Expert: Katya - 11/26/2008

Question
QUESTION: Would you happen to know what the current culture of Russia is like? A friend tells me they are leaning back into being a communist nation. I'd received a reply to a personal ad I'd posted locally on craigslist.com, and a very attractive Russian girl replied to it talking about wanting to move to the United States, and talk about marriage and romance and how she takes good care of her man, etc. I'm under the impression she wants to find an American to marry to get out of Russia and live in the United States. lol. If that were true that doesn't speak very kindly of how things might be in Russia. Do you think this girl wants to escape Russia and get U.S. citizenship?

ANSWER: Well no things in Russia are not really that bad. I would expand the question: do you think this girl wants to escape Russia and get U.S. citizenship so she can have your money? YES, especially the last bit. Other alternatives is that she is really poor and wants you to support her, she just has a dream of moving to USA, and very often you come across fishy things like, send me some money please, and then they disappear.

Sorry, my opinion of mail order brides is not incredibly high. She may either be a scammer or she could not happy with her life in Russia, but there are many women who are happy over there with their lives too, just like in any country.

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QUESTION: Yeah I figured money might be an issue. She'd asked that I help pay for her trip, which I won't. lol. I'm going to wait and see if she actually comes here and from there decide if I want to date her. I feel I made it clear to her that I am poor and there is little she could gain from me aside from companionship. I don't know if she is a mail order bride. I don't have a high opinion of that kind of thing either. A friend told me that Russia is falling back into communism, which scares me. What do you know on that topic?

ANSWER: Well I guess I completely disagree with your friend. There is nothing communist about Russia. Communism is a form of economic management, capitalist is another form. Now, from what I see, Russia is very much capitalist....I really don't know where your friend got that from. Unless they were using the term 'communism' as a scare tactic (because everyone seems to get scared when they hear the word communism in the West, other than some lefty student organisations I think lol). If they were confusing the term with authoritarianism, I would argue that Russian politics are intrinsicly different to those in U.S.A. of course, as any country is different to any other country. I would definately not argue that they are as far as authoritarianism though. There are many policies in Russia that I disagree with, many I agree with though as well -- well, pretty much like with the U.S. I guess.

Sorry, I'm off on a ramble. But hope I've helped.

Cheers, Katya

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QUESTION: Feel free to ramble. lol. I think my friend fears that under someone's somewhat covert leadership it could lead back into a communism. I think it's constitution was only formed as late as 93' which is pretty recent. I personally don't fear communism other than the governments complete control. The biggest issue would be the extreme ineffiency of a government that doesn't let the people run most of the business in their own unique ways. How would you say Russian women differ from American women?

Answer
You're referring to Putin I think! I like Putin (well, there goes my impartiality thing out the window lol). He's done so much for Russia, got Russia back on her feet after the disasters of the 90s. I don't like Medvedev quite as much. With communism though...see, this is where there's confusion. People say communism while referring to authoritarianism. Communism is really an ideology that has never being achieved in full, it's where the PEOPLE are running everything and there is complete egalitarianism. Correct me if I'm wrong (there goes my expert title too lol.....). But not allowing the PEOPLE to do things by the GOVERNMENT is called authoritarianism, which is what I think you're talking about.

With women, everybody is different. A lot of Russian women seem to be more feminine though, and probably have a different notion of what it means to be feminine than do American women. But that's a stereotype. It's very wrong to stereotype all Russian women into a certain box and expect them all to behave the same. I know I don't fit into that box.

HTH, Cheers,
Kat.