions about Russia, do you have any other reason You're here?

since_1914: Under the leadership of Medvedev, I saw a Russia that was more Pro-west and a lot more liberal, but under Putin, it seems Russia has become a tad more authoritarian like it used to. Would you say Russians prefer a Medvedev to a Putin Presidency?
What do the average Russian think about, cases like the arrest of Greenpeace activists of even the detention and trial of Alexei Navalny? Are they scared that their civil rights could be threatened under Putin?

No. Some of course do, but majority sees Medvedev as Putin's puppet who is there only to relay Putin's orders and enjoy soft president's chair. He constantly did immature stuff, behaved like a teenager, started several failed projects (like "let's make full Russian made cellphone without any chinese parts!" or "lets make a Russian made car which fits all european standards, is easy and comfortable to use and is also cheap!" which has then been either closed or are under corruption investigations. He started privatization of our huge oil companies like Rosneft which was thankfully stopped by Putin because losing control of our main source of economical lever over Europe would be horrendous.

By immature stuff I mean like when he lost his cat and all news were about how presiden't guard is searching for it, or how after meeting with Steeve Jobs who gave him an Iphone he said that government must provide free Ipad for every deputy as a necessary work instrument, or how he started arguing with people on twitter and got upset when they called him "Dima" and "Dimon" instead of respectful "Dmitriy" and asked not to call him like that anymore.
Seriously, a president using Iphone and deputies using Ipads is a huge threat to national security, it was obvious to anyone more or less tech savvy that americans can spy through them.
During his whole presidency whole country was like "the fuсk man, what the fuсk are you doing, we wanted a president and not a kid".

Greenpeace were arrested rightfully, even our opposition doesn't try to deny that. Boarding aboard another sea vessel illegally is a piracy. We know they didn't try to steal anything or take hostages, but law is still a law, they stalled oil production and used money our taxpayers spend on border patrol.

Majority of population doesn't know who that Navalny is. Only 30% heard about him. In 2011 I watched closely for Navalny and that whole opposition gang to form an opinion whether to support them or not and decided to not. Navalny seems to have ties with american NGOs (and even if CIA or whatever isn't behind those NGOs I doubt american NGOs want any good for us). In fact, many people did the same. But in 2012 people seem to have formed their opinion on things and now only a few nationalists and pro-western liberals who have had their little circlejerk since the beginning of Russia still pay attention to him. Anyway, on the recent elections for Moscow mayor only 20% supported him, I think about the same amount of people support him in Petersburg and maybe like 0.1% support him outside those two capitals. If I remember correctly when there were ~50000 protests in Moscow in 2011, in Novosibirsk, the third largest city, only 20 or so people came to protest.
What I meant is, only a small portion of people support him in Moscow and St. Petersburg while everywhere else people look at all that as some stupid entertainment by those Muscovites who have nothing more useful to do rather than go to public places, throw stones at police, get arrested and cry for international media about police brutality and evil Putin.

Z3tdee: Do Russian see themselves as Europeans, Asians or neither?

Europeans. Though majority thinks europeans went the wrong way with all their political correctness, gay rights and mass immigration and don't want to follow them there.

Z3tdee:
Do Russian (older gen) think communist rule was better than the current system?

Yes. People about 30-50 generally dislike USSR and say it sucked a lot though had some positive things like pioneer movement, people >50 love it and say all bad things were because of stupid leaders during the 80s and later.

Z3tdee:
Why did Russia make such bad cars, while making great aircrafts?

People are relatively poor compared to europeans, americans and japanese so our car manufacturers cannot make good expensive cars since nobody would buy them and so they make bad but cheap cars. Since every semi-poor country makes its own cheap cars (like Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, Polish, etc) almost nobody outside of Russia buys them and we cannot invest into producing better cars. But people are getting richer and recent Ladas are pretty good as I heard, I don't know for sure though.
Airplanes are another story, for them cost isn't that relevant as for cars.

panafrican: I read a lot about Marshal Zhukov, and watched a lot of videos over the battle of Stalingrad. Your people are very brave.

I like Rokossovsky better but Zhukov was cool too.

panafrican:
Science wise I'm curious about the supremacy of Russia in aerospace. How did you manage to dominate all other nations in that domain?

If you are talking about space launches its because USSR chose to pursuit cheap one use rockets while USA more expensive but theoretically cheaper per launch reusable space shuttles. They didn't succeed in making them cheap enough though and dropped the program, also Cold war is over and there is no need to show off your advantages in front of the world. Other countries simply didn't have enough resources like USSR or USA did, except for China which is developing fast in that direction now.
If you are talking about aircraft we have no superiority there. Maybe some of our aircraft are better than american ones but its their fault for becoming corrupt leeches on their military budget (though american A-10 is still the best ground support aircraft imho). Other countries have good airfighters too, for example french Rafale.

panafrican:
Politics wise: Are Russians aware of Western negative interference in African countries domestic politics ? How can Africans
have Russia get involved and help stop this harassment? What would be the best way to lobby in Russia?

Russians no, nobody cares what's happening outside of ex-USSR, China, Europe and USA. Russian government probably yes.
Our government won't do anything which isn't benefiting it. For now its Chinese business to invest in Africa and our government doesn't want to ruin our relations meddling with them. Though some our companies have big business projects in Africa, mostly in arab countries like Lybia and Egypt. Russia doesn't need resources so badly as to get its hands into Africa like Chinese do. I hope you don't have any delusions about Russia being a savior of the world or anything, its just that we are profiting from kicking americans out of friendly countries and making them look stupid and evil in front of the whole world.

Akinmail: Do you think you can ever fall in love with sport. Football is nice and russia will be at the world cup. Nigeria will be there too. How popular is football in russia? Would you watch the worlcup?

Football is the most popular mass sport but everyone here knows Russia sucks at it internationally and people mostly care for domestic matches. I prefer hockey though, I used to play it in school.

Akinmail:
Who do you think would win a russia vs nigeria football game?

Nigeria. But I'm not sure, I only know that our football fans get very happy if we aren't kicked out of World cup after the first match.

Akinmail: What other sports are popular in russia? Can a average russian like you that has no oilblock ar wealth by inheritace really hope to become rich in the future. Do average russians want to be rich.

Yes. My aunt works as a main secretary of a guy who became rich after 15 years of hard work in retail business. He started with a kiosk selling junk food on the street intersection and now ended with his own milk products factory, meat products factory, beer factory and a network of convenient stores and warehouses. But of course if you have inheritance or relatives in high positions its all easier. Of course people want to be rich but its not like its their life goal.

Akinmail:
Are you open to other religions. Will you try to read the QURAN if i recommend it to you.

I'm an atheist and so far don't see how I can change my belief. No, I'm not going to read Quran or Bible or whatever. The only religious book I've read was 101 Zen stories.

Akinmail:
Do you watch nigerian films? Have you watched any nigerian film?

No, never.

Akinmail:
Sincerely, how many percentage of russians do you think have heard of Nigeria?

I think almost everyone heard of it. There is a popular saying here (invented by Google founder, russian emigrant Sergey Brin): «Russia is Nigeria with snow».

Akinmail:
How good do you think russian computer programmers are?

Pretty good I think.

Akinmail:
The last russia-geogia war ehich lasted 8 days, how was russians feelings towards the way? Has there been any situation ever when russian oppose the russian government on a decision to fight a war?

Basically everyone was angry at georgians for siding with americans after all we've been through during USSR, then everyone was "yeah, we are awesome" when our forces were steamrolling through Georgia and then anger at americans when they started smear campaign which thankfully failed. Also everyone laughed at Saakashvili who was chewing on his neckerchief. I think there may have been a few who opposed intervention but they weren't stupid enough to voice it because of overwhelming support for government. Especially people were angry for attacking our peacekeepers stationed here. They even forgot their disdain to caucasian muslims who composed the main force which fought in Georgia.

Akinmail:
Do you think your government has political or economic interest in african countries? What do you think i can export from nigeria that is in short supply in russia?

Yes, mostly for rare minerals I think. I don't know what can you export to Russia, some exotic fruits maybe? But I think China will sell them cheaper.

Psylas: Ok, lemme have your facebook name or link

I'm not registered on facebook. Facebook isn't popular at all in Russia.
http://vincos.it/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/WMSN0613_1024.png

paniki: We used to have a Russian guy in our group of friends at varsity, he used to always tell us stories about how everyone in Russia has to pay a protection fee to the mafia. Is that true?

Used to be true in big cities, now our businesses spend money on private security firms instead of mafia.

Am impressed by how well you have answered all of these questions, your answers have been quite informative. I have just published a collection of Design Essays, that will be available on Amazon, Apple store and a handful of other eBook retail stores as from next month. And I will like to know What the indie publishing market in Russia is like. Do Russians buy eBooks?
Which Russian publishers will recommend that I send out query letters to?

since_1914: Am impressed by how well you have answered all of these questions, your answers have been quite informative. I have just published a collection of Design Essays, that will be available on Amazon, Apple store and a handful of other eBook retail stores as from next month. And I will like to know What the indie publishing market in Russia is like. Do Russians buy eBooks?
Which Russian publishers will recommend that I send out query letters to?

I don't really know, maybe you should try Google play? I (and I bet 99% of other russians) have never bought a single ebook in my life, I've either pirated them or took for free from university e-library.

Russian-man, pardon me for calling you that way because I dont want to call your username. I'm impressed by your answers. Though I know a little about Russia from documentaries I watch but your answers give more insight to what I couldnt get known before.
Besides, if by chance you know or see Oleg Salenko, give my greetings to him I cant forget how he dealt with Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup.
Have a Russian classmate here that also gave me some enlightment and also talked about the religious stance over there; but was surprised when he asked this question "Are all Africans poor? (provided you,that is me, answer NO) Why do the media depict them as such?"

RedReact: Russian-man, pardon me for calling you that way because I dont want to call your username. I'm impressed by your answers. Though I know a little about Russia from documentaries I watch but your answers give more insight to what I couldnt get known before.
Besides, if by chance you know or see Oleg Salenko, give my greetings to him I cant forget how he dealt with Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup.

Hear this name for the first time so sorry, also I am too young to remember 1994. I bet he lives in Moscow or Petersburg since he is (or was) a world class sportsman and Moscow is about 5000 km away from here so I doubt I'll meet him anytime soon.

RedReact:
Have a Russian classmate here that also gave me some enlightment and also talked about the religious stance over there; but was surprised when he asked this question "Are all Africans poor? (provided you,that is me, answer NO) Why do the media depict them as such?"

I doubt anyone including that classmate of yours really thinks that ALL Africans are poor, in every country no matter how rich or poor it is there are always some very poor and some very rich people, its only a matter of proportions. Its just that in Africa all countries are poor so there are very few rich people and a lot of poor.
Why does media depicts all africans as poor and incapable of helping themselves? Probably because nobody outside of it cares what's happening there, be it wars or disasters or whatever. The only ones who care are charity organizations and they portray Africa as a hellhole full of starving children to get money from donators. Africa is like Balkans. Do you ever hear news from Bosnia or Albania other than some stories about human trafficking and poverty?