The wife wants to return to Russia

[Eric-Pris 1,606]

At least you can be sure that she didn't marry you just to come to the US. Or maybe she did, but realized how bad it sucks here and wants to go back.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I like Euronews.

I'm never watching BBC again, cause I had to watch it for Current Affairs class for 2 years...

In Belarus the BBC really sucks. It's the only English speaking channel on TV there, and it's "BBC India-Pakistan". So what you get is BBC news about Cricket matches mixed in with those stupid ####### Ballywood movies along with even worse Indian music vids. *where's the barf emoticon on here?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

On the subject of corruption:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/13/russia-boat-tragedies-idUSLDE76B0QC20110713

It would be one thing if corruption only led to economic problems. But thousands of Russians die every year because of it, and that's the real tragedy. Hopefully Russians will collectively tire of it someday and affect real change. Nobody else can fix the problem but Russia.

Anyone who lived or has done business there knows this, and it isn't just Russia. Safety standards in construction in Ukraine are horrible and what they have is ignored for a bribe. They even tolertate workers in high locations drinking at lunchtime. They have virtually none of the safety standards we enjoy.

But what would it cost the government to enforce these laws? How much would they have to pay to overcome bribery? Expecting Ukrainians or Russians to collectively reject a system that benefits most of them is silly. How many people in any form of government work are not taking bribes? Mail carriers, teachers, clerks, police (OMG!!!!), ticket sales for trains and airplanes, customs people, medical personnel (OMG! OMG! OMG!)don't EVEN discuss the situation with coal mines in the Donetsk area! 19th century technology and literally HUNDREDS of men killed every year due to unsafe conditions and the authorities just overlook everything for a cash bribe. And it extends into private business also. The entire system is corrupt from top to bottom, it functions on corruption. It cannot function without corruption. Each and every worker in Ukraine is supplementing their income in some way in an illegal manner, who isn't working under the table or pilfering for personal sale and barter or taking bribes to speed along procedures?

I paid bribes sometimes, I did not like it and still do not. Alla does it without batting an eye, just the way it is. I think it is going take many generations of people who did not grow up in the FSU to change the way it is.

At least you can be sure that she didn't marry you just to come to the US. Or maybe she did, but realized how bad it sucks here and wants to go back.

Did you post this from outside the USA?

Edited July 13, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[elya 17]

not with hobo dogs riding the rails.

one of my fav pics. At least this feral dog knows how to travel in comfort and style ;-)

[Brad and Vika 129]

meh...Iv'e told this story on here before, and it's not one of my prouder moments...but by far not my worse.

Here's the short version.

Me and the wife and one of her friends went up to Vitebsk to meet her former college friends and party. It comes up in a convo that Smolensk has a new night club that's supposed to be hot. So after god only knows how much booze...were heading to Smolensk...which by train is close to 8 hours or more...drinking the entire way there. We get to the club and there's a line of peeps waiting to get in. Hot chicks, English language and a few bucks and presto we are standing in side the entrance waiting to check in the bags, coats, etc.. and pay cover charge and then get stamped. In front of us is an Arab dude with what appeared to be a hooker...not sure, but anyways they were speaking English...hers better than his. She was showing him how many Rubles to pay for the cover charge..helping him count his money...and all I said was "It looks like we are all speaking English tonight eh"...and that's when everything went wrong. She turned around and said something sh*tty in Russian to the then fiance and her friends, they said something back and then it got real loud, and he said something towards me and I picked up the words American, assh*le...and then I popped him one. Big mistake...like really big. If I owned a club and had to choose bouncers...it would be from that club. Of course I don't go down easy and without a fight. Hey it's all about representing Alaska ! To make a long story short, cops show up after Iv'e been maced and I'm still zip tied, I get mouthy with them, Kira tells me to stfu and get all the money I have out of my wallet if I want to get back to Belarus. I guess I paid for a police escort seeing how they followed our taxi to the train station..

If your an American in Belarus you need what's called a "Transit Visa" to leave Belarus and come back to Belarus. We knew this, but we also knew nobody cares about that visa...unless your a dirty fck*ng Russian cop who knows about that visa.

That was just one of many adventures with the wifey. There's the time I ended up on stage at Westworld club and she went ape sh*t and had me drug off stage ...even when everyone was cool about it..but her. Now that I think about it...she threw my bags out twice during my visits, and tried to have my trip back home changed and then found out only the purchaser can do that, so she told me to get a hotel room until it was time for me to go back...and then retracted that when she remembered the hotels in Minsk are full of hookers...etc, etc..

I really can't speak to the transit visa issue, because I always had a multi-entry business visa. Also, I normally visited EU countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany), so getting out of the country I visited was never an issue. My question is why didn't you just get a visa? Can't you buy one at the border? I never tried to visit Russia, so I am curious. If I am understanding the story, you didn't get into it over lack of a visa. You found trouble because you made poor decisions while drunk. In that condition, trouble will find you anywhere - including the US.

Ask the poster "Brad" of "Brad & Vika" about the time he got the bums rush out of a Minsk casino when the house was fleecing a group of Russians on a roulette table and Brad was guilty of winning too much money...or at least how they saw it. 'Rus'...lmao...I could write a book about those people.

I'm not going to get into details of how they were selling their wives, gf's, sisters, whoever at night in the camps knowing we had a pot full of money and nowhere to spend it, or the few times their home brews came up bad and made the entire crew sick as dogs. Or even when they were stealing the camp blind including the basic necessities of the their camp...the one we built for them, or when we used to get an armed guard escort driving from point "A" to point "B". Or better yet when my flight was cancelled in Magadan but the ticket counter chick offered a room at her place as long as I was willing to pay...extra for extra privileges of course.

That casino story is absolutely true, but in my (I admit brief) visits to Belarus, I never saw or heard of anybody trying to sell a relative Because the penalties for breaking the law can be high, I felt like I was able to walk around many districts of Minsk safely, and I never saw a cop in Belarus ask for a bribe. Maybe my experience wasn't typical though. Completely true that prostitution was everywhere too, both organized and freelance. Can't say I was ever pressured about that, although some of the businessmen I worked with thought my abstention was completely crazy.

How one meets one's spouse has no bearing wehatever on the legitimacy of the relationship. The theory here is "She didn;t want to get married but met me and couldn't help herself because I am siuch a prize" Yeah sure.

On the other hand one may say that a woman advertising on a marriage site is at least of the same mindset as the men looking there.

We have all taken our share of bullshite for marrying foreign women, we do not need to give it to each other. Who am I to say that marrying a Ukrainian woman you met by chance is OK but marrying a Russian you met online is wrong? I have tried to pass on my experiences to others in the process and I never ask how they met, what color they are, how old are they or what religion they are, I wish them all the best of luck. While I have been known to be opinionated, you have never seen me judge a person's personal relationship.

I agree with most of this (maybe not the part about Gary being non-judgmental ). I think that lots of the relationship problems we see here are caused by a lack of familiarity and communication - sometimes caused by most contact being long distance. How many people have we read trumpeting about their wonderful, gorgeous, fabulous, etc. fince', and watched them flame out in a short period - stating some version of:

We really were close, after emailing, texting, and talking on skype for (fill in the blank). I mean, I really knew everything about him/her, and we were so much in love. We met for five days last year, and it was awesome. I sent him/her (fill in the blank) dollars for (fill in the blank years/months). Now he/she isn't sure about leaving, didn't make the interview, didn't get on the plane, etc.

Imo in some of those cases the problem could have been resolved by actually seeing more of each other. I know that sometimes that just isn't possible, but if you were marrying some one here that you had only seen up close once or twice, wouldn't that be weird? I saw a post earlier in this topic that bears out what I have always heard about Americans. We are known to be trusting, and yes, gullible. Again, just my opinion, but the decision to marry and immigrate is just too important to roll the dice on based only on long distance contact.

Iv'e met some super nice RUB's...Kira's family is as good as it gets, and mine looks like a bunch of animals in comparison. Some great people there, but the culture sucks the big one imo when it comes to dirty cops, pay offs, and the brainwashing...

That Magadan thing cost me some $$$ and almost my job. I ended up staying there close to two weeks after I went on a binge and was screwing my brains out and had to bs my way back into a job.

Again Kip, as I said above

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I really can't speak to the transit visa issue, because I always had a multi-entry business visa. Also, I normally visited EU countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany), so getting out of the country I visited was never an issue. My question is why didn't you just get a visa? Can't you buy one at the border? I never tried to visit Russia, so I am curious. If I am understanding the story, you didn't get into it over lack of a visa. You found trouble because you made poor decisions while drunk. In that condition, trouble will find you anywhere - including the US.

That casino story is absolutely true, but in my (I admit brief) visits to Belarus, I never saw or heard of anybody trying to sell a relative Because the penalties for breaking the law can be high, I felt like I was able to walk around many districts of Minsk safely, and I never saw a cop in Belarus ask for a bribe. Maybe my experience wasn't typical though. Completely true that prostitution was everywhere too, both organized and freelance. Can't say I was ever pressured about that, although some of the businessmen I worked with thought my abstention was completely crazy.

I agree with most of this (maybe not the part about Gary being non-judgmental ). I think that lots of the relationship problems we see here are caused by a lack of familiarity and communication - sometimes caused by most contact being long distance. How many people have we read trumpeting about their wonderful, gorgeous, fabulous, etc. fince', and watched them flame out in a short period - stating some version of:

We really were close, after emailing, texting, and talking on skype for (fill in the blank). I mean, I really knew everything about him/her, and we were so much in love. We met for five days last year, and it was awesome. I sent him/her (fill in the blank) dollars for (fill in the blank years/months). Now he/she isn't sure about leaving, didn't make the interview, didn't get on the plane, etc.

Imo in some of those cases the problem could have been resolved by actually seeing more of each other. I know that sometimes that just isn't possible, but if you were marrying some one here that you had only seen up close once or twice, wouldn't that be weird? I saw a post earlier in this topic that bears out what I have always heard about Americans. We are known to be trusting, and yes, gullible. Again, just my opinion, but the decision to marry and immigrate is just too important to roll the dice on based only on long distance contact.

Again Kip, as I said above

The "selling a relative thing" was in Russia (Sakhalin), not Belarus. But ya I agree, binge drinking can lead to bad decisions.

[slim 1,525]

binge drinking can lead to bad decisions.

Naaaaaah.

[Captain Hammer 113]

But ya I agree, binge drinking can lead to bad decisions.

My experience has been that bad decisions lead to binge drinking.

Which leads to bad decisions...

[slim 1,525]

It's a vicious cycle.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

But ya I agree, binge drinking can lead to bad decisions.

the above is a calendar that a coworker has.

[Captain Hammer 113]

the above is a calendar that a coworker has.

[slim 1,525]

the above is a calendar that a coworker has.

I used to have a coworker like that. She loved to get drunk and then make some poor decisions with me.

[mendeleev 68]

There would never be feral roosters in RUB countries. People would catch them and eat them.

My sister, when living in Shenyang, saw this canned food with a picture of a German shepherd on it in the grocery store. For a year she thought it was dog food. Then she learned that it was just dog.

[mendeleev 68]

I'd like to ask a few questions more on-topic.

We also are thinking about retiring over there. Given our ages (which are about the same) it won't be for a good 10-15 years, probably. She just started collecting her pension and it is deposited into a bank account over there.

1. Are there any issues about being a pensioner in Russia while living with an American in the States? My wife does spend a good part of the year, maybe 40% of the time, over there. It is necessary for family reasons.

2. What are issues associated with buying property over there jointly? Can the property be in both of our names? In her name only? (Yes, she is the Russian in this marriage.) Is there anything like title insurance over there?

This has been an interesting string and I may chime in later on corruption. It is great that this string, which went down into the gutter, managed to get back out.

[Neonred 3,569]

I'd like to ask a few questions more on-topic.

We also are thinking about retiring over there. Given our ages (which are about the same) it won't be for a good 10-15 years, probably. She just started collecting her pension and it is deposited into a bank account over there.

1. Are there any issues about being a pensioner in Russia while living with an American in the States? My wife does spend a good part of the year, maybe 40% of the time, over there. It is necessary for family reasons.

2. What are issues associated with buying property over there jointly? Can the property be in both of our names? In her name only? (Yes, she is the Russian in this marriage.) Is there anything like title insurance over there?

This has been an interesting string and I may chime in later on corruption. It is great that this string, which went down into the gutter, managed to get back out.

I don't know about the pension issue, but property can be in both names. Our apartment is.