Flee East to escape the virus scam? It’s futile & Russia is depressing
Part IV of an Ongoing Discussion
We are very pleased to unveil Part IV of our Ongoing Discussion, “Your government is desperately trying to murder you: maybe try hiding in Russia [or Belarus]?”
First, a quick recap of the previous installments:
Part I: “Some people are interested in fleeing to Russia and it might be a good idea, maybe.”
Part III: “Hide in Belarus instead.”
For Part IV we surveyed Katya, 27, a Russian employed in the IT sector; and ML, an American nihilist toiling for a major Eastern European firm who lived for three years in Moscow.
As both Katya and ML point out: Russia is not for everyone! There are many reasons why someone might not enjoy living here. (For example: several years ago your humble Moscow correspondent was attacked by a knife-wielding maniac who climbed through our window. That would probably be a deal-breaker for most normal people.)
Any foreigner—no matter how much he or she may love this strange land—will concede that the first question they receive from a Russian, upon being exposed as a non-Russian, is: “Why did you come to Russia?” As in: they are genuinely surprised anyone would voluntarily live in the Russian Federation.
Part IV of our Ongoing Discussion underscores an indisputable truth: Russia is not Candy Land.
Katya: The pragmatic Russian perspective
Edward: How do you feel about what is happening in Russia right now, regarding compulsory vaccination and the introduction of QR codes at the regional level?
Katya: I don't like that the authorities are going so far. For example, recently my husband’s 90-year-old grandmother received a call and was told that she would no longer be provided with a social worker until she gets vaccinated. Again, my grandmother is 90 years old, and we're afraid of how her body will react to the vaccine at that age. Only after we made a scene at the social services did they allow the social worker to return and apologize.
This situation suggests that those enforcing these policies are breaking the law, or following unspoken orders and counting on older people's inability to protect themselves. In these conditions, I feel insecure and psychologically uncomfortable.
In addition, I see no reason to introduce QR codes in cultural places because vaccination does not guarantee a person is not sick at the moment, which means that he can infect people around him just as someone who is not vaccinated. Many of my friends got sick even after the vaccine, and more than once. I think they endure the disease, in general, better than the unvaccinated, but it cannot be denied that the vaccinated get sick often.
Why then should only those who have passed a PCR test be allowed into crowded places? In general, I personally can do without cultural places and restaurants, but the introduction of QR codes in transport is already too much.
Edward: Were you surprised that Russian authorities introduced these policies?
Katya: No, I was not surprised at all. The fact is that even in the Soviet Union they took vaccines very seriously—that is, this is a legacy from those times, in a way. As for the “excesses” of the authorities, excess of authority and outright violation of laws is present in many areas, and this is not a surprise to any Russian.
On the other hand, if we assume that the threat of coronavirus is really very serious, then what is left for the government to do in such a situation? Some specific measures must be taken, but many factors must be taken into account and a comprehensive approach to the problem developed, but in any case, everything must be within the law and without exaggeration.
In general, I have an ambiguous position about whether this policy is correct or not, but I am outraged by the dismissive attitude of the authorities towards ordinary people, as in the example of my husband’s 90-year-old grandmother.
Edward: Some westerners looking to escape the Virus Taliban in their own countries see Russia as a potential safe haven. What would you say to someone from Europe or the United States who is looking to relocate to Russia?
Katya: “Don’t forget to take plenty of cash!” After all, an economic default has already happened in my country, and this is very unpleasant. You must be very morally strong if you plan to live here for more than a year. In general, you should be ready for constant changes around you, often negative ones. It’s like walking on thin ice at the end of winter—looking solid and secure, but you never know when you'll slip. In addition, forget about the smiles on the faces of passers-by and good service, you will only dream of it.
We often say that “Russia is a country of contrasts”, and this is a very accurate expression. Despite the difficult situation and the constant uncertainty around, the high level of negativity among people, you can still find some nice things, for example real friends, because deep down Russians are very kind.
If this is more important to you than service and comfort, then welcome to Russia. By the way, the level of comfort in Moscow, it seems to me, is growing and, in general, there's a lot of opportunities, for example in business, but only if you know the rules of the game, and they are very confusing and sometimes they altogether lack logic.
Edward: How do you see things playing out in your native land?
Katya: All the facts indicate that it’s time to look for another country to live in but I am inspired by the few simple people who work hard, do something without leeching off of the state, and try to make their small business successful. Perhaps they will ultimately pull the economy up. In general, it is very sad to be a resident of a country that is sitting in a resource trap. I see examples of how other countries use their resources, how they distribute income among residents. Whereas our officials believe that oil is their personal property. This is not how things should go for us, they need to descend from heaven to earth.
Such injustice irritates people, and I am afraid that at some point the level of discontent will exceed the limit. And, of course, the problem with garbage is annoying, which no one recycles here, but create landfills almost opposite the windows of residential buildings. This is irresponsible and may in the future have a very bad impact not only on the health of the generation, but also on the planet as a whole. Such an attitude towards one’s own waste is an indicator of the backwardness of the country and the almost complete absence of “long-term” thinking at the national level.
Edward: If you are expecting economic or social upheaval on a global scale, do you think Russia will fare better than other countries? Worse? About the same?
Katya: As far as I understand, in the economy, and indeed in the world in general, everything is cyclical. And now it seems to me all of humanity is in a stage of social and economic crisis, and so far nothing foreshadows that it will get better in the near future.
All the same, you will have to go through a certain hard peak, after which the opposite stage may already be reached and something will begin to improve. While we are all in the crisis stage, I don't have a single argument why it could suddenly be better in Russia than in other countries.
The economy is not particularly strong, with social security outside of Moscow, everything is very difficult. I think for the most part it will be the same as in other countries. Perhaps nothing will fundamentally change for some segments of the population, especially for the category of IT specialists working remotely for Western companies, but this is rather an exception to the rule.
ML: Blackpills from “the dark lord of pessimism”
Edward: You fled Russia the first moment you could after COVID “health” measures arrived in Moscow. Why?
ML: ONE — I hated living there and had wanted to get out even before the hoax, so lockdown and travel restrictions hit me pretty hard. One of the corollaries of the “putinbot” syndrome is that, to compensate for their loathing of the West, these ideological types convince themselves that Russia is wonderful. It isn’t. The weather is gross, winter or summer; the people are grumpy, often outright abusive in everyday interactions — especially women over 35 — and it’s hard to make friends; the society is essentially babushka-run, with all the weird stupid rules you remember from childhood being omnipresent and unquestionable; the apartment buildings are decrepit, minimal-security prisons; the bureaucracy is literally Kafkaesque; the hospitals are poor and negligent; the cities themselves are painfully ugly and endlessly depressing; and the villages, full of pensioners and dogs, would be familiar even to ancient Slavs. And this is all independent of Vax Law.
I will hasten to add that many Russians treated me exceedingly well — my wife and her family, students, employers, and the few friends that I was able to make. If not for Russia, I would not have my child, and there’s no gainsaying that or avoiding gratitude to the Russian nation for making that possible. But in general Russians tend to agree with me about all the points above.
TWO — I didn’t believe for a moment that the hoax was over. Not only because it was obvious they were only easing up before elections, but because state power doesn’t expand just to contract voluntarily. No one relinquishes power until conditions force them to do so. Anyone who doesn’t know that it is so clueless about history and social dynamics that I would almost have to classify them as clinically retarded. And anyhow I had been studying the hoax, figured out that it's a plot by Gates and the WEF to reshuffle the global portfolio, as it were, and indeed was going to be the “new normal”. So I was very anxiously waiting for flights to resume, as you know. Almost to the point of madness.
Edward: Some would argue Russia is quite free, comparatively, to the vaxxed-out, tagged West. Of course this is a testament to the Russian people themselves, not their government (or that's how I see it, at least). What would you say to someone who sees Russia as a possible refuge from the COVID Taliban? Personally, I find comfort in living among people who mostly understand they are being tormented by a massive scam, and are generally quite distrustful or apathetic towards their government. What say you?
ML: Good question. I think we have to start with how things were prior to the pandemic hoax, because in fact, I did think some aspects of Russia were freer than America, at least. To start, though in Russia there is racial diversity, it isn’t of the cloaca gentium americana variety, and all the immigrants are, like it or not, assimilated to Russian ways, having been trained under the USSR. They eat the same foods for the most part, speak Russian, have the same manners and habits, even somewhat better manners than Russians much of the time. So you’re not battling with different types, and no single group is overtly, constantly hostile or confrontational.
And that is or was another freer aspect of Russian society — there isn’t that constant low-level aggression among people always threatening to break out. Obviously almost no one is strapped, so you’re not going to get shot, and even though knives are open-carry, you’re very unlikely to find yourself in a situation where you’re getting stabbed or have to stab someone. While there is crime, of course, it isn’t the insane random variety you get in America. My point is, you don’t have to look over your shoulder, which is true of most of eastern Europe these days, and that is “freeing”. It takes a while to get over that awareness you have in America.
Even though it’s a pain in the ass to rent in Russia as a foreigner, because the owner of the apartment has to register you in person, no one is doing background or credit checks, obviously, because those don’t apply to one as a foreigner, and that is a huge weight off. Exchanging a tourist visa for a work visa is rough, but was doable until recently, and there is a freelance contract gray area that you can take advantage of in some jobs.
Another significant freedom is that no one is going to browbeat or crucify you for things you say, for the most part. I didn’t talk to many Russians about the hoax at the end of my stay there, but even if they disagreed with me, they didn’t get all morally righteous and call me names or whatever. Of course, how Russians act in the street is different from how they act on the internet. Russian flame-wars on the internet are as characterized by hyperventilating moralistic grandstanding as anyone else’s. But, apart from that, you can criticize this or that race or ethnic group, women, gays, immigrants, or whatever.
Post-hoax, I don’t really know. I got out before the cattle-tags. From what my friends tell me, many places aren’t bothering to check, but of course we see videos from across the country telling a different story. A friend in Vladikavkaz tells me everyone he knows is faking; a friend in Moscow tells me they don't check passes at McDonald's at Pushkinskaya. It’s clear that the majority of people with certificates had fakes, and that must translate to bogus passes as well, but I would have no idea to what extent. There’s obviously no reason to believe official vaccination figures for Russia.
To answer the basic question of whether I would recommend Russia as a refuge from the COVID Taliban — no, I think it would be a huge gamble, and to the extent that they are avoidable there, you’d have to be in some shitty derevnya far away from the cities, and you have to be a very special kind of person to want to live that way. As for the cities, their mayors and the federal government are far from finished with tormenting people about this, and shit can change literally within hours, especially Moscow under Sobyanin.
Edward: So Russia is not your top choice, as far as refuge. Here's a question: Do you even recommend trying to find refuge? Should people just stand their ground? Is there any point in trying to flee somewhere?
ML: Also a great question and obviously “hotly debated” in certain circles. Unfortunately, my answer is simple: there is no standing one’s ground against the modern state — unless you plan to die. And I believe that’s an honorable way to play it out, but if you want to live, you have to think about taking refuge somewhere, which means you need to be thinking a few steps ahead in general. Of course, time is running out, and we’re probably headed for a state of affairs in which there’s no way out, you are where you are. As Anglin says, make your choice and be ok with it.
Edward: You are something of an expert when it comes to understanding the various levels of vax tyranny around the world. What would your top three picks be, if you were trying to escape the cattle tag?
ML: I don't think there's any escape from some sort of tagging in the long run, anywhere. Power and technology only go one way: greater consolidation. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think people should try to prolong the inevitable however they can, and they may even succeed in escaping it indefinitely. For now, my top three destinations are:
Georgia. I am there now, and while the tag is compulsory for restaurants and cafes, at least officially, currently no one is breathing down my neck about it otherwise, except in conversation with expat believers. Of course, this could change overnight; the proposal to introduce the tag went through in a matter of days from the time it hit the floor to implementation, so they probably already had it ready to go. Anyway, Georgia is far more pleasant than Russia in nearly every way. Smiling — to the extent one can see faces anymore — is not construed as “fake” or insane, and Georgians stop to talk to my child. That's enough for me.
Belarus. This is up in the air. We know that Lukashenko was alone as a head of state in opposing the hoax, but we can also see that there is grassroots support for mask hysteria, no doubt from his domestic opposition, and there is vaccination going on. He's banned businesses from banning people without a tag, but what do we really know if we're not hearing from someone on the ground? [Which we’ve just done, thanks to Slavsquat.] Still, assuming Belarus is as relatively free from the tyranny as we are led to believe, and assuming one can survive life in a quasi-Russian environment — though ostensibly Belarus seems to share a lot with Poland, as far as its aspect — then it is an unavoidable option. We have so few, I mean, that it can't be ignored or written off for any reason unless we get solid information from someone on the inside to the contrary. I personally have no real interest in going there, in that it’s too much like Russia for comfort. There’s also the fact that Lukashenko is “only” in his sixties, evidently strong and healthy, which could give him another ten to fifteen years in power, at least nominally.
Albania / Armenia. This is a tie, if you'll allow me, because both are reportedly very laissez-faire about masking and checking. Both officially have the whole assortment of oppressive policies, Armenia has the tag — haven't checked up on Albania — but I have a friend who just got back from Yerevan who assures me no one gives a fuck about any of it. And this shows how deceptive media are, as if one needed even more confirmation of that, because if you read Armenian news, it’s all touting passes and lockdowns and vaccination. At least according to one guy I know who wouldn't lie and even got “the shot”, this simply isn't the reality on the ground. It's probably the same story in Albania, inasmuch as these two peoples have very similar attitudes. Lin Dinh from Unz, you know, was there for a while not long ago, and he reported little adherence to restrictions beyond the curfew. It should be noted that an Albanian citizen was shot and killed by police last year, or whenever, for violating curfew and attempting to flee. If you check out YouTube videos of whiteskin tourists in Albania or Armenia, you'll see them complaining about how no one wears a mask, etc. So that's a good sign. But, as always, there's a risk — Edi Rama is a tinpot socialist dictator à la Erdogan eager for EU cash and is aggressively pro-vaxx, so you never know what could happen there. If you go to Albania on my word that people don't give a fuck about restrictions and find yourself being hauled off to an Albanian prison, please don't say I didn't warn you.
NOT TOP THREE, but requires mention: Africa. People will blanche at this one, but the fact is that, right now, African nations — along with Papua New Guinea — have the lowest vaccination rates on the planet. In particular central and eastern Africa, most of them in the single-digits. Western African nations are only in the low double-digits. Namibia, I believe, is somewhere in the twenties. Tanzania is about 1%, but our man Magufuli died in March of last year and has been replaced by a woman from the same party who is, you guessed it, aggressively pro-vaxx. Pretty much only the DRC is an absolutely safe bet in terms of being able to avoid the vaxx and the tag indefinitely. Don't even think about the Maghreb; these were already dictatorships and have seized on “the pandemic” as the ultimate excuse to lock their peoples down and shoot them up indefinitely. And of course, being Africa, they are sitting ducks for meddling from NGOs and wealthy nations; it's an open playing field for Gates and the WHO, as it’s been for decades, so they can just swoop in anywhere at any time with field clinics and start bribing populations to get shot up. The particulars are all open to debate and on-the-ground information, but the basic consideration here is that, currently, Africa is low-vaxx, blacks being naturally and rightly suspicious of whitey voodoo.
Maybe my choices aren’t the best or the most informed. For example, Papua New Guinea – those people are vociferously opposed to vaccination and have set medical tents and vehicles on fire, literally driving nurses out of their villages. But, you know, it's Papua. And you have for example Guadeloupe, the only successful case of a people rising up and stopping a vaxx mandate, even if temporarily, but it’s a protectorate of France, so it depends on how far Macron is willing to go to force compliance. You also have Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, all three allegedly free of most restrictions, but you recently linked me to a guy on Twitter who’s reporting tagging. I don’t know about the other two; if they seemed solid and I had more freedom to move, I wouldn’t mind heading to either. Costa Rica also ranks high in national self-sufficiency, so if they are not going along with the hoax or restrictions, that’s a pretty strong prospect.
Edward: So… are we doomed?
ML: I'm so glad you asked. I am the internet’s most thoroughgoing and I would even say original doomer, long before this was a scare-word meant to frighten rudderless twenty-something meme kids into armchair Christianity and so-called traditionalism. We are absolutely doomed, independently of the hoax and Great Reset, in fact. Some people will escape the worst, but most will not. That should be obvious to anyone. Most of us are in cities like everybody else, and cities are fish-in-a-barrel for the authorities, really their main concern, not that that they won't range out into the countryside to enforce whatever it is they're doing, just as the Bolsheviks did and just as FedGov did to Randy Weaver and his family.
And, as I said before, power tends only toward consolidation, and technology only toward greater intertwining with everyday life and consciousness. People forget that radio and television were debated when they were becoming popular, and I'm sure people were asking themselves if they could escape it somehow. They didn’t. Same as Europe and the indigenous of the Americas couldn’t escape Christianization, to take another angle. It will be the same with the Great Reset “vaccination” and tracking scheme (ID2020, brought to you by Gates Jr. — fuck you! I'm tracking). It will penetrate everywhere it can be enforced, for as long as governments have the will, the manpower, and the infrastructure to enforce it. In my view, resources and infrastructure collapse will eventually intervene, as they were going to anyhow, and then it's anyone's guess what happens. It’s always tempting to envision a “Walking Dead” scenario where people are isolated and have to fend for themselves, but I think, barring true civilization collapse — still a possibility on a long enough timeline — the modern technological state will find ways to maintain its grip or re-establish control after a chaotic period.
So, yes, this current generation, and our children’s especially, alas, are utterly doomed. Be prepared, be ready to make sacrifices, and don’t hope for a happy outcome. This is the best advice anyone can give at the moment. History was always headed here and there's no way out but through it.
A sincere thank you to our thought-provoking interviewees! Remember: we are eager to hear views from all perspectives on the question of “Should You Flee to Russia/Belarus/The Congo?”
If you feel you have something novel to add to this Ongoing Discussion, please email us at riley (dot) waggaman (at) gmail (dot) com!
Today’s music offering is brought to you by ML:
re. ML's scathing comments about Russia, its cities and its people, I must have been living in a different Russia these past 29 years to that one which he cannot abide.
in USA the top destination is governor Ron Desantis’ Florida... looking forward to his nomination for prez in 2024... seems like a reasonable man who respects the individual and has disdain & skepticism for elitist policies💕