Same with me. I had lived 2 months in Ukraine in 2015 when I hitchhiked several thousand kilometres in the Russia. And every driver I talked anything about Ukraine was telling me how the roads are full of bandits now and how I was lucky to make it out of Ukraine alive. And then all these same stories about Russian-speakers being in danger there. I told them that I ws living together with a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, that in the capital 70 % of people speak Russian as their main everyday language, that almost all of my friends in Ukraine speak Russian as their mother tongue, and that none of my friends had never encountered what I was now being told about.
And their reaction: “They only showed you in Ukraine what they wanted you to see”. No amount of “hey, I’ve been walking the streets completely alone, going to various parts of the city. Plus, my girlfriend would have no reason to lie to me about something like this.”
The reply was always some form of “still, they clearly did not show you everything.”
And then to my “How did they manage to hide that stuff from me?” they said “I don’t know.”
Again, zero percent of drivers I talked with said anything deviating from the above. I soon learned to avoid talking about Ukraine, and instead made haste to get the hell out of the Russia, as there was nothing I could do to help those people, and speaking up agitated them in a manner that did not feel very safe as a hitchhiker. Kazakhstan was much better.
Yeah, I can totally believe it. Genuinely heartbreaking - for a while Russia felt like it was slowly heading in the right direction as well, and I’m glad in that brief window I got to visit and experience the place, but after 2014 it all just fell apart and they lurched into reverse.
Never been to Kazakhstan (hope to), but I believe you - I found people in Kyrgyzstan to be by contrast some of the friendliest and kindest in the world. Never felt uncomfortable hitching or travelling by marshrutka there, and had one of the most memorable meals of my life (beshbarmak, served to the honoured guest as a full, boiled sheep’s head with the top cut off…) with a family there.
Looking at the world today, and the barriers that fell during my lifetime being put back up just because three limp-dicked octogenarians think the whole planet should be carved up between them… It’s devastating.
Same with me. I had lived 2 months in Ukraine in 2015 when I hitchhiked several thousand kilometres in the Russia. And every driver I talked anything about Ukraine was telling me how the roads are full of bandits now and how I was lucky to make it out of Ukraine alive. And then all these same stories about Russian-speakers being in danger there. I told them that I ws living together with a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, that in the capital 70 % of people speak Russian as their main everyday language, that almost all of my friends in Ukraine speak Russian as their mother tongue, and that none of my friends had never encountered what I was now being told about.
And their reaction: “They only showed you in Ukraine what they wanted you to see”. No amount of “hey, I’ve been walking the streets completely alone, going to various parts of the city. Plus, my girlfriend would have no reason to lie to me about something like this.”
The reply was always some form of “still, they clearly did not show you everything.” And then to my “How did they manage to hide that stuff from me?” they said “I don’t know.”
Again, zero percent of drivers I talked with said anything deviating from the above. I soon learned to avoid talking about Ukraine, and instead made haste to get the hell out of the Russia, as there was nothing I could do to help those people, and speaking up agitated them in a manner that did not feel very safe as a hitchhiker. Kazakhstan was much better.
Yeah, I can totally believe it. Genuinely heartbreaking - for a while Russia felt like it was slowly heading in the right direction as well, and I’m glad in that brief window I got to visit and experience the place, but after 2014 it all just fell apart and they lurched into reverse.
Never been to Kazakhstan (hope to), but I believe you - I found people in Kyrgyzstan to be by contrast some of the friendliest and kindest in the world. Never felt uncomfortable hitching or travelling by marshrutka there, and had one of the most memorable meals of my life (beshbarmak, served to the honoured guest as a full, boiled sheep’s head with the top cut off…) with a family there.
Looking at the world today, and the barriers that fell during my lifetime being put back up just because three limp-dicked octogenarians think the whole planet should be carved up between them… It’s devastating.