Hey Lomek...I didnot understand good . It seems to me for you Russia was a hell??? Let us explain more about Russia and life in small city in Italy. Wishing you聽 a nice day from Milan.
Hi sohelsaheen! Thanks, good day to you too!
Well, while I was living in Russia it seemed okay but when I landed on Sardinia I truly learned the difference. I was getting on the bus and there were a few teenagers who entered the bus with me. Then something incredible happened - they greeted the bus driver, and he greeted them back. I absolutely can't imagine somethig like this happening in Russia. First thing you expect from someone you don't know is a threat: the person in trouble is too often a decoy for a robbery, someone who ask you for a direction is likely to just draw your attention off your belongings etc. And police is so corrupted and untouchable that often people don't file a claim because of fear of being locked up themselves. Russian police is a bunch of actual thugs who don't give a second thought to torture a witness with champange bottle in the rectum (this is actually happened couple of years ago and the person died, cops recieved formal sentences due to scandal but already free). They did it for no apparent reason, just by the mood swing and because they could.
Worst thing that this is considered normal and no big deal, and media is telling russians that this is the case all around the globe. Russian tv shows every US school shooting and similar shit all the time, so people are manipulated to a state of inertia and acceptance. I believe that our "culture" in some sense made it very difficult for us russians to ask for help. We don't really believe that anybody would want to sincerely help us because we wouldn't do it ourselves. And asking for help is "humiliating" and "weak".
So while living in Russia, you have to be in a state of awareness to repel an agression - constantly. Being nice is a flaw, because that way you are considered weak and taken advantage of. For example, a friend of mine returned a wallet he found on the street to a guy - and was blamed for stealing the money out of it. Other one protected a woman being beaten on the street by a drunk - and the woman called the police on him, because he hit the guy and that was her husband. Now they know better and don't get involved, ever. Here... It is not another country, it's actually another planet. It was incredible to feel the crust coming off me after a couple of months of living here, when I realised how much I needed this level of civilization in my life. To be able to smile to people on the street, and small talk to them. To help old ladies in the shop to get their bags off, and recieve sincere gratitude instead of suspicion. I thought I was freeing Putin's regime but it turned out that a reason I didn't even seriously consider was a life-changer.
People who visit Russia as a tourist for a couple of moths won't usually agree with everything I wrote. Foreigners in Russia mostly see what they're being shown, and russians are experts in blowing the dust into one's eyes. It's not like there's a conspiracy, russians are genuinely friendly with someone who they let into their comfort zone, like invited guest. It's outside of comfort zone where the problem starts, and that's right behind the apartment's door. If you lived in Russia for half a year or more, went outside late evening alone, used the post office, hospital or any government office, public or private transport, fought (actually) for a parking spot and been robbed, you would understand.
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