I know this isn’t a normal question for this forum. But frankly with all of the news going on about Russia and Ukraine…I simply wanted to make sure you’re ok still and in a safeish space
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I’m in Moscow. It might be safer than being in Ukraine at the moment, but who knows for how long.
As I said in another topic, I’ve found a job in the UK and plan to move there. My visa application was submitted yesterday, and I will go to visa center appointment in two weeks. So I hope to get my visa in the late May and fly away in June. Hopefully they won’t impose martial law and closed borders by that time.
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Hmm, I keep hearing about all these sanctions and companies pulling out of Russia to ‘punish Putin,’ in some manner. Which, yes, it does. But that’s not taking into account all of the citizens that might not approve of such a war and are being punished for it anyhow, which I assume you’re a part of.
What an insane time for everything to just fall apart. Covid, war, chip shortages for tech to be harder to get. Our place in the US is starting to look more and more like a ghost town with places closing because of the economy crumbling. I REALLY hope that you get your visa and get out just how you want to…and I hope you have enough money for UK living. I have a friend living there that isn’t a fan of it.
I’m rooting for ya!
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Thank you.
I think that sanctions won’t stop the war. And they also hurt the West in the long term. Less trust in dollar and euro, less trust in western companies (especially the internet ones). It would be harder to expand to foreign markets. Perhaps, software developers won’t see super high salaries since it will be hard to expand worldwide.
From the other side, there will be less corrupted money on the West. It will lead to decline in GDP but will lead to less corrupted politics. Some reindustrialisation could happen. Hard to say what the final outcomes will be.
West needs to do something, so they do sanctions. But it’s a big question whether it will lead to any political changes or not. Most people does not connect Putin and sanctions. “They just don’t love Russia” they’re thinking. And most people doesn’t know what is happening in Ukraine. They live in the parallel universe.
And Russians are used to survival mode. We had 70 years of communism, and for most of the people the situation became even worse after the collapse of Soviet Union. People will think about food and job instead of how to change the regime. And poorer people will be happy: “Oh, those riches in the cities couldn’t fly to Europe anymore and couldn’t buy a cloth costing more than my monthly salary. Ha-ha, now they live like us”.
Anyhow, it’s impossible to do nothing and continue business as usual when you see the new 1939. So while sanctions do not help much, not doing them is morally impossible (and sanctions against military industry is a must).
What will really help Ukraine is military aid, intelligence aid, mass media help. Sanctions should play some role too. Who knows, maybe after sanctions of this scale people will start asking some questions.
As I understand I should get more or less OK salary by UK standards. Plus I’ll have something from BazQux as well, so I hope it will be enough. Maybe UK is not an ideal country (are there any?) but it definitely looks better than Russia at the moment (and, I’m afraid, for the next few generations as well).
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It’s not ideal for the Russian citizens, but unfortunately the EU/US have to do something.
Hopefully some people in high positions will then do something about it as they also feel the negative consequences of the sanctions.
The real solution would be to fight the Russians back together with Ukraine, but as we all know that’s a enormous risk with Putin. Yesterday I saw that he might be sick; maybe that’s eventually the solution …