I'm Russian – ask me a question. Be it about Russia or a personal one.

I have a few questions, I have been to Russia a few times and I know quite a bit about the situation, however there are a few things that really puzzle me.

1. Why are Russians so paranoid? I think Russia needs its name changed to Paranoiana.

2. Why is Putin being so expansionistic when there are villages in Russia that still have no basic services like electricity. Does he not understand that NOBODY is going to invade Russia and that if he would turn his attention to making a better life for the Russian people, like roads where the trucks are not axle deep in mud and other basic infrastructure that he could be viewed as the greatest leader Russia ever had?

3. Why does Russia not understand that if they would make their tourist visa procedure easier and not make coming there such a massive pain in the ass that the Russian people would benefit on the order of billions of rubles annually from tourist income?

Do you drink Vodka?

Are you hot? I love russian accents.

I dated a russian, but we ended up argueing too much since he was in the states working for the government on unmanned military robots.

How difficult is it for an american to move to russia?

Do you like this song?

I love russia , my dream is to visit Moscovo one day...
Why russian girls are the most beautiful of the world?

Car

OP, The U.S. is getting to be a very unfriendly place for older people. 1/6th of the population are Baby Boomers.

Most are starting to retire and seeking to move outside the country for places like south america and Central America. That does not appeal to me in the least. Those nations have made deals where the retired person can still get their Social security checks sent to them in hose countries.

Russia is a very big nation land wise. Russia should find a nice location and build a new city strictly for old retired americans. Many of us like Putin and would flock there. Lots of money to be had for Russia.

I hope the Russians love their children too

That's the thing I don't know for sure.
Quick trivia search resulted in nothing too.
But I think that Moscow, St. Petersburg and some other big cities had such ornate signs even before 1917, and then Soviet architectors imitated it and made it into tradition.

Here's a search of such signs.
[link to klou.tt]

And this ones are of the towns near which I live:
[link to mw2.google.com (secure)]
[link to e-vanteevka.ru]

Do you like Alla Pogochova? Have you ever been to any of her concerts?

My wife loves her and we have seen two of her concerts here in the USA.

Do you think she will come out of retirement?

and you are not russian, your english is too good, sounds American.

Exactly as I thought you are not Russian an imposter you are.

I'm a huge Formula One fan, and I love the new track in Sochi. I haven't been of course and last year was the innagural event.

Have you been to Sochi?

I THINK YOU ARE YOUNG AND FULL OF SHIT

THE SOVIET UNION WAS BASICALLY A HEAVEN FOR ACADEMICS

THE REGULAR PEOPLE GOT TREATED MORE POORLY THAN THE WEST BUT THE ACADEMIC CLASS WAS FAR BETTER TREATED

THE SOVIET UNION WAS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD WHERE IF YOU WANTED TO BE A SCIENTIST THAN YOU WOULD BE ALLOWED TO BE A SCIENTIST

THE ACADEMICS WERE TREATED SO MUCH BETTER THAN IN THE WEST THERE IS NO COMPARISON

FOR THE AMERICAN READERS - THIS GUY IS PROBABLY YOUNG AND IGNORANT AND HAS NO EXPERIANCE OF RUSSIA BEYOND HIS APARTMENT LIFE

RUSSIA IS FULL OF REDNECKS WHO LOVE TO SCREW, DRINK AND FIGHT AND MANY LIKE GUNS, RUSSIAN GUN LAWS ARE A JOKE SINCE THEY ARE NOT ENFORCED.

BY THE WAY PUTIN IS 100% A CORRUPT AND LIFELESS PUPPET

HE TOTALLY DESTROYED ALL THE INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SOVIET UNION

PUTIN DESTROYED THE RUSSIAN AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

HE DESTROYED RUSSIA'S EDUCATION SYSTEM

HE DESTROYED RUSSIA'S NAVAL INDUSTRY

HE IS DESTROYING RUSSIAN SPACE INDUSTRY

ALL HE KNOWS HOW TO DO IS TO MAKE DEALS WITH BIG OIL AND MINING COMPANIES SO THAT THEY CAN EXTRACT THE GOOD STUFF FROM SIBERIA AND GIVE SOME OF THE PROFITS BACK TO PUTIN

AND ALSO RUSSIA IS NOT HOMOGENOUS

RUSSIA IS VERY HEAVILY MIXED IN SIBERIA THERE ARE TONS OF CHINESE, TONS OF "ASIAN RUSSIANS" PROBABLY 40% OF THE POPULATION ARE ASIAN OF HAVE ASIAN BLOOD

IN OTHER PARTS OF RUSSIA THERE ARE MUSLIMS

RUSSIA IS A DYING COUNTRY LIKE AMERICA, I JUST WANTED TO HELP YOU GUYS FROM AMERICA OUT WITH THE TRUTH

I GREW UP IN SOVIET UNION AND HAVE MATH-PHYS EDUCATION

WORK IN AUSTRALIA IN TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

TIRED OF THE BULLSHIT ABOUT RUSSIA

IT IS A DYING COUNTRY, MIXED RACE, REGULAR PEOPLE DONT FOLLOW LAWS, SOVIET UNION WAS MUCH MUCH BETTER

True russia is fucked because there are too many asian immigrants and people from the Caucasus immigrating, these mongrels need to be deported, otherwise there will be no more ethnic russians left. Poutine is allowing them in too.

The Russian population is collapsing. Couples cannot afford to have children. At the rate of collapse there will be no ethnic Russians in a few years.

Just one more reason why Putin is one of the most dangerous men on the planet.

Do you like Pelmeni?

Whats the deal with that freaky Russian radio station that plays a type of horn 24 hours a day? I can't remember the name. But what's the word amonst the locals regarding that station?

how is welfare in Russia for those that dont have a job or a house to live in

is the birth rate in Russia still very low or is it increasing ever more so

There's a major development considering birthrates lately. Last year he had a natural increase of population first since SU times.

5 star OP !!!
I can tell you're genuine.

When people ask me what I missed from USSR.... I say Celebrations and holidays.

Who do you or most Russians consider to be a true hero?

the question must have been.do you drink water?

nice, I think they're spectacular.

that's great news! I heard last two years had increase in population and birth rates. Good job!

Well, I have nothing to do with this particular "work", but thanks anyway.

Tamonten what are the comments in Russian media about Kurds sytuation at this moment ?

In my not so humble (I have some qualification to assess this matter) opinion and judging from the experts I've heard (namely - Evgeniy Satanovskiy (president of "Near East Institution" think tank) and Semyon Bagdasarov (director of "Research Center of the Countries of Near East and Central Asia" think tank), Turkey is already doing pretty much everything safe from direct intervention to help ISIS.
I don't believe that, judging from the Ukrainian example, Turkey can do something that will make Europe (I mean Brussels) open their eyes - if there's no direct approval from beyond the Atlantic. There was an ISIS attack directly from Turkish territory few weeks ago, no? Did anyone even bat an eye?

As I see it, Turkey is having another transition between "imperial" and "nationalistic" ideology now. The thing is - they are trying to build empire on nationalistic foundation raised by Otaturk. "The main thing that history teaches is that history never teaches anyone", as historians joke among themselves. Previous empire built on nationalistic phraseology had a very spectacular ending just 70 years ago.
As long as Russia stays current Russia with Putin (or someone of the same way of thinking) as a president, we'll never allow it to happen. We've done throwing away allies in hope of being praised. Even Medvedev who was naive to allow "no flight zone" on Libya has opened his eyes since then and won't believe another Western initiative. We are having practical commercial relations with Turkey - but Russia will never even consider paying for "Turkish Stream" with human lives.

Are you a Trans-National that felt you were an American since you were little?

How comfortable are you around Pet Donkeys?

Hi. I would like to know if there are still secret cities in Russia or have all of them been 'outed'?

If I have to choose... The Unknown Soldier.
[link to img-fotki.yandex.ru]
WW2 - The Great Patriotic War - or rather "The Great War for Homeland" was just to great to pick one or two heroes.
That's why they are all celebrated collectively:
"Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal"

Here's one of the recurring misconceptions which made me to create this thread...

For once, there's no KGB now. It was renamed FSB (Federal Security Service) and don't manage media. We have a bunch of other services to do this work (RosComNadzor - Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications) and they just monitor content to be appropriate: blocking extremist and porn sites and other such things. Cases are passed to FSB only in the case of uncovering some serious extremist organizations.

There are of course some journalist disappearing, being suppressed and other vile things. But none of that is by hand of Federal government, I assure you.
As a rule, if some journalist is prone to seek dirt, he'll be seeking it everywhere. If you look closely at the journalists that were allegedly "disposed of because they were targeting Putin", you'd see that they were investigating mafia, corruption on municipal level and many other things. They had a lot of enemies, but when they are finally murdered, Western and Western-aligned MSM blame their death to Putin personally without any other thought.

That is a good answer. How do Russians feel when Americans say they won WW2.