[9214]

In 2022: zero, unless you have relatives/friends from abroad who are willing to help. I'm mid-20s below-average Russian born and raised in a city with population of 19k (and declining), Ural region. Average salary here is around 200-300 USD, 400 if you are lucky.

I emmigrated in 2019 to work with an international startup in Montenegro: and ended up being ostracized and harassed by my manager from another country (won't point fingers to avoid unnecesary nationalism) on a cultural/ethnical basis; was forced to leave after a year and a half.

After that, in 2021, I was offered to come to US by a fellow colleague with Ukranian roots: worker visas were denied to Russian citizens at that point, and most of the embassies were either closed or worked in a limited capacity (also due to pandemic).

My last attempt (again in 2021) was to apply for PhD in EPHE institute of France (I have an MS degree in a programme related to medical tech, computer vision, and brain-computer interfaces): I got nothing in response.

Since then I have been holed up in my hometown. Another friend of mine proposed some time ago to come to Vietnam: but with the entire world openly opposed to my nation, I doubt that will ever happen.

[fer]

> apply for PhD in EPHE institute of France [...] I got nothing in response.

Well, that's hardly surprising, and it's not because you're Russian, in France it's hard to get any institution to ever reply you by mail, let alone if (I guess) you wrote to them in English.

If you want to work or do a PhD in France (in English) I can offer some support and pointers for my region, you can hit me up at the email on my profile.

[9214]

Thanks you, but I'm way past this — mostly because I reevaluated my stance towards academia and have a family to support here.

To clarify: I contacted one of the professors directly, whom I visited, who was aware of my background (my employee at the time introduced us and wrote an informal letter of recommendation), and who collaborated on a startup project I mentioned.

[Ancapistani]

> and have a family to support here.

Not to sound like an ass, but if that's your limiting factor and you're making anywhere near the salary you listed as average, don't worry about it. If you can figure out a way to get yourself to a better position, I'll figure out a way to get you 400 USD / year.

[9214]

Thank you for the offer, but, in all honesty, you should rather donate your money to Ukrainian support organizations. I'm already privileged enough to work remotely from home and earn a decent salary.

[shushpanchik]

> If you can figure out a way to get yourself to a better position, I'll figure out a way to get you 400 USD / year.

Are you sure about that? Even now it's pretty hard to send money to Russia - SWIFT is not working for most banks, Wise stopped RUB transfers, etc.

In 1-2 weeks time there would be no legal way to send money to your family back in Russia, I'm pretty sure.

[kragen]

Bitcoin.

[bigodbiel]

Best bet is Southeast Asia or China (but that maybe harder). SE Asians in general happen to view European issues as somewhat distant to them [1]. As such better welcomed, and where also more likely a future Russian expat community is sure to thrive.

[1] https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/southeast-asia...

[boruto]

You may not like the advice and may think it is 3rd world. but please do look at India, for a half decent developer salaries would start at 1000 USD - 2000 USD.

Most people definitely are not opposed to Russia, they are oblivious to international events.

[modernpink]

The Russophobia that has been pouring out is lamentable. And people don't realise this will only push the Russian people further towards Putin to re-establish their pride. And the sanctions are making this even worse. This mirrors Germany's treatment with the Treaty of Versailles leading up to WWII.

[ceilingcorner]

It is really distressing, not only because it’s ethically wrong to blame groups of people for individual actions, but also because it’s pragmatically against the interests of the West. We gain nothing by escalating this.

[throwawayffffas]

Pragmatically I am pretty sure the western logic goes like this. Sanctions will cause economic damage which will lead to misery which will lead to unrest and finally the toppling of the regime. This worked in the 20th century but took like 50 years, and as we can see now the resulting regime is not much better for the west, but I don't think there are any better options. The other approach see China is also slowly blowing up in our collective face, not that it would be an option now.

[pydry]

Pragmatically I think the western military logic is that sacrificing Ukraine to Russia is entirely worthwhile if it breaks Russia too.

They want Russia out of the way so that they can focus on taking down China. Most of all they want to avoid a Russia-China military alliance.

[Cthulhu_]

"We" did not escalate this; Russia did by annexing Crimea in 2014 and invading Ukraine. They could have chosen not to do so and instead focus on building up good international relationships. What did they think they had to gain from annexing neighbouring territory? More control over the Black Sea I guess, but why do they want that control in the first place?

Russia can de-escalate by withdrawing. The only way for 'the west' to de-escalate at this point is to tell Ukraine to just roll over and get annexed. Is that preferable?

And once Russia controls Ukraine, then what? Everybody's happy, and they'll just leave it at that? What is Putin's goals after Ukraine?

I'll admit I'm not educated in international politics, I've just pivoted from an armchair virologist to an armchair politician / military expert on the internets.

[modernpink]

We also have to understand Russia's grievances instead of seeing it in terms of an evil side attacking the good side because it's not that simple. The US would hardly be best pleased if Mexico started receiving arms from China and North Korea right at its border.

[willis936]

What if Mexico received the arms because the US said they were going to topple Mexico's government?

Russia is not justified, which is why there has been such unification in the West and silence from Russia's powerful allies. Putin made a mistake.

[ceilingcorner]

I don’t think anyone is saying that Russia is justified, more that if we want a solution here we have to understand their motivations.

[dorgo]

And Russia has to understand europe's grievances. You can't invade europe and hope it won't react accordingly.

[bigodbiel]

How was, before this hell, the consensus of the people in Ukraine for a Finland like solution, ceading territory (Crimea), neutrality (non-Nato), but within the EU (won't ask about Minsk agreement, cause I know no one supported it)? I always found this to have been the best option for all sides.

[CRConrad]

> a Finland like solution, ceading territory

Sure, you can advocate using the Winter War robbery of East Carelia and Vyborg from the independent democratic nation of Finland as a model if you want. Two questions about that, though:

1) How much did that help? Didn't exactly sate the Soviet Union's appetite for acquisition and oppression of satellite states, did it?

2) Advocating an appeasement model seems (at least to me) to imply endorsement not only of the temporary calm it might buy, but also of its moral and ethical justice. Care to expound on how you do that?

[jacquesm]

Ukraine was effectively already at war with Russia since 2014, it just got paused without real resolution.

[ceilingcorner]

From Russia’s point of view, they had many reasons to annex Crimea. It wasn’t just a random act of aggression.

Having studied this situation a bit, my conclusion is that both sides are to blame, with Russia being considerably more culpable due to choosing the violent option. Geopolitics isn’t simple and thinking that one side is entirely to blame is just naive and falling for propaganda.

By escalation I’m referring to the giant effort to exclude Russia from everything, including liquor stores and name registrars.

[denis1]

> From Russia’s point of view, they had many reasons to annex Crimea.

Oh they sure did, and all of them were of the militaristic and imperialistic variety.

> Having studied this situation a bit, my conclusion is that both sides are to blame

How can Ukraine/the West possibly be responsible for Russia launching an imperialistic annexation war? Nothing can excuse that.

[ceilingcorner]

It’s a bit too complex to summarize, but if you study NATO’s actions in the region, you’ll see that we helped set up this precarious situation.

Again, as I said in my initial comment, most of the blame here is on Russia. Nonetheless, the world isn’t black and white.

[poushkar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putinversteher

[sidibe]

West's reactions is too bad for the Russian people but not reacting would mean they lose credibility and soft power in the future. Putin's previous adventures were not sufficiently reacted too and other countries around the world could see that too.

[jgwil2]

I don't think you can really call this escalation. Escalation would be responding to military force in kind. Instead, the West is is confining itself to economic sanctions and material support. I don't really see how they can do less, frankly, without risking emboldening Putin to strike at Poland or the Baltics (thus involving NATO).

[jacquesm]

But we could do more... if Russia can use 'little green men' then so can we.

[dorgo]

and we do: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/latvia-allows-its-citiz...

[hans_castorp]

> but with the entire world openly opposed to my nation, I doubt that will ever happen.

I think most people understand that this is Putin's war, not the war of the "Russian people". And many people I have spoken to in various demonstration against the war (in Germany), protested against Putin, not Russia. I did not see a single banner with "Stop Russia" - all referred directly to Putin.

[9214]

The common narrative I see on tech forums since 24th Feb is this: "if various sanctions and blockings will make average Russians' life miserable enough (i.e. even more miserable than it already is), they will stand up and oppose the power they have been electing since 20-or-so years."

There are a few issues here:

1. Anyone who goes against the ruling power and stands up as a leader of opposition gets forcefully silenced and thrown into jail: the most popular example is Alexey Navalny. Simply put, there's not enough organizational force (i.e. absence of charismatic leader) to bring masses together.

2. The majority of Russians are in their 40-ies, have families, have government jobs, and won't risk losing the only source of income they have by opposing said government. One can call it cowardice, but to me, this is a basic survival instinct of a person who never knew a better world, who is facing a total collapse of daily systems he took for granted, and who stoically enjoys a ride into prolonged stagflation: e.g. right now bank rate is up to an all-time high of 20%, electronic prices rose by 30%, some industrial companies and small/mid-sized businesses are tanking [1] — and all of that after suffering thru the pandemic with the rest of the world.

3. There are no democratic elections in Russia (we call it "дерьмократия" in our patois, which roughly means "shit-o-cracy"). Our president's regime basically self-sustains itself, thanks to a deeply rooted corruption in upper circles and fake votes. A similar situation was in Montenegro from 1990 up until 2020, when the ruling party was overthrown because they couldn't buy enough support from abroad due to pandemic restrictions — and even that pales in comparison to what we have here.

4. The question is up in the air: even if all "goes well", who will come after Putin, and will they be able to fix this mess — not just in Russia, but in the countries their predecessor damaged? I don't know of any strong candidate capable of dragging us back from what is essentially imposed 90-ies and zeitgeist of post- Soviet Union collapse. It's like an existential fog of war all over the Earth.

—//—

[1]: As a case in point: England denied shipment of certain electronic components to Russia; a city-forming enterprise in my small hometown is a factory that produces fire-resistant materials and relies on these components. These materials are made from basalt, a certain type of volcanic rock abundant here in the Ural region — and this stuff (esp. when mixed up with other minerals) can be quite toxic, causing breathing problems and allergic reactions (I as a teenager had a part-time job on the factory, and had ulcers open up on my skin that contacted basalt dust particles). Basically, if something breaks there right now, no one will be able to fix it; and not only people will lose their jobs, but this may end up in a local ecological catastrophe.

By the same token, the neighboring town is Sverdlovsk-45: a closed city housing a plant producing uranium-238. Imagine if something goes boom there because of the disrupted infrastructure/supply chain. I understand that this sounds quite exaggerated — yet I cannot but keep "entertaining" myself with such thoughts since last week, all while being ashamed of myself for simply being born in this place.

[jacquesm]

Thank you for this post. Tough times. Let's hope someone higher up grows a pair and does something about it, because otherwise we will sleepwalk straight into something much, much worse.

FWIW: about those 40 year olds with families that can't do anything: they can, it's just that the perceived price is too high. But think about it from another perspective: how are you going to explain to your kids that you stood by and did nothing knowing full well what was going on? That is the question that is keeping me up at night right now.

[lr1970]

> 2. The majority of Russians are in their 40-ies, have families, have government jobs, and won't risk losing the only source of income they have by opposing said government.

I would disagree. I vividly remember August 1991 coup attempt in USSR against Gorbachev when ordinary people surrounded the "White House" (governmental building of Russian Federation) while a tank battalion surrounded the people. There were quite a few 40+ people in the crowd defending the White House. This standoff lasted for quite a while and then the coup collapsed. The whole thing lasted about 4 days [0] despite the fact that the junta had formal control over military, KGB, police, national guard (interior troops), border guards, etc. Junta summarily lost and Yeltsin became the de-factor leader of USSR with Gorbachev playing a role of British Queen for a short few months before USSR expired.

The real difference then and now is that in 1991 there was an alternative center of power (Yeltsin, government of russian federation, russian parliament). putler made sure that there is no any organized structures left that could potentially challenge his power. This is a real problem, not the 40+ people conservatism.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat...

[9214]

Thanks for giving me a perspective as a younger generation! I wasn't even born at the time, and obviously see our daily reality differently. OTOH, I think what you just described falls into p. 1 and 4.

[5ESS]

You could always marry a foreign National to gain citizenship in that country. The going rate for a US sham marriage is about $60k.

[9214]

This is an interesting and valid point. Though, even if I could, why would I? Forming a bond (be it faked or real) with a person who might end up despising you for your blood (which you are trying to escape), and then trying to integrate into a hostile foreign culture — it's like trading one hellhole for another.

It might be worth the struggle in case of a sincere relationship, but not just for the sake of saving my sorry ass.

[willis936]

These are valid concerns. There are racists everywhere. From what I can gather most of the US view race as skin color, so I think you are shielded from the most overt racism.

[mkr-hn]

The US has a complicated relationship between colloquial and academic definitions. Academic is useful for understanding and discussing the history of systemic issues, but sometimes people try to over-fit them to avoid recognizing someone's suffering as legitimate or serious enough to warrant advocacy.

Most people here will apply the colloquial definition which is more or less another word for xenophobia. An academic racial analysis could help understand why someone who's seen as white and foreign is often treated better than someone born here, but someone trying to do that as an explanation for why you shouldn't care about a Russian immigrant's feelings would be rightly seen as a jerk.

There might still be some prejudice, as analyzed in this classic stand-up bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OB72GZOS4c

[biztos]

How do you determine the going rate? Are rates advertised somewhere for comparison? Seems like a pretty risky thing to advertise.