Current Affairs Ukraine

[grandjoeblue]

Might have been mistranslated? But I reckon for a very significant proportion of the Russian population they'd be living in rural areas without basic amenities or infrastructure. In comparison you might (don't know for certain) see better infrastructure in comparably populated towns and villages in Ukraine.

When I travelled on the trans siberian express the majority of the settlements that lined the route were nothing more than tin roofed shacks.

Whilst some of the tweeters point is probably correct. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Russia has streetlights and asphalt roads. I highly doubt you'd find a Russian who hasn't seen either.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Might have been mistranslated? But I reckon for a very significant proportion of the Russian population they'd be living in rural areas without basic amenities or infrastructure. In comparison you might (don't know for certain) see better infrastructure in comparably populated towns and villages in Ukraine.

When I travelled on the trans siberian express the majority of the settlements that lined the route were nothing more than tin roofed shacks.

Would you recommend the TSE? We had planned to do it in a few years before it all kicked off
Sounds fascinating, but then thought it could be a lot of grass! ?

 

[spectateur]

Would you recommend the TSE? We had planned to do it in a few years before it all kicked off
Sounds fascinating, but then thought it could be a lot of grass! ?

Yes but do learn some Russian first.

 

[Davideeyore]

Russia would only use nuclear weapons if its existence is threatened, Kremlin says​

Russia would only use nuclear weapons in the case of a "threat to the existence" of the country and not due to the current Ukraine war, the Kremlin's spokesman has told America's PBS.
"But any outcome of the operation (in Ukraine), of course is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon," Dmitry Peskov said.
"We have a security concept that very clearly states that only when there is a threat for existence of the state, in our country, we can use and we will actually use nuclear weapons to eliminate the threat for the existence of our country," added Mr Peskov.
There were fears over Russia's intentions on nuclear weapons early on in the war when President Putin ordered his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-...hs-jets-12541713?postid=3629912#liveblog-body

It's okay no one is going to threaten their existance. There might be a special operation one day like.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Yes but do learn some Russian first.

It will be Ukranian by the time I go

 

[bluebud]

Whilst some of the tweeters point is probably correct. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Russia has streetlights and asphalt roads. I highly doubt you'd find a Russian who hasn't seen either.

Agreed it’s unlikely that many Russian soldiers won’t of seen asphalt because they have left their towns and villages but there are thousands of towns and villages that don’t have covered roads, street lights and many that don’t even have mains electricity or phone lines let alone the internet. This vídeo is of the city of Saratov, a city 800 km west of Kharkiv, about a 12 hour drive, it has covered main roads but once you leave them it’s tracks.



… and a typical Russian village




The growing disparity between life in Ukraine and Russia is a big reason why Putin is so desperate to maintain influence over (destroy) Ukraine, Ukraine’s modernization and Europeanisation shames Russia and Putins Political system, he simply cannot have Russians outside of the main cities seeing Ukraine thrive whilst he keeps them locked in abject poverty.

 

[grandjoeblue]

Agreed it’s unlikely that many Russian soldiers won’t of seen asphalt because they have left their towns and villages but there are thousands of towns and villages that don’t have covered roads, street lights and many that don’t even have mains electricity or phone lines let alone the internet. This vídeo is of the city of Saratov, a city 800 km west of Kharkiv, about a 12 hour drive, it has covered main roads but once you leave them it’s tracks.



… and a typical Russian village




The growing disparity between life in Ukraine and Russia is a big reason why Putin is so desperate to maintain influence over (destroy) Ukraine, Ukraine’s modernization and Europeanisation shames Russia and Putins Political system, he simply cannot have Russians outside of the main cities seeing Ukraine thrive whilst he keeps them locked in abject poverty.

Nobody believes Russia is a paradise and some villages and town in remote places will be basic but acting like soldiers haven't seen pretty basic infrastructure in their lifes is a bit pointless. The quality of life might be better in Ukraine but it just seemed like an odd point to use. Being impressed by the fancy drinks machines is a bit more believable.

 

[sbbefc]

Would you recommend the TSE? We had planned to do it in a few years before it all kicked off
Sounds fascinating, but then thought it could be a lot of grass! ?

I'd say it's worth taking the trip but it's not the Orient Express. If you go in winter the train is boiling hot, there's only one heating setting. Most the stops are a bit samey, as is the landscape (we went from Moscow to Irkutsk then Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar). Imo the landscapes get more interesting around Baikal and through to Mongolia. Some of the guards on the train can be pretty militant. I've also heard of people getting harassed by police at some of the cities on the route (although, this didn't happen to us).

Moving through time zones whilst on Moscow time is surreal. Lake Baikal is pretty special, amazing when frozen over. We did a two day dog sledging tour. Irkutks was a nice city, felt relatively chilled out.

Mongolia was a nice change in culture.

Not a huge fan of Moscow but I did enjoy wandering around Red Square and outside the Kremlin. The city is huge and it felt dominated by traffic.

The thing with Russia, it does feel a bit of a moody place, but once you break through language barriers (usually with a bit of vodka) they open up and are generally nice people. But be aware, they're not socially liberal. If you're not white and/or not straight, you'd need to take extra care.

Definitely glad I went but probably wouldn't go again on the TSE. I'd like to visit Saint Petersburg one day though.

 

[Yarrgh]

Whilst some of the tweeters point is probably correct. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Russia has streetlights and asphalt roads. I highly doubt you'd find a Russian who hasn't seen either.

But they still have to wrestle grizzly bears on the way to get vodka from the shop right?

Ukraine has a gdp that is very poor. Outside of the major cities and towns as per Russia, the quality of infrastructure falls away as per the reasons in Russia- the low population density in relatively remote locations isn't the best spend which is why a lot of the small villages are increasingly becoming unoccupied. As you say 99.9% of both Russians (and Ukranians) will be well versed with what modern infrastructure is. It might be worth pointing out that the USA rural areas are probably similarly served by infrastructure except for things like free medical care.

What Russia is doing in Ukraine deserves utmost condemnation and posting baloney tweets to support Ukraine is harmful to the believability of any news coming from a war where both side's reports require scrutiny.

 

[tsubaki]

I'd say it's worth taking the trip but it's not the Orient Express. If you go in winter the train is boiling hot, there's only one heating setting. Most the stops are a bit samey, as is the landscape (we went from Moscow to Irkutsk then Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar). Imo the landscapes get more interesting around Baikal and through to Mongolia. Some of the guards on the train can be pretty militant. I've also heard of people getting harassed by police at some of the cities on the route (although, this didn't happen to us).

Moving through time zones whilst on Moscow time is surreal. Lake Baikal is pretty special, amazing when frozen over. We did a two day dog sledging tour. Irkutks was a nice city, felt relatively chilled out.

Mongolia was a nice change in culture.

Not a huge fan of Moscow but I did enjoy wandering around Red Square and outside the Kremlin. The city is huge and it felt dominated by traffic.

The thing with Russia, it does feel a bit of a moody place, but once you break through language barriers (usually with a bit of vodka) they open up and are generally nice people. But be aware, they're not socially liberal. If you're not white and/or not straight, you'd need to take extra care.

Definitely glad I went but probably wouldn't go again on the TSE. I'd like to visit Saint Petersburg one day though.

St Petersburg is much nicer than Moscow, architecturally especially. I thought there was much more of a sense of history about the place too; Moscow just seemed to be a capital city in the same way that London or Paris are.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

I'd say it's worth taking the trip but it's not the Orient Express. If you go in winter the train is boiling hot, there's only one heating setting. Most the stops are a bit samey, as is the landscape (we went from Moscow to Irkutsk then Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar). Imo the landscapes get more interesting around Baikal and through to Mongolia. Some of the guards on the train can be pretty militant. I've also heard of people getting harassed by police at some of the cities on the route (although, this didn't happen to us).

Moving through time zones whilst on Moscow time is surreal. Lake Baikal is pretty special, amazing when frozen over. We did a two day dog sledging tour. Irkutks was a nice city, felt relatively chilled out.

Mongolia was a nice change in culture.

Not a huge fan of Moscow but I did enjoy wandering around Red Square and outside the Kremlin. The city is huge and it felt dominated by traffic.

The thing with Russia, it does feel a bit of a moody place, but once you break through language barriers (usually with a bit of vodka) they open up and are generally nice people. But be aware, they're not socially liberal. If you're not white and/or not straight, you'd need to take extra care.

Definitely glad I went but probably wouldn't go again on the TSE. I'd like to visit Saint Petersburg one day though.

Thanks for an excellent summary. It sounds basically how I imagined it! I am more keen to see the outter-reaches I guess, possibly ending in Vladivostok (its a whopping journey back though). Moscow does not really appeal, I dont really see the appeal in major cities,I'd rather somewhere weird!

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

St Petersburg is much nicer than Moscow, architecturally especially. I thought there was much more of a sense of history about the place too; Moscow just seemed to be a capital city in the same way that London or Paris are.

Yeh St Petersburg looks amazing

This is my thinking with Moscow, just big and busy

 

[wm02]

Bit weird to see Abramovich at the peace talks if he was supposedly poisoned at an earlier session

 

[spectateur]

It will be Ukranian by the time I go

?

 

[CharliePotato]

I'd say it's worth taking the trip but it's not the Orient Express. If you go in winter the train is boiling hot, there's only one heating setting. Most the stops are a bit samey, as is the landscape (we went from Moscow to Irkutsk then Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar). Imo the landscapes get more interesting around Baikal and through to Mongolia. Some of the guards on the train can be pretty militant. I've also heard of people getting harassed by police at some of the cities on the route (although, this didn't happen to us).

Moving through time zones whilst on Moscow time is surreal. Lake Baikal is pretty special, amazing when frozen over. We did a two day dog sledging tour. Irkutks was a nice city, felt relatively chilled out.

Mongolia was a nice change in culture.

Not a huge fan of Moscow but I did enjoy wandering around Red Square and outside the Kremlin. The city is huge and it felt dominated by traffic.

The thing with Russia, it does feel a bit of a moody place, but once you break through language barriers (usually with a bit of vodka) they open up and are generally nice people. But be aware, they're not socially liberal. If you're not white and/or not straight, you'd need to take extra care.

Definitely glad I went but probably wouldn't go again on the TSE. I'd like to visit Saint Petersburg one day though.

Sochi is class also, well worth a visit.