New Generation of Russians
15/3/12 18:03![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsHey, I can see loots of talks about the elections in the US.
And, we - in Russia- have just got done with the Presidential Elections.
you know the results.
But what's going to be the consequences - allow me to share couple of opinions.
1. A short Manifesto of modern urban Russian middle-class
(hey, we're less than 5% of total population - who owuld ever listen to us here?
No wonder we're that much focused on building personal and professional connections with the West)
OK, here it is:
====
We're, young smart, talented, educated generation of Russa, are suffocating today in non-humanous political and economical environment.
We are the generation of professionals who never steal and cheat.
We're educated in that way - cheating and stealing are the thinhgs that lay lower than our cultural level and the sense of self-respect.
We would love to start own business here in Russia, we are looking forward developing new products and services for Russian customers.
But today this is a hopeless dream for all of us - we can not start any project here, because of high corruption and no support from authorities.
We are suffocating.
And therefore we are looking for different options for our lives. We travel around the world, we benchmark countries, economies. We see the difference.
And there's no surprise we all want to move away from Russia as soon as possible.
We are not oligarch's, we are not rich to afford Investor Visa for 200 000 GBP.
All we have is our bright minds, our professional knowledge, and our young energy - these are our strongest assets.
And we do know that our professional level and the way we got used to work with our projects - is much higher than of those living in the EU.
Tough environment made us stronger and better workers on all levels: either management or operational. We simply give more output - because we never work "9 to 5".
EU authorities know that. And that's why they have so strict, almost impassable rules, which not allowing us to even start looking for job on the EU territory.
All we hope for is:
1. stay here, save money (to reach 200 000 GBP - which is a far away dream)
2. get education in EU (at least on-line)
3. when 1) and 2) are done - we hope to start tackling the EU jobs market.
This plan is almost useless.
But it is better than nothing.
We're locked here - like in jail.
What the prisoners can dream about?
Very basic things:
- we want to have Property Rights, and to be sure these rights are protected by the government;
- we want our taxes to work for us (not against us) - that police does its' job, that medicine works for our old parents, that pension is paid to them;
- we want to be able to plan our life for at least next 10 years;
That's all we want. Nothing else!
But the nightmare around says - all three wishes are not realistic in Russia.
We're not begging for help. We don't ask for political shelter.
This is, again, something that lays below our culture and self-respect levels.
We're letting everyone know about our suffering.
Any advice, any option - is a real help.
2. An article in "The Guardian"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/02/moscow-thames-londongrad-yevgeny-chichvarkin
this is an interview of Yevgeny Chichvarkin - Russian ex-businessman.
He started own business in late 1990s - a retail shops selling mobile phones.
He loved his project that much, that in 12 years he already had a retail network of over 5 000 outlets around Russia & Ukraine. The turnover was billions of USD per year.
And that was a Private Business (nonsence in Russia) - he owned all.
He gained a lot of attention from media, he gained respect from businessmen, all young professionals looked to repeat his success story.
This, of course, wasn't a plan of Russian Authorities (the top ones).
The guy simply got a lot of attention, got unacceptably popular, unacceptably rich.
They did it their KGB-way: concocted a lawsuit agains Eugene - a fake one. Just accused him in kidnapping his own employee.
He, as a real patriot, fought for his rights until the end. He really belived that Russians are good smart cultured people, and those assholes siting in the Procesutor's Office - are not the best representatives of Russians.
He could not fight the corrupted system.
The System of "comrades" forced him to sell his enterprise to a shill for several millions of dollars, while real cost was several hundreds.
It's simple: "if you dont sign the deal - you'll get a bullet in your head"
And that was said not by gangsters, but by official System...
Just a minutes before his arrest - he jumped into a plane and got to London where asked for political shelter.
After a year or so, they have killed his mother who stayed in Moscow. News article said "threre was a gas leak in the apartment of Eugene's mother".
Now he is in London - a refugee. He could save some of his money - not starving, but doing new start-up.
And he's too much into politics - just writing and blaming and taking part in protest actions.
But the job's done - he will never return to Russia, he will never get his business back.
So, we're here - New Russian Generation - looking at these stories... Planning own life.
What we should think about?
Simple: "if I start a business here and work hard - I'll get rich, and will be squesed away from Russia", "should I even think of starting something?"
(*pronounce with deliberately Russian accent - like in C&C Red Alert*)
"Don't worry, comrade. Everything is under control"
Well, what do you think? Seriously.
OK. Trolls are also welcome - add some excitement to this post.
And, we - in Russia- have just got done with the Presidential Elections.
you know the results.
But what's going to be the consequences - allow me to share couple of opinions.
1. A short Manifesto of modern urban Russian middle-class
(hey, we're less than 5% of total population - who owuld ever listen to us here?
No wonder we're that much focused on building personal and professional connections with the West)
OK, here it is:
====
We're, young smart, talented, educated generation of Russa, are suffocating today in non-humanous political and economical environment.
We are the generation of professionals who never steal and cheat.
We're educated in that way - cheating and stealing are the thinhgs that lay lower than our cultural level and the sense of self-respect.
We would love to start own business here in Russia, we are looking forward developing new products and services for Russian customers.
But today this is a hopeless dream for all of us - we can not start any project here, because of high corruption and no support from authorities.
We are suffocating.
And therefore we are looking for different options for our lives. We travel around the world, we benchmark countries, economies. We see the difference.
And there's no surprise we all want to move away from Russia as soon as possible.
We are not oligarch's, we are not rich to afford Investor Visa for 200 000 GBP.
All we have is our bright minds, our professional knowledge, and our young energy - these are our strongest assets.
And we do know that our professional level and the way we got used to work with our projects - is much higher than of those living in the EU.
Tough environment made us stronger and better workers on all levels: either management or operational. We simply give more output - because we never work "9 to 5".
EU authorities know that. And that's why they have so strict, almost impassable rules, which not allowing us to even start looking for job on the EU territory.
All we hope for is:
1. stay here, save money (to reach 200 000 GBP - which is a far away dream)
2. get education in EU (at least on-line)
3. when 1) and 2) are done - we hope to start tackling the EU jobs market.
This plan is almost useless.
But it is better than nothing.
We're locked here - like in jail.
What the prisoners can dream about?
Very basic things:
- we want to have Property Rights, and to be sure these rights are protected by the government;
- we want our taxes to work for us (not against us) - that police does its' job, that medicine works for our old parents, that pension is paid to them;
- we want to be able to plan our life for at least next 10 years;
That's all we want. Nothing else!
But the nightmare around says - all three wishes are not realistic in Russia.
We're not begging for help. We don't ask for political shelter.
This is, again, something that lays below our culture and self-respect levels.
We're letting everyone know about our suffering.
Any advice, any option - is a real help.
2. An article in "The Guardian"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/02/moscow-thames-londongrad-yevgeny-chichvarkin
this is an interview of Yevgeny Chichvarkin - Russian ex-businessman.
He started own business in late 1990s - a retail shops selling mobile phones.
He loved his project that much, that in 12 years he already had a retail network of over 5 000 outlets around Russia & Ukraine. The turnover was billions of USD per year.
And that was a Private Business (nonsence in Russia) - he owned all.
He gained a lot of attention from media, he gained respect from businessmen, all young professionals looked to repeat his success story.
This, of course, wasn't a plan of Russian Authorities (the top ones).
The guy simply got a lot of attention, got unacceptably popular, unacceptably rich.
They did it their KGB-way: concocted a lawsuit agains Eugene - a fake one. Just accused him in kidnapping his own employee.
He, as a real patriot, fought for his rights until the end. He really belived that Russians are good smart cultured people, and those assholes siting in the Procesutor's Office - are not the best representatives of Russians.
He could not fight the corrupted system.
The System of "comrades" forced him to sell his enterprise to a shill for several millions of dollars, while real cost was several hundreds.
It's simple: "if you dont sign the deal - you'll get a bullet in your head"
And that was said not by gangsters, but by official System...
Just a minutes before his arrest - he jumped into a plane and got to London where asked for political shelter.
After a year or so, they have killed his mother who stayed in Moscow. News article said "threre was a gas leak in the apartment of Eugene's mother".
Now he is in London - a refugee. He could save some of his money - not starving, but doing new start-up.
And he's too much into politics - just writing and blaming and taking part in protest actions.
But the job's done - he will never return to Russia, he will never get his business back.
So, we're here - New Russian Generation - looking at these stories... Planning own life.
What we should think about?
Simple: "if I start a business here and work hard - I'll get rich, and will be squesed away from Russia", "should I even think of starting something?"
(*pronounce with deliberately Russian accent - like in C&C Red Alert*)
"Don't worry, comrade. Everything is under control"
Well, what do you think? Seriously.
OK. Trolls are also welcome - add some excitement to this post.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 14:14 (UTC)It's both sad and encouraging to watch this process of opening up to the world. Sad because it's so painful, but still it's slowly accelerating. And this gives a certain Hope For Change (tm).
I hope you don't get trolled (too harshly), but the "Con, sonar, crazy Ivan" kind of macros are sure to follow, no doubt.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 18:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 21:09 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 18:52 (UTC)1. All really good professionals from Russia I know were able to get a job in the United States or Europe.
2. Russia is a fast-developing country with a lot of interesting jobs available right now. If you know how to design hardware - go to Zelenograd near Moscow and take part in one of new of fabless semiconductor companies that came into existence during last few years. If you know how to design smart software - join Parallels, Yandex or many other internationally recognized Russian companies.
There are also opportunities in Russian biotech and many other fields.
The self-proclaimed "modern urban Russian middle-class" largely consist of young people without special skills who would like to blame their own lack of business and/or professional activity on Russian politics.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 21:08 (UTC)Most of the people I'm talking about are far from being "young people without special skills", and neither do they lack a business, much less are they willing to blame anybody for something they don't lack. Are you sure we're talking of one and the same thing?
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 21:31 (UTC)In modern Russia there is a choice. If a person wants to get a job abroad, he can, assuming he has enough skills so his potential US employer is willing to go through H-1 visa / labor certification procedure. And if a person chooses to stay in Russia - he can find an interesting job in Russia.
20-30 years ago it was not true - 30 years ago it was difficult to get out of Russia and 20 years ago it was difficult to have an interesting job in Russia with a certain skill set.
*** Most of the people I'm talking about are far from being "young people without special skills" ***
I know. I was referring to the "modern urban Russian middle-class" in the main post who claim that they "are suffocating". My point is that the people you are talking about ("There are lots of you guys from the new Russian middle class coming here") are not exactly the same as people topic starter is talking about.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 21:43 (UTC)Also many of those Russians are buying property here because this way they'll get a permanent EU visa. So consider this as well. ;-)
Fair enough on the second point.
(no subject)
Date: 16/3/12 08:40 (UTC)whatever experience and knowledge you have - the key question is always "do you have a Green Card?"
if not - then bye-bye.
^)
(no subject)
Date: 16/3/12 08:45 (UTC)the only way to break from the prison - is buy a property in the EU or in the US.
No need to explain that only oligarchs can afford that...
Again, we're talking here about new Russian Middle Class, right?
The people who have higher education, professional experience in highly intellectual areas...
Say, with income 50K+ per year...
Not stupid.
Not skill-less.
Open minded and ready to work a lot and with good output,.
They're still far away to afford buying a house in Europe (say 300 000 USD)
And they can't find a job abroad because of Visa issue.
No Green Card? - bye-bye
No EU work perimt? - bye-bye
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 14:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 14:52 (UTC)Glad to get comments from Russians, Comrade Stalin.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 14:57 (UTC)Fixed a comment. It seems right now.
Glad to get...
Not a problem.
Do you not "New Russian Generation"?
Я тут мучаюсь, а ты русский же.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 16:00 (UTC)It's a good practice after all
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 15:30 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 15:39 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 15:59 (UTC)Orthodoxal Christian religion is not only Russian
Many nations follow it
Including Greeks for instance
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 16:07 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 16:37 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 17:59 (UTC)Sure, there were a lot of so called "political refugees" who came during 1970-1980 but I would consider them purely economic immigrants because they exaggerated the level of suffering they were experiencing back in Soviet Union to get their Green Card and welfare checks.
(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 18:12 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 19:29 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 19:30 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 19:32 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 19:42 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 19:43 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 17:11 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/3/12 20:53 (UTC)Now that's not to say that modern Russia is any better--its rampantly corrupt, state socialism is just as bad from a different angle.
But it just bugs me that these ambitious intellectual Russian youths are not able to see the deficiencies of such a system and working to imagine and demonstrate a new free economic model that will strive to ensure equality and humanity rather than more greed and exploitation.
(no subject)
Date: 16/3/12 08:23 (UTC)my Russian passport on your American passport?
Wanna switch?
bwahahahahhah)
(no subject)
Date: 16/3/12 10:53 (UTC):)