Stereotypes about "crazy" Russians through the eyes of foreigners. Montse Arevalo, Spain

October 18, 2016 A few years earlier, tourists going to Russia seriously discussed the possibility of meeting a bear or a KGB officer in the center of Moscow...

Delicious food here

The largest number positive feedback about our country got ... food. Foreigners are satisfied with the food in general and are happy to eat both traditional Russian food and dishes of other cuisine that the restaurants of our Motherland can offer. They often mention the large selection of food in supermarkets, as well as its quite affordable price.

A US tourist told TripAdvisor that he enjoys Russian food and the large portions served in Russian restaurants.

The man noted excellent soups and bread. He is also satisfied with the goods in supermarkets and the moderateness of prices. In the review, the tourist wrote that in Russia you can choose tea, sweets, dairy products and vodka for every taste.

human relationships

“The flowers on the streets of Russia attract everyone's attention, they are sold even in severe frosts,” notes CNN. “Women with huge bouquets look quite familiar here.”

“Men present flowers to women on any outstanding occasion,” the publication adds. - Here it is not a sign of romantic interest, just a tradition in relations between the sexes.

Also, according to tradition, women are served first, and men's duty is to help them take off and put on their outerwear, put themselves ahead of themselves in the queue, and even in the elevator! - emphasizes the journalist.

The publication warns that these features must be taken into account while in Russia, even for those who are not a supporter of "chivalry".

But many sources say it's still possible to encounter the glorified Russian "moody".

“When I was buying chewing gum, I kindly asked the saleswoman: “Please, please, give me this chewing gum, if it doesn’t make it difficult for you.” The seller, without even looking in my direction, continued to read something on the phone. After a considerable period of time, she looked at me and gloomily said: “Thirty rubles,” one of the tourists told such a story.

But many have learned to deal with the “isolation” of Russians.

“It's more of a stereotype that people in Russia don't care about strangers. Sometimes it happens, but mostly Russians are always ready to make new friends. It is very easy to start a conversation with them, just choose an interesting area (checkers, making beer at home, at worst, black magic) and go to a thematic Internet resource where there are a lot of Russians. Within a few letters you will have new friend, tour guide and drinking buddy for the rest of his life, ”says the well-known portal.

There are Russians who don't drink vodka

This was an amazing discovery for CNN. “Some Russians don't drink at all! - says a student from the UK, studying in Moscow. – True, if you have to attend a celebration with Russian friends, be prepared for a long series of toasts.

But if you refuse to drink, no one will force you.”

Weather

A tourist on TripAdvisor warns: “Going to Russia in winter, be sure to take warm boots. Snow and icing are usually removed very selectively, therefore, walking along the street, you can slip. For Russians, this seems to be a common occurrence, and they are used to walking like bulldozers!”

CNN states that winter in Russia is likely to destroy any footwear, and you should be prepared for this even if you come from a cold country.

“Mud, puddles and snow will be the last thing your new Manolo Blahnic will see, keep that in mind. Many Russians are accustomed to such winters and walk in ugly but reliable shoes down the street and change shoes at work,” the publication says.

The journalist was also shocked by the fact that the Russians themselves freeze in winter.

“Despite living permanently in such a climate, many Russians do not tolerate the cold well. The rich find a simple way out and, with the onset of cold weather, leave for warmer climes,” the journalist says.

“Confirming the words of Napoleon and Otto von Bismarck, I will say: the first thing you should remember when going to Russia is the weather! It is better not to visit this country in March and November! In March, the snow begins to melt (and a lot of things accumulate under it during the winter), and the puddles look more like lakes. Breaks down in November strong wind, tearing out umbrellas from those walking along the streets, and just rivers of water flow along the sidewalks, ”writes a tourist who visited Russia.

But almost everyone who has visited Russia in the winter season complains about the incredible heat inside the buildings.

“The rooms and cars are terribly hot. Staying in a hotel room is more like fighting for survival somewhere on the equator,” says an American on TripAdvisor.

CNN columnist says winter in Russian houses it's hot as hell, and it's polar cold outside. But, in his opinion, this difficulty can be overcome if you correctly put on layers of clothing. The observer noted that this is not possible the first time, but comes with experience.

Visa difficulties and other bureaucracy

For many foreigners, it seems difficult to get a visa to Russia. But those who have previously undergone the procedure say that there is nothing difficult in this.

US journalist and traveler Veronica Hackethall shared her recommendations with newcomers: “Anyone who plans to stay in Russia for more than three days needs to go through the visa registration procedure and migration card. Many hotels can easily do this upon check-in. Staying in Russia for less than three days, you can do without registration, but still I advise you to do it and keep it with you, because the police can ask for your documents on the street.

“You can pay by card not everywhere, travelers checks are rarely accepted. There are many ATMs in big cities, but sometimes they run out of cash,” says the journalist.

“Keep plenty of cash with you! Suddenly there will be no ATM on the way, ”advises another tourist.

“When buying souvenirs, think carefully. Russia has strict regulations on the export of objects of "cultural value". The “not exportable” sticker can even be found on ballet slippers. Keep your eyes open and keep your receipts, ”recommends another traveler.

Difficulties in life

Tourists note that in recent years the quality of service has improved in Russia. Tourism industry employees know foreign languages ​​(at least English), the phone can be easily transferred to GSM, you can use navigation in the metro of big cities, and calling a taxi with apps like Gett is now very simple. Many people like the comfortable "Aeroexpress" that runs from airports to the city.

But in some situations, tourists still have difficulties.

“Save a couple of coins in case you need to use a public toilet. There may end toilet paper so keep some tissues with you. By the way, there may not be hand towels either. Toilets in small towns often look frightening, it smells bad. Stopping to refuel in Tatarstan, I actually stumbled upon a cabin with a hole in the floor! Be careful not to fall,” a US tourist writes on TripAdvisor.

“Be prepared to spend a lot of time at the airport, even on domestic flights. You don't have to worry about security, but the service here is very slow. People are usually taken to the plane by a bus, where the Russians are very aggressive. You may have to fight for your place,” adds the traveler.

Other oddities

Some Russian features surprise all visitors. Among them is the habit of dressing up for any occasion. It is difficult for many to understand the principle of house numbering and find the right one even with a navigator or a map. The superstition of Russians is a separate issue. One traveler discovered that vendors consider it bad luck to give change in hand, so they put the money on the counter or on a special saucer.

Foreign guests are also surprised by other signs: for example, in Russia they don’t pass something over the threshold, because they think it’s unfortunate.

As a journalist from The Calvert Journal discovered, it is very good in Russia to ... get sick.

“Where there is no restaurant or sushi bar, there is a pharmacy in Moscow. And the Russians are still those hypochondriacs: in pharmacies there are always a lot of potent drugs that can be bought without prescriptions. After an intensified bombardment of such drugs (many of which are probably banned in the EU), a cold will be taken off as if by hand! says the reviewer.

culture

“Art lovers will get a lot of indescribable impressions in Russia. Stunning festivals are held in the country (such as the White Nights of St. Petersburg), you can visit the wonderful ballet and opera at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, I'm not even talking about active parties in the clubs of Moscow, - says Ms. Hackethall. “Yes, the Russians do not greet you with a smile, but when they show their hospitality, you can be sure that this is sincere.”

Tourists often visit museums and exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg and enjoy walking along the streets. Guests of Russia note that the sidewalks and public transport are clean. Many people talk about long distances: a tourist from the USA was surprised that you can’t just walk between Moscow metro stations.

Earlier, the issue of attracting tourists to Russia was discussed at the round table "Know our: the main trends in inbound tourism in Russia", timed to coincide with the exhibition "Recreation 2016". Sergei Korneev, deputy head of Rostourism, said that Russia has many competitors who are more successful in the tourism industry.

“Our country has every chance to become a leader in the global tourism market. First of all, foreign guests appreciate the high level of security and a lot of interesting sights in Russia. But these advantages are not known to everyone,” says Mr. Korneev.

Employees of the Visit Russia offices took part in the discussion and spoke about the problems of attracting foreigners to Russia. The main one is the lack of information about our country among tourists and the underdevelopment of Russia's infrastructure, unable to satisfy so many customers.

The older generation has not yet forgotten that in the Soviet Union, to put it mildly, trips of ordinary citizens abroad were not welcomed. From that side, too, few people visited us. These difficulties have led to the emergence of preconceived and one-sided ideas about Russia, consisting in three words - vodka,
bears, matryoshka. Not the last role in strengthening the impartial opinion about our country was played by Hollywood, which is very popular among all segments of the population. By the way, in those years, few singled out Ukraine, Kazakhstan or another republic separately. We were all Russians for foreigners. There is no longer an iron curtain. Russians freely travel all over the world, demonstrating there, “beyond the hill”, what our nation is like. Millions of tourists also come to us, see with their own eyes how we live, get acquainted with our culture.

What do foreigners think about Russia now? How has their opinion changed? Some public organizations and ubiquitous journalists conduct surveys from time to time, but the answers of citizens from friendly and unfriendly countries vary greatly. It depends primarily on the purpose of their visit. One thing is said about Russia by tourists who came here for a couple of days with an excursion group and organized visits only to the sights noted in the program. They only see what the tour guides want to show them. Foreigners working in Russia, studying here, everyone who lives with us can tell a completely different story. long time, and the impressions of those living in the capital and in the outback are radically different. And the foreigners themselves are also different. The opinions about our country, for example, Americans or Germans, differ in many ways from the opinions of Nigerians, Chinese or Mexicans. But in one thing, all foreign guests are united: Russia is huge, it takes years to know and understand it.

Russians and alcohol

There is an opinion in the Western world that our nation is an incredibly drunk. Almost all Europeans, Americans, Asians talk about this in one interpretation or another. But if we turn to WHO statistics, Russia is not the first, not the second, not even the third place in terms of alcohol consumption per each of its inhabitants. In this matter, even the restrained Balts overtook us. Nevertheless, foreigners say about life in Russia that they drink a lot here. They are especially surprised why we can drink anywhere - in a restaurant, at a banquet, in a park on a bench, just on the street. Law enforcement officers do not stop this, passers-by remain indifferent. Maybe that's why we all seem so drunk to them? And foreigners cannot understand why even in our store you can buy low-quality alcohol, because it is dangerous to health. They are also surprised that in Russia the reason for drinking can be the most trifling, and the process that began with “one hundred for health” often develops into a large-scale binge and drags on until deep night, and almost always well taken on the chest Russians begin to have intellectual conversations about politics and the meaning of life, although, being sober, they try to avoid these topics. There, “over the hill”, only sober people talk about such topics, and when they drink, they just have fun or talk about their real or fictional victories.

Many foreigners, looking at our drunkards, cannot understand: are Russians really so rich that they find funds for such an amount of alcohol? And most importantly, how do they calmly go to work the next day after heavy drinking?

Russians and order

Our people, as they say, laws are not written. We are used to it and no longer notice how we are constantly violating something somewhere. But they notice. Foreigners say about life in Russia that it is a norm or even an obligation not to follow the rules if there is no punishment for it. For them, on the contrary, it is considered the norm to follow the established rules, even when there is no control nearby. Russian people, without the slightest doubt, cross the road at a red light if, according to their calculations, it is still far from a moving car, on metro platforms they constantly go beyond the boundary line, although it is life-threatening, they leave their cars in inconvenient places, just not to pay for parking. Foreigners are surprised why dozens of cash desks are installed in supermarkets, if only one or two are open, despite the queues gathering in them. They do not understand why our roads are patched in the rain, and the heating systems begin to be repaired in the cold. And how traffic cops serving in roadside bushes amaze motorists from abroad!

Regarding security, foreigners respond differently to life in Russia. People from Latin America, Tanzania, South Africa, Sudan, which are dangerous in terms of crime, believe that there is heavenly calm on our evening and night streets. Europeans, on the contrary, are sure that Russian cities are rather restless. Even if nothing and no one threatens life, you can easily lose property or be embroiled in a scandal. At the same time, the streets are always full of patrolling policemen, therefore, logically, the order should be perfect.

Russians and wealth

Previously, in the USSR, everyone was approximately equal. Now in our society there has been a division into the poor and the rich. Everything is like theirs, in their distant America, Europe, only with a Russian flavor. What surprises foreigners in our rich? The fact that most of them boast of their new status, build houses on several floors not to live there, but simply for prestige, buy goods only in the most expensive stores, buy expensive cars to seem even more weighty and significant. Moreover, if there are traffic jams on the roads (and they are constantly in large metropolitan areas), our rich people will wait for hours, get nervous, be late, but they will never go down to the subway, because this is below their newfound status. There is no such thing abroad. There, even directors of companies, without the slightest damage to their image, can come to work today by an expensive car, tomorrow by a city bus, and the day after tomorrow by bicycle. There, the rich do not see anything shameful in visiting ordinary supermarkets, and they willingly buy promotional goods.

Russians and feminism

It is no secret that foreign suitors willingly choose our young ladies as their wives. Male foreigners say about Russia that the issue of equality is not as acute here as, for example, in America. There, most women try to prove their independence, because of which their femininity suffers. They pay for themselves in restaurants, react painfully if they are helped to open the door or give a hand when leaving the transport. There, women, when creating a family, are primarily guided by material considerations and rush to draw up a marriage contract. Most Russians are not like that yet.

Although their willpower and spirit are no weaker than those of the same American women, they like to appear weak. feels more like a man than in his homeland, because our women do not interfere with his self-affirmation. They are grateful for any help from men, even if the problem can be handled perfectly without them. Agreeing to become a wife, our beauties are primarily interested in whether the chosen one loves them, and only then they put the question of where and by whom he works, what prospects he has in the service, in second place. Some foreigners are surprised by the abundance of flower shops on the streets of Russian cities. They are perplexed why it is so important for our women that a lover comes to a date with flowers, and why there must be an odd number of flowers in a bouquet.

Russians and culture

Russia through the eyes of foreign tourists in this regard is simply beautiful. Mostly excursion groups visit St. Petersburg and Moscow, and there are the most famous sights. It is not surprising that all the tourists surveyed spoke enthusiastically about the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pokrovsky Cathedral, and Red Square. Many foreign citizens, even advanced in the field of French culture, are surprised that people of all ages like to visit museums and galleries in our country, and you can often meet couples in love there. It is difficult for Italians, Spaniards, Americans to imagine their date with a girl not in a restaurant or even in a movie, but, for example, in an art gallery.

Almost all foreigners talk about Russia, always mentioning our Grand Theatre and beautiful ballet. Many girls from friendly countries dream of studying at a Russian ballet school.

Foreign guests are very surprised by the love of Russians for reading. In our metro and trains, in the park on benches and in public transport, ordinary printed books and newspapers are still read, although young people can more often be seen with tablets and iPhones.

Abroad, among those who have never been to Russia, there is still an opinion that here the men play the balalaikas, and the women lead round dances. Some foreigners who visited our country were surprised that they could not see Russian folklore at all, about which they were told so much.

Russians and food

Foreigners very often talk about life in Russia, remembering our dumplings (or huge ravioli), our borscht (or red soup), pancakes with meat, the most delicious black caviar in the world. Foreign gourmets do not like jelly. Many do not understand how such a dish can be eaten. Even more unflattering words - about okroshka. As foreigners think, this is everything that is on the table, collected and mixed in one pan.

Our compatriots, who happened to be visiting abroad, recall that there was not an abundance of food on the table, although there was enough for everyone. Russia through the eyes of foreigners, of course, looks somewhat different than Russians see it. The former sometimes consider it a fairly rich power, because all the feasts are held on a grand scale, regardless of the occasion and material wealth the people who organize them. For some reason, it is very important for a Russian person to make the table with dishes with all kinds of salads, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese and sausage cuts, fried chicken legs and other food. Half of all this is not eaten and is thrown away, to the amazement of foreign guests.

Those of the foreigners who have traveled in Russia by train cannot understand why our people, as soon as the train starts moving, begin to take out a bunch of food from their bags, as if they want to eat on the road for the rest of their lives.

Russians and friendliness

Almost all foreign guests remember kind words our sincere Russian hospitality. Some of the interviewed foreigners traveled around Russia by hitchhiking, asking to stay with ordinary residents, rather than staying in hotels. All of them tell how they were given a wonderful reception, how they put a lot of food on the table, put them to bed in a clean bed, even heated a bathhouse on purpose. The next morning, these random people became the best friends for the foreign guest.

However, in general, foreigners call all Russians gloomy and believe that our harsh climate is to blame. They say that in our subway, in the store, just on the street it is very rare to see smiling men, women, young people, old people. The situation changes dramatically when you turn to Russian people, for example, with the question of how to find a way. The gloominess immediately disappears, instead it appears sincere desire help.

Russians and business

How tourists see our country is approximately clear. And what do foreigners who live and work here think about Russia? The Chinese believe that we have very strict rules, decent salaries, high prices and a strong-willed president. They call Putin a wonderful ruler, almost like their Xi Jinping.

Europeans and Americans, who work here as managers or leading specialists, believe that wages in Russia are below average, and prices are exorbitantly high, even for goods that should be cheap, such as gasoline (after all, we have many oil wells).

Bottles of champagne tied to an air conditioner, a horse team at a gas station, a submarine on the beach, a watermelon cut with a chainsaw, a head-on collision between an ambulance and a police car, and many other facets of Russian ingenuity are extremely striking " flat"Western mindset...

The list of their photo collections about our country, and surprised, and sometimes admiring comments, is almost endless. But at the same time, they have something in common that always catches the eye - selections made by foreigners and their reviews speak mainly about the ingenuity or, at most, the recklessness of the Russians and Russia itself, while rarely having a negative connotation.

You can hardly find nasty photos with corny drunk and dirty people.

"Russian women are cool, especially compared to British women. They also skydive, and ours are afraid to print even a couple of these lines without breaking their plastic nails", - laments the English newspaper The Sun.

"Russian desperate guys, they constantly risk their lives, albeit for the sake of things that we do not understand"- states The Daily Mail.

"These strange Russians are capable of anything, in Russia you can easily see how a tow truck takes away another tow truck that evacuates a passenger car, cold water pours into an electric kettle in which a hole has been made and already warm water pouring down the sink, or like a police car driving along railroad tracks"- admires the American tabloid.

Such a position and perception of Russia by the inhabitants of the collective West has long been an established norm. And there is nothing strange in this.

We are different, our mentality differs significantly, and it is not uncommon for values ​​to have no intersection points at all. Sometimes it comes to the ridiculous when on the video of the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, in the Novosibirsk experiment with boiling water in a frost of minus forty-seven degrees, when boiling water poured from the seventh floor evaporates before reaching the asphalt - the inhabitants of Austria saw a live fly near the balcony, and immediately wrote that the Russians were so " unstoppable"that they even have the same flies, although some of them stubbornly argued that Russian flies are not flies, but" mosquitoes in sweatshirts".

The British are amazed by Siberians in bikinis riding in 30-degree frost, the American press is terribly impressed by the breadth of the Russian soul, the Germans are stunned by the illogicality, scope and degree, as they call it, of Russian madness, and so on throughout the Western Hemisphere ...

And in general, such definitions are understandable. Everything that does not fit into the patterns and goes beyond the boundaries of the established norms of behavior adopted in the West is called insanity. How else? In addition, this applies not only to you and me, they are also used to labeling each other. To call the British - stiff, arrogant snobs, the Scots - misers, Italians - temperamental, Finns - inhibited, Jews - cunning, Germans - pedantic, Italians - talkers ... But Russians ... Nobody will ever understand Russians, they say, too much in their behavior does not fit into the norm - "they are such psychos" ...

An American will never look for a way out of the current difficult situation himself, just as a German, an Austrian, a Frenchman or a Canadian will not do this - they will stubbornly contact the people or services responsible for this. Call the service, call a tow truck, hire a person specifically responsible for turning television antennas or screwing a screw into a wall.

At the same time, they will convincingly prove that the Russians are more crazy than themselves, and there is no other such country. Although in the end, Americans always add that “ Russia is still cool. If only they were our neighbors instead of this idiotic Canada”.

Especially lately, when news about Russia is constantly flashing on TV screens all over the world. Foreigners simply began to react more often to certain links that say at least something about Russians.

And this is not bad, if only because good videos of Russian drivers removing snow from the brake lights of a car in front, stopping in traffic in order to get a grandmother across the road or remove a kitten from the roadway, have now become widely circulated with headlines in English. After all, this is something that their media does not show, which means it is practically forbidden, which is why it has success all over the world today. What was watched in Russia at least a year ago is now being reposted with the following comment: I "ve Never Seen Anything So Beautiful. This Video From Russia Made The Whole World Cry. A Must Watch!

And Russian ingenuity, again "conquers the Western World"! And the ability of Russians to easily laugh in the face of difficulties and DANGER, and does command deep respect! GENERALIZATION

Much has changed in recent years, the country has changed, turning into a new, Polite Russia, people have changed, loving their Motherland and starting to be proud of it, patriotism has revived, and in the world at this time, despite the frenzied information aggression, the image of Russia is again every day is gaining more and more respect.

This is noticeable even in small things, because all the photographs in the article are exclusively from American, British and Austrian sites, forums, and collections, and the comments of users who have viewed them have a positive color.

Americans are crazy too n_tongue: Challenge breeds excellence... / robin yates: I much prefer Russian crazy because they laugh while they are being crazy ). And so on...

However, of course, there are other collections of this kind, including those in English with the most negative content, they can usually be found on Russian resources, and the people who post them, in nine cases out of ten, are current Ukrainians, Latvians, Poles, and so on. further, which is extremely unpleasant, since these photos are collections for the Western layman, they intentionally contain exclusively drunken Russians from the 90s, dirt, destroyed houses and indecent awkward moments. However, the Internet has no boundaries, and on one of these forums with intentionally denigrating content, a user from our country named "Tamara" left his comment, I would like to give her comment completely and without changes.

Go to....! You photographed all the hehe .... all that has happened in all the years in Russia! You, all who do this - pi .... ry. Such a "shit" about us! We were the first to fly into space, we invented anesthesia, you will never learn our language and you will not break our will! You won't survive what we've been through! You will choke on your negativity. We don't give up, fools. Our women are the most beautiful, and men are real. And no one will break us.

I want to live in Russia! It is a great country!

I will only add that I join what was said above and remind all our ill-wishers the words of the President of Russia:

“Too often the truth about Russia is spoken with hate, and lies with love.”
André Gide

A guide to survival in the fight against the Russian administration

When I arrived, both foreigners and Russians asked me the same thing: why did I come? What do I like and dislike most about Russia?

The most unbearable thing for me was the climate. My first winter was a real challenge. After eighteen years of living in Africa with my parents, I moved to France and settled in Bordeaux, in the southwest of the country. This is the place where most Europeans would like to live in retirement. Bordeaux almost never experiences sub-zero temperatures, with good weather lasting six months of the year. In mid-March, you can sit on the cafe terrace and sip an aperitif while basking in the sun. Moving to Moscow changed everything, and we spent our holidays in Karelia, where it was even colder. But since then I have adapted to the Russian winter and the lack of light. Now, when people ask me what I hate most about Russia, I answer without hesitation: the administration and the bureaucracy.

Russians find it difficult to get a Schengen visa. They didn't try to get Russian!

To travel to Europe, a Russian citizen needs to collect a lot of documents, but their list is on the website of all visa centers and the requirements are absolutely clear. Obtaining a visa to Russia is a problem of a completely different kind. You encounter inconsistencies before you arrive. Is an AIDS test necessary? Do I need insurance, and if so, what kind and for how many days? Consulates interpret the rules as they wish. And as is often the case with official regulations in Russia, no initial information can be found.

As soon as you land in Russia, the bureaucratic pressure begins with filling out a migration card. The form is usually, but not always, given on the plane, or can be found at the airport. Often there is nothing writing on the tables with forms, so you have to (as always!) stand in line - this time for a pen.

Moscow has prepared a wonderful surprise for a visiting foreigner: he needs to register! To be honest, I do not understand the meaning of registration, if in Moscow it is proposed to do it fictitiously at every step. An honest citizen like me will, of course, register with his acquaintances, through whom he can always be found. But I doubt that a vicious bandit who can buy a registration can be so easily found in an apartment with twenty guest workers. For many foreigners who are forced to leave Russia several times a week on business trips, registration was such a difficult issue that no one formalized it. How many times have I met people who said: "I have been living in Russia for four years, and I have never registered or deregistered." For my part, I decided to scrupulously carry out the tedious procedures, but I knew that in the future I would not regret it.

Until mid-2008, there were two ways for any foreigner who wanted to work in Russia to stay in the country. Obtaining a work visa was a legal and official method. To do this, the company had to first make a request and obtain permission to hire a foreigner to work. She was also to receive a quota for attracting foreigners by country and type of work position. But at the same time, it was easy to get a business visa that allowed me to stay in Russia 365 days a year. The most surprising thing is that these paid invitations for obtaining a business visa were issued by a hypothetical company, which, as a rule, no one ever visited. Many companies used business visas for their employees to work either completely "in the black" or for a sufficiently long period. The companies then decided whether or not to start the long and expensive process of obtaining work permits for those particular professionals.

In November 2007, the geniuses of the European Commission passed an unfair law against Russians, which prevents the issuance of business visas to Russian citizens for staying in the EU countries for more than 90 days within six months. Russia responded in kind to the Europeans. Obviously, the number of Europeans working in Russia on a business visa was in the tens of thousands, while the number of Russians working in Europe was very low. The European Commission has again harmed its own citizens. The most amazing thing is that a few months later, when I started working in Russia, the financial crisis hit. The economic consequences were not long in coming, and Russia took protective measures in relation to the labor market, which was very reasonable and justified.

It has become very difficult for companies to obtain a work visa to Russia for their foreign employees. As a result, most Europeans already working in Russia have become illegal immigrants with no real opportunity to improve their situation. Many companies then hired foreigners who arrived in Russia without knowing the law or who were fired due to the crisis and were looking for new job. These companies said that they had the opportunity to obtain a work visa, and the salaries paid were meager. Of course, no one received any visas; a foreigner was paid a “black” salary and could be fired on the same day, which is very useful for an employer during a crisis. When companies could get work permits, employers entered into a different scheme: they tried to officially declare a tiny part of the salary in order to pay less taxes and thus allegedly cover the cost of obtaining a work permit.

Some of my Russian French acquaintances wrote in French tax service. In order to confirm their status as a resident in Russia, they were forced to attach to their letters an official tax certificate from their employer, such as 2NDFL, with a salary of two hundred or three hundred dollars a month. Such amounts were ridiculous even during the crisis (for comparison - rent one-room apartment on the outskirts of the city cost from eight hundred to a thousand dollars). In addition, there was an additional problem for those employees who were forced to remake business visas for three months once a quarter. Transportation expenses consumed a significant part of their salary.

As for me, Russia allowed me to get married, and in this sense, I became a privileged person, not only as a man who found the love of his life, but also as a Frenchman who can obtain a legal temporary residence permit (and later, a view of the residence) as the spouse of a Russian citizen. My Russian friends warned:

Oh la la, FMS! You have no idea what it is! There are good ones and bad ones, but in general they are very corrupt. It would be better if you contact a specialized company that will issue you a permit for a fee.

One friend even told me that it was impossible to get documents from the FMS without a bribe.
- Why do you want a residence permit in Russia, Sasha? Timur asked me. Are you an extremist or crazy?
“I just want to live in Russia,” I replied. - I want to have "documents" that will allow me to live peacefully here. I want to not have to leave the country every three or six months to get a new visa.

I had a very vague idea of ​​what FMS is and how it works. When I was at Moscow State University, they somehow managed to register me. Then my employer legalized me. And when we moved, the owner of our apartment offered to register Evgenia at his home in Balashikha.

Only those who were in this department of the Federal Migration Service in 2008 will be able to understand me. We went there one morning. What a surprise! It was necessary to enroll in a queue for a sheet of white paper, which was held by a guest worker, de facto appointed responsible for order. The building was closed, and when it was opened, a dense and unbound crowd chaotically moved through the single door. Empty offices were waiting for us. Evgenia knocked on the door, a man, dirty, unshaven and in military uniform. He looked at the crowd of people and shouted: "Come tomorrow!" I thought he was joking, but the depressed faces of the guest workers and others convinced me that it was true. At the exit, I stopped to look around - the room was dirty and so run down that it is almost impossible to describe in words. It was impossible to even sit on the waiting benches.

I went out and said to Evgenia:
- This is impossible.
"Yes, it could be worse," she answered calmly.

Here's what I learned about the FMS, naively, but warily began to receive the coveted permit for temporary residence in Russia.

First, I had to find a place to register for three years in advance. Obtaining a residence permit with a limited validity period was already a feat in itself. But my God! I could not imagine that even after I find a person who deigns to register me, I will become dependent on the FMS in his area and my documents should be processed there, even if I actually live in another place. More prosaically, I don't understand why it's so hard to find someone willing to register. We asked all our Russian friends, acquaintances, and then just acquaintances whether they would agree to register me for three years at home. And everything, decisively all of them answered in the negative! It was at this time, in October 2009, that I began to understand the syndrome of Russian registration and everything connected with it. There is nothing like it in Western countries.

No, not a single Russian will register at home either a foreigner or a Russian, even his relative! Nothing helped, our friends looked at us with horror, apparently expecting that as soon as I was registered, I would probably take away part of the apartment from them. Maybe they do, but I just had to draw up the paperwork!

And finally, our friend Irina, out of the kindness of her heart and, probably, out of her own carelessness, agreed to register me in the south of the capital, that is, relatively far from our district. During my first visit to the FMS, on which I now depended, Evgenia and I asked for a list of documents that are required to obtain a temporary residence permit.

The FMS office is located on one of the big streets of the capital, but far enough from the metro. We had to first drive through the whole city, and then find a minibus that took us to a place where there was nothing but an ocean of new buildings - like almost everywhere in the south of Moscow. In the middle of this ocean stood the FMS building.

A colorful and noisy crowd of people who wanted to receive documents crowded in front of the counters where the inspectors sat, all women. It was almost impossible to break through to the inspectors (as well as for them to go outside). Wanting to leave the office, the inspector shouted, the crowd parted, and then, letting the official lady through, closed and again blocked the doors of the office.

Zhenya eventually slipped through it all; when she asked about the documents, the inspector wanted to see me. I wonder why she needed it? Did she think that I was an old debauchee who married a naive girl? So I went through the crowd and came up to appear - and then at last we received a list of necessary documents. They had to be requested from France, translated, certified and apostilled; I also needed a medical examination and a cherished registration, or at least an agreement from the owner of the apartment on my registration, certified by a notary. In the end, it seemed more or less feasible.

Documents were collected and filled out, contracts were signed. It was necessary to provide an extract from the house book and a financial and personal account less than two weeks old, documents with a short validity period for the FMS - and they were issued only once a week. The collection of documents was not easy, but being completely law-abiding, I did what was required. Of course, this took time - especially sorry for the one that I spent at the notary for countless assurances and translations (if I were Russian, I think I would have enriched myself by opening a network of notary offices). Irina, who agreed to give me a residence permit, lived an hour and a half drive from my house and also an hour and a half drive from my office. I rode this road - without exaggeration - forty times. For documents, for a registration contract (it was redone three times, because there were no relevant papers for an apartment), for a financial and personal account, and so on and so forth. I spent those hundreds of hours on paperwork, taking them away from work; I accepted it as a necessity - my employer was still unable to obtain a work visa.

It took three months to gather everything needed and apply for a temporary residence permit valid for three years. Only Russians or foreigners who have also gone through this process can understand what it is. Gather documents is one process; submitting them to the FMS is quite another.

Where to begin? With the obligatory personal visit to the FMS, which is an hour and a half drive from your home or work? With stupid demands to “be on the lists”? With the need to sign up for the same lists a day in advance and constantly be nearby so that no one crosses out your last name? Tell me about the "roll call"? I don't know, I don't understand the madness that reigns in Russia at this level. I think I hate these lines more than anything. As soon as you get in line, the person standing in front of you or standing behind you asks to "remember" him - and steps aside. I will never understand this Russian habit of constantly running away. Why can't they sit still, just wait, not go somewhere else to do something else? Why is paperwork so complicated and disorganized?

I cannot fully explain what I felt - I, a foreigner who speaks almost no Russian - other than global loneliness among the gray skyscrapers at the beginning of the Russian winter. Evgenia was walking with me all this time: my knowledge of the language was not enough to answer questions, understand the process, and especially to fill out the application form. Those who have been to the FMS in the south of Moscow will understand my suffering.

The FMS is overwhelmed with requests, Russia is attracting more and more migrants. Maybe that's why I was refused seven times, not accepting my perfectly completed absolutely legal documents? TRP, temporary residence permit, as I was told later, is a kind of test for immigrants. Maybe there are instructions to interfere with applicants, or maybe this is an attempt to create a filter for tens or even hundreds of thousands of requests that go through the Moscow FMS? Don't know. I cannot explain the sevenfold refusal to accept my documents and the habit of Russian bureaucrats to find fault with trifles. Either the form was filled out incorrectly, or the names were in the wrong order, or commas, or an index ... At the same time, there was not a single sample of completed documents anywhere. Of course, each time it was necessary to request a new extract from the house register and financial and personal account, since their validity expired. And time did not stand still, and the documents received from France, and the apostille on the police clearance certificate were valid for only three months.

How lovely! I had to be rejected seven times and leave seven times frustrated by the waste of time and the insanity of the bureaucratic system and the complete disorganization of the process. But most of all I was pissed off not by refusals, but by repeated submissions of documents. Each time I arrived at the FMS building at 6.30 am to pass in front of the inspector in the afternoon. Overwhelmed with work, the inspectors, instead of clearly didactically explaining how to fill out the documents correctly the first time, worsened the situation by yelling at visitors and humiliating them. People made mistakes, returned, increasing the crowd ...

We had to wait. First, on the street, near the still closed building of the Federal Migration Service, then - in the corridors, constantly "checking in" on the lists. At noon, the FMS building closes for lunch, and those without cars must wait outside, rain, snow or wind. I was very lucky: among the gray skyscrapers, I found a grocery store that sold bread and cheese. A year earlier, one of my good friends, who also applied to the FMS, did not find anything similar near his office and just stood outside. While suffering, I realized that I was not in the worst position. And in the evening we heard the fateful: “That's it! Come back tomorrow!" - and crawled home to wait again tomorrow, wait, wait ... Each time I left exhausted by the fight with the FMS, like after a boxing match. Chaos reigned in my head. There was no point, there was no strength, there was no time, there was no logic in the words of the FMS inspector.

To be honest, I do not understand what prevents the inspector from talking normally with visitors. Of course, this may be a question of the era. I was told that officials in France in the 1960s were even more grumpy than those in the Russian Federal Migration Service today, but I find it hard to believe.

The inspector spoke to me as if I were a dog or some other animal. I love animals and never speak badly to them; talking about a general relationship. Never in my life has anyone treated me like FMS inspectors. Of course, I understand that the inspectors take out their anger and bitterness on foreigners. But fundamentally not following the logic, not explaining anything, not creating simple and understandable patterns, they greatly complicate their work and create even more problems. You can't understand Russia with your mind, and especially not understand the Federal Migration Service.

One day I witnessed an amazing scene. The Ukrainian, who lived in Butovo, in a district in the south of Moscow, slammed his fist on the table as if it were a bar and told the inspector:
- I need residence papers for five years, not three years.

I looked at him dumbfounded. It was these idiots who were the source of irritation, fatigue and, in general, the behavior of all FMS inspectors. But I didn't do anything like that - and I was again sent to stand in line for eight hours a day.

When we tried to submit my file for the seventh time, one document was missing the city index, but there was a place to sign it. The inspector could have just given us the six digits that were missing. But no, she crossed out two pages of the form with a red pen and wrote capital letters: INDEX. I looked at her without moving. It was five o'clock Friday evening, we had been waiting since early morning and now we had to rewrite everything again. Hell appeared before me. And what would I do if I had a job that didn't let me waste so much time?

Again, I had to go, catch a car to get to the metro, drive fifteen stations home and get ready for a new week of trips to the Federal Migration Service, tell my boss that I would leave again for the whole day, and Evgenia should also take time off from work, and this day no one will pay us. How much I hate this period of my life and its impact on our salaries! Tell me, how do Russians act when they are often forced to make various papers?

One day, an old Georgian ran into a young inspector in low-waisted jeans with a navel piercing who tried to explain to him that Soviet Union no longer exists. I don’t know if it was a joke or not, but then I was once again refused to accept my file due to the fact that I put quotation marks where, in the opinion of the inspector, they should not have been. And then unprecedented frustration and anger hit me in the brain. I remember a scene from comedy series- an elderly couple comes to the FMS again and again, and each of their visits ends with the phrase of the robot inspector: “You don’t have enough certificate from ...” For the fifth or sixth time, they gave the inspector a grenade instead of a dossier, first pulling out a check from it. It's funny and radical, but most importantly - quite adequate for someone who has been to the FMS.

For the eighth time, they finally accepted my documents for a residence permit. Almost six months later, in March 2010, I called the FMS - they told me that the document was ready. The next day I ran after him and learned that he was ready, but not quite. I have to register and provide new documents.

All this will be in the district FMS, and not in the district, - said the inspector, putting the RVP stamp in my passport.

Looking at the stamp, I saw spelling mistakes in your name.
- You have seven days to register! snapped the inspector.

It was Tuesday. I rushed to the district FMS to find out how to get the coveted registration. I was met by a young, phlegmatic, large, blond inspector named Yuri, almost buried under a pile of documents piled up on his desk. He read me a list of documents that I had to bring him, he even managed to adjust to my imperfect Russian.

That day I witnessed an amazing scene. After meeting with Yuri, I sat in the corridor and wrote down everything he told me so as not to forget a single document. At that moment, Yuri left his office and quickly moved to the exit of the building.

He returned accompanied by a dozen young Asians (apparently guest workers, probably arrested because they were undocumented). He issued orders loudly and led them to a cell outside his office. I couldn't believe my eyes. In Russia, an FMS inspector can put twelve adult men in a cage with the mere sound of his voice and the fear he inspires. This is not possible in France. Twelve foreigners would lynch the migration inspector without asking questions, and it would take at least twelve policemen to stop them. But, obviously, Yuri felt his own impunity.

On Wednesday, the FMS did not work; Friday was the last day when I could get an extract from the house book. Monday was March 8, and Tuesday was the only day I could check in. I collected all the documents and an hour before the opening I came to the regional FMS, accompanied by Irina. She had to be present and sign official documents of interested parties. A young mother, she had to spend all day with me in a crowded FMS. During the opening, Yuri was not there. Throughout the morning, his assistant periodically appeared in the corridor, each time we asked him about Yuri and received the same answer: “Yes, yes, he will be here soon.” Then it was time for lunch. After dinner, the corridor filled with people, some lost patience and left. At four o'clock in the evening the assistant came out and said dryly:

Lieutenant Yuri will not be here today.

I stood dumbfounded, imagining with horror that I would have to redo the entire dossier.

Irina literally jumped on the deputy, explaining our situation. The phlegmatic comrade vaguely replied that he should come next Thursday, although the registration period had already expired. Irina told me to follow her and we went to the office next door, the office of the head of the FMS.

It was twenty minutes to five, and this woman received us. There is Gioconda, there is Monica Bellucci, and there is also the head of this district FMS, who completes the trio. Nervous and sweaty, exhausted physically and mentally, I stood before her supernatural beauty. She didn't seem very busy, but her eyes spoke of her desire to leave the office and go home. Irina explained the situation:

We just need a stamp in the passport.

This beautiful creature looked at me for a few seconds, then, with a displeased look, took out a seal. At that moment, her Vertu phone rang, she looked at the mobile phone, grabbed it - her neckline seemed endless to me, and a large golden cross stuck to her right breast. Holding my breath, I looked up and saw a portrait of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, with a serious face and in a dark suit. Looking down, I saw that the beautiful creature chatting on the phone had an amazing body: long legs and beautiful shapes. Hung with decorations, the head of the FMS seemed like an oriental princess. From a French point of view, she was the epitome of corruption with a capital K, evil at its very core. at its best. But this evil stamped me in my passport, and I felt that I had made a pact with the devil.

I received my TRP and became, to some extent, a Russian citizen.

I was stamped at the last legal hour of the last legal day of the permitted period. Very often in Russia everything is done in last moment when the situation seems completely hopeless. When I received the TRP, I found out that I need a visa to leave the country. Paid. Can you imagine this? Even better: you have to wait two weeks for it! I did not need to leave the country often, and I was very happy about this, and soon the law changed, it became possible to obtain a multiple-entry visa for exit.

It is rather strange to be forced to pay for the right to leave the country in which one lives as a foreigner.

After the TRP, I had to get a work permit - of course, on my own. A week later, I went to the address where happy residence permit holders could obtain work permits and received a "pleasant" surprise. The building, located on the Arbat, was empty. Trying to understand where all the people had gone, I met a Russian who said that this FMS had moved to the north of the city. I returned to work and found the address to which I went the next day.

The new premises of the FMS were located in the north of the capital, halfway between the last stations of two metro lines, orange and gray, that is, in an extremely inaccessible place. I boarded a bus near the Altufievo metro station, got off not far from the Federal Migration Service, and asked an elderly Russian man for directions, who instead of answering, spat on my feet. He didn't seem to be happy about the flow of foreigners...

The new building was dirty. When I arrived, several thousand people were waiting at the entrance, most of them Asians. Nothing was organised, and by that I mean "there wasn't even a toilet". Those who had been waiting all day urinated on the street around the building.

The line to the inspector's window took me four days. Four days. Ten hours of queues a day to finally submit documents.

These four days seemed to me even more dramatic than waiting for a temporary residence permit. On the floor where I was supposed to apply, the queue was disorganized between two windows: RWP without quota and RWP with quota. Despite the fact that two people organized two lists, everything turned into a post-Soviet mess, which has no equal on the planet. Some people waited for five days. In the afternoon of the fourth day of my waiting, a fight suddenly broke out, people began to shout and swear. In the end, everyone was calmed down by the screams of the FMS officers, who left their offices.

When the doors closed, a young woman, an FMS inspector, literally went crazy: she stood in the middle of the hall and started shouting:
- You are all crazy, everyone, you look, you behave like cockroaches, like a herd of cockroaches, I hate you, I can't take it anymore! ..

I decided to shoot this scene on mobile phone; some Russians, seeing this, did the same. One of the participants in the brawl asked me:
- No, but you're not filming now, are you?
- Imagine, I'm not only filming, but I'll put it on the Internet today.

The concert of insults and the brawl in front of the door continued until it was my turn to enter and then present my documents. Obtaining a work permit was carried out without a queue. On the day I left that office, the waiting room was almost empty, because I was almost the last one in.

Coming out of the dilapidated building, for the first time I felt that I was ashamed to be here and participate in this. How did the authorities allow this to exist?

In the six months that I filed my absolutely legal documents, processing the TRP and work permit, doing everything in accordance with the procedures, I spent probably a full month in waiting, traveling back and forth, as well as various administrative procedures. How is this possible?

A new challenge was waiting for me when I got my work permit, multiple entry visa and then I could finally calm down.

After one year of RVP, you can apply for and receive a residence permit - the best document for a foreigner. This is not only a real passport for a foreigner, but also an opportunity to legally work, and it is valid for five years. A residence permit gives its owner the same rights as a Belarusian in Russia. If someone told me, an eighteen-year-old surfer of the African coast, that in fourteen years I would want to claim the rights of a Belarusian in Russia, I would not believe it. However, at the beginning of 2011, I decided to get a residence permit. The procedure was essentially the same as for the RWP, I just had to redo everything from scratch and draw up a new contract with the owner of the apartment - already for five years.

Irina's previous property certificate became invalid, and she was forced to replace it, get a more modern version. Time passed, the validity period for some other documents passed. Several times we collected documents with a limited validity period. Again I was consumed by stress: on the one hand, all these paperwork tormented me, and on the other hand, my angry employer attacked me. I reached such a state that I even thought of quitting my job in order to calmly submit all the documents. Sometimes I felt like I was going crazy...

To obtain a residence permit, it was necessary to pass new medical tests, more in-depth and serious. They were made in different clinics, and I had to go through them one by one in order to eventually receive a single consolidated certificate and provide it when submitting documents.

Winter was especially cold. In the south of the capital, on Sevastopolsky Prospekt, in one hospital they were engaged in X-rays, urine and blood tests. When I came in for the tests, I hoped to be done in one day, and then the doctor said that I should return the next morning. I did not understand everything in the speech of this elderly woman and asked her to repeat it, she got angry and threw my passport across the table at me. He fell to the floor, which didn't seem to bother the doctor at all. She turned her back on me. My French passport was lying on the floor. I thought that I would again have to drive two hours home, call my boss and say that I needed another day off to get tested; the boss will be furious; I will again have to get up at five in the morning and drag myself through the thirty-degree frost, hell knows where, in time to get there from seven to seven-thirty. Add to this the fact that tests are taken on an empty stomach.

The next morning I arrived early, forty-five minutes before the opening hours of the hospital. The room was unlocked, but we had to wait outside. In the heart of an industrial area, I had to spend forty minutes outside in minus twenty-five Celsius! Maybe for some Russians this is not a bitter cold, but in the last twenty minutes of waiting, I just froze. And then it turned out that not only froze, but also caught a cold.

This day was one of the coldest of the year. I tried not to breathe, and as I started to move, I froze even more. I was so eager to submit the documents on time that I thought with horror: “Is it really necessary to return ?!” I had to be persistent, but I asked myself many times what I was doing here.

Finally we were let inside. The nurse took blood from my finger, thanked me, and that was it. My finger was bleeding, but they didn't give me anything to wipe it off - no cotton wool, no paper handkerchief. I put the glove right on the bleeding finger and moved on.

I had to take a jar of urine to a room where it was dark. I illuminated the screen of my mobile phone and saw other jars of urine arranged on the table, each on top of a piece of paper with the patient's name on it. Worried that my tests might be confused with the urine of a cannabis smoker, I decided to move all the jars of urine, about fifteen, to one end of the table, thus leaving half the space for my container. And when I was diligently rearranging the jars in almost complete darkness, a voice asked me:

What are you doing here?

And suddenly the light turned on. The room was divided into two parts glass wall, a nurse looked at me from behind the glass in horror. I put down the jar of urine and said embarrassedly:
- No, nothing, everything is fine, thank you, goodbye!

Applying for a residence permit was even more of a nightmare than all the ones I've gone through. It took me a week to apply. It was an extremely cold March - in France it is not so cold in winter. For some reason I was treated very strangely. The FMS inspector added more and more new documents to the list: at first she demanded one, and then, when I brought it, after standing in line for five hours, she ordered me to bring another, which was also not on the original list, then the third. This is for what purpose? For me to come back four times?

No problem! I am stubborn, and the residence permit became one of my key tasks: I wanted the final status, my own grail, to become almost a citizen of Russia.

During the application for a residence permit, I simply could not fill out the form, it was too difficult. Near the Federal Migration Service, they offered me to pay for filling, and I gave 1,500 rubles, saving myself ten hours of my life and an incalculable amount of strength.

For unknown reasons, the number of my old passport appeared in the financial and personal account, and this was after I visited the Housing Office and asked to make changes. So I was forced to return to the Housing Office and “swear” there. The ZhEK worker obviously panicked because she had incorrectly registered a foreigner, and did the irreparable: he copied my new passport number with an error. I did not check whether she copied six numbers and three letters correctly, took the documents to the Federal Migration Service - the second mistake and the second refusal. I returned to the housing office again, checked the passport number, and now it was written correctly ... But for an inexplicable reason, the housing office employee changed my name from Alexandra to Alexandra. Why? Only God can explain.

It took me three attempts, three trips to the Housing Office and the Federal Migration Service, and great self-control to get and hand over a financial and personal account. My God! my God! How much wasted time!

How is it possible that in Russia neither a notary nor employees seemingly trained to work with documents can copy a dozen data without error?

The most amazing thing was yet to come. The application dossier was quite thick and I had all the necessary papers folded in a list. It seemed to me that it would be more logical: the inspector will open the folder, take the list and check the documents one by one.

It was a busy day - Friday - and the gray mass of people who wanted a residence permit seethed especially lively and disorderly. The inspectors were in a very bad mood. The one who took my file looked at me and shouted:
- Why are you standing here?

In his language it meant: "Give me your papers." I went up and handed over the folder, he abruptly grabbed it - and all the papers that I had laid out according to the list in order to make his work easier, scattered. “Oh no, that’s it, now I’ll definitely have to return next week,” I thought. But no, the inspector picked up the documents and laid them out one by one, complaining loudly about his job and salary.

Exhausted by queues in the cold, weeks of waiting for the right to simply hand over documents, I imagined myself in France in the same situation grabbing the inspector by the collar, shaking me and saying: “Stop torturing me, do your job, or I will kill you on the spot.” Or maybe I would wait for him outside and beat him up like in Fight Club.

But I was in Russia, and I had to endure, with a capital "T".

The inspector checked the questionnaire with particular care, in which he found both errors and inaccuracies - and wanted to return it to me, but I said that this document was filled out by their service center and that I paid for it. Visibly upset, the inspector finally decided to take my documents.

In Russia, of course, everything is possible.

I walked to the subway with mixed feelings. Of course, I insisted on my own, I achieved something important with great difficulty, but if I choose to live in Russia, will I always have to suffer like this?

Fortunately, the FMS of Petrozavodsk gave me back my faith that officials can be normal people. In Karelia this system is well organized and works quickly. When Evgeniya and I told the people from the relevant organization in Petrozavodsk how the Moscow FMS works, they embarrassedly apologized to us on behalf of the Russian government. Is Moscow collapsing under a large volume of migrants?

Getting a residence permit, I seemed to see the light and feel the warmth of the sun, as during my first Orthodox service. The inspector handed me the document, congratulated me (!) and even smiled. It was like the appearance of the sun in the middle of the polar night.

In Moscow, I again went for registration. It was necessary to put a stamp in the passport, but Yuri went on vacation. And again, on the last legal day, after seven hours of waiting at the regional FMS, Yuri's assistant stamped my precious residence permit.

It was about four o'clock on a fine November day in 2011. Yuri's assistant handed me the document and shook my hand. Looking at his shabby office and the grate of the cell next to it, I sympathized with the people working here.

However, I think I have become a feemesophobe. I get a nervous itch at the mere thought that someday I will need to redo any administrative document. What I hate the most about Russia is the FMS of Moscow. One of my friends also made out RVP; we were driving in his car, talking - and I asked:
- Well, how are you doing everything?

My friend slowed down and parked on the side of the road.
- Why did you stop?
- You know, - he answered, - this topic pisses me off so much that I can't drive and talk about it at the same time.

It is obvious that the FMS has created a severe psychological trauma for a large number of foreigners in Russia.

But remember that various Russian and french friends they told me when I started to legalize: “Even if everything is in order with your documents, you will not succeed, everything is corrupt, and you will have to pay.” This turned out not to be true. The system is working. I have everything in my hands Required documents, although they were given to me with great difficulty, and not a single inspector during the entire procedure asked me for a single ruble. In addition, outside of Moscow, this system can work quite normally: in Petrozavodsk, for example, you can make an appointment with the FMS via the Internet, there are no queues or confusion, and the inspectors are polite and friendly.

Epilogue: Is it time to leave?

Russian troops came to France in 1815, defeating Napoleon. Returning to their homeland, they talked a lot about their journey and what they found in France. About amazingly fertile lands, about highly developed agriculture, about the excellent condition of roads and unusual method their construction. However, they criticized the French open fireplaces, which were inferior to the Russian stove, and were surprised to see that the French peasants were dressed in wooden shoes, the villages were ruined and impoverished, and the roads were crowded with vagrants and beggars. They were also disappointed by the dirt on the streets of cities and even in the suburbs of Paris. They were surprised by the ignorance of the peasants.

In cities, they noted the beauty of architectural structures, especially temples. The notes about Paris are even more curious: magazines for women, the zoo, the public nature of the court of first instance, the humanistic concept that led to the creation of the Hotel des Invalides, the Palais Royal, the crowds in the Parisian streets and the hectic pace of life in the French capital - that's what at that time attracted the attention of the Russian military. They were struck by how luxury borders on poverty, education - on corruption. However, they noted the secularization and emancipation of public life, and undoubtedly these observations and contact with progressive Western Europe in comparison with Russia probably had a great influence on the formation of the ideas of the Decembrists. It is the destruction of the Western and European dream that is behind the disappointment of Russian soldiers who have discovered France for themselves. These negative emotions that arose in France after Russia withdrew from the process of Europeanization begun centuries before by Peter I.

Among the positive aspects of the Europeanization of Russia are, of course, the modernization and industrialization of the country, windows to Europe and the Black Sea. Among the negative points is the conviction of Russians in their backwardness, which probably led to many complexes in Russia, including a permanent inferiority complex in front of Western Europe.

For many Russians I know, it is always surprising to see a foreigner who can enjoy the beauty of a Russian village, go to church services and love dumplings. They don't believe we can really appreciate a "backward" Russia. My neighbor considers me an extremist - and what, from his point of view, could there be other reasons to love Russia and not doubt the choice of the country?

Sasha, why don't you live in France? Timur sometimes asks me.
- Why don't you move there if you are sure that it is so good there? - I say in response.

There are Russians who believe that there will be a revolution soon and it would be better for them to leave the country before that. "Time to go" - you can read in many blogs and hear from the protesters who believe that the world is a big village. Rest assured, I don't want to leave and I appreciate the "lifestyle" in Russia, Moscow or Karelia.

I am far from the only foreigner in Russia who thinks so. What could really push thirty-five-year-old Carolina and her forty-three-year-old husband Frederic to leave France one day and settle in Moscow with their three children? What can motivate them to place their three children aged 6, 9 and 12 in a purely Russian school when no one in the family speaks Russian? This is a wealthy family who could well live in France or pay tuition in French school in Moscow, several thousand euros per year per child.

Why did my friend Elena, a forty-five-year-old Russian who lived twenty-two years in France, never returned to Russia since her emigration and did not even have a Russian passport, once put both her daughters, aged 9 and 13, in the car (who also had only French documents) and left for their historical homeland? They have French citizenship, and they are at war with the Russian administration for a residence permit and for the right to stay in Russia.

What can I say about Lionel, who moved to Russia, lives in Khimki, opened an individual entrepreneur and teaches French cuisine to Russians in French? I do not think that Khimki is the most attractive city in the country, but as Lionel himself said, “I feel good here, what freedom, I do whatever I want.” How to explain this gap between the Russian "creative class" and the growing number of French people who are emigrating to Russia? Why are more and more French people ready to emigrate to “Putin’s Russia”, determined to build a “Russian destiny” for their children, while certain upper-middle-class youth demonize the current system of power, making it responsible for all the country’s ills?

Russians ask me: “So what, do you like Russia? And you don't want to go back to France? Don't you think that Russia is a backward country?" The inferiority complex of some Russians in front of Western Europe shocks me, I know that this is completely unjustified, and I find it hard to understand.

I see this complex as the main obstacle to the development of the country. Russia interferes obsessive desire imitate the Western model, not only take from the West what can be useful, and develop a unique and individual Russian system of existence.

More and more French people are now convinced that their country is not moving in the right direction, and they are also demanding alternative models, political, economic and moral. The processes of degradation are accelerating with the financial crisis, which undermined the Western liberal model, which the whole world envied. The Moscow "creative class" should stop dreaming about the global Europeanization of Russia, forget about their inferiority and recognize that the West has long ceased to be a model. While the French are getting even poorer and the Russians are getting richer, it would also be useful to ask the right question: "Why?"

Almost a hundred years ago, the French hosted Russian emigrants who were expelled from their country and fled from the dictatorship. It is possible that in the near future Russia may become a stronghold for immigrants from Europe in general and from France in particular. For many Europeans, the soft and cunning dictatorship of democracy has become a noose, a system that the late Alexander Zinoviev clearly describes in his interview “Home, to Russia”. He explains why he decided to leave the so-called democratic West, which for him is more like a totalitarian machine, and move to " new Russia". Can we assume that Zinoviev, who had previously fled the Soviet Union, is mistaken? Thirteen years after his return to Russia, history seems to prove him ruthlessly right.

Russia is now in a unique historical situation: it remains open. The Russian people must do right choice, realizing the historical role that the country will no doubt play in this century. Only now can the Russians avoid those historical mistakes which countries Western Europe accumulated since 1945. Geopolitical reasons are often invisible or inaccessible to most people, but they exist, and not to take them into account is suicide. Many Russians today are victims of an information war aimed at destabilizing their thinking, their country, their model of society in order to prevent Russia from appearing as a sovereign pole.

25 myths about Russia

1. Under Putin, only the rich and the oligarchs began to live better, and the poor people did not feel the increase in living standards.

This is wrong. During Putin's rule, poverty has significantly decreased. The number of Russians living below the poverty line dropped by 35% to 23% from 2000 to 2004 and fell to 13.5% in 2008 (before the crisis).

2000 (Putin comes to power): 35%.
2004 (end of Putin's first term): 23%.
2008 (end of second term): 13.5%.

Note that in 2007, 13.7% of the population in France lived below the poverty line.

2. Demographic trends in Russia are such that the population of the country will be reduced to at least 100 million against the current 142 million.

Wrong. You can often read that in Russia low level birth rate and high mortality rate, as well as a high number of abortions and suicides, as a result of which Russia annually loses 700 thousand inhabitants. But it's not.

In 2005, the population of Russia decreased by 760 thousand inhabitants - an absolute record.
In 2006, the population decline was "only" 520 thousand people.
In 2007 - "only" 280 thousand.
In 2008 - the population decreased by about 116 thousand.
And in 2009 the population increased by 12 thousand, the birth rate increased by 3%, and this despite the fact that 2009 was the year of the economic crisis. That is, the measures taken by Medvedev in 2005 had a simply stunning result.

Thus, Russia's demographic prospects look no more pessimistic than those of China or other G7 countries such as Germany.

3. Under Putin, Russia's human rights situation worsened, more than 200 journalists were killed, and Russia returned to its totalitarian past.

But this point of view is shared by only 3% of Russians! During Putin's rule, unfortunately, 17 journalists were killed, but this is much less than under Yeltsin (30 journalists).

According to the CIA itself, Russia is ranked 4th in the world in terms of the number of journalists killed since 1992, but already 14th in terms of the ratio of journalists killed per capita, ahead of Israel and Algeria and immediately behind Turkey, which claims to join the EU.

And compared to other post-Soviet countries, Russia is in 5th place (out of 13), right behind Latvia, an EU member state.

4. The Russian economy is based solely on raw materials, which was confirmed by the size of the recession in 2009.

No one has ever denied that Russia (along with other countries) extracts and exports raw materials. However, the economic crisis has not affected Russia at all because of this: since this country is a relatively closed economy, domestic demand there has remained strong enough, and in theory this can support the economy.

But Western creditors, from whom Russian enterprises were borrowed, greatly contributed to the fact that the country's economic development was frozen. In addition, American calls to impose sanctions on Russia after the operation in Georgia in 2008 also increased economic instability, provoking an outflow of capital (primarily Anglo-Saxon) from late 2008 to late 2009.

5. Russia treacherously attacked Georgia in August 2008.

In reality, a few hours after peace was promised to all residents of Georgia on television, tanks opened fire on South Ossetia. Acting at the instigation of American, Ukrainian and Israeli military advisers, the Georgians were supposed to kill civilians and peacekeepers who were there under a UN mandate. Despite the flow of propaganda, according to which Russia was the aggressor, she only gave a proportional response. Moreover, most of the Georgian infrastructure (especially energy) was not affected, and the capital Tbilisi was not affected.

According to the results of an international investigation, Georgia was the instigator of the conflict - it was she who first opened fire on Ossetia.

And another question: why is no one worried that opposition speeches are banned in Georgia, oppositionists are arrested and Georgian oppositionists are killed abroad?

6. Russian liberals and human rights activists cannot freely engage in politics because the Kremlin prevents them.

This is not entirely true. Russian liberals have always had the opportunity to participate in elections, but their political popularity has been constantly falling: 12% in the 1993 parliamentary elections, 7% in the 1995 and 1999 elections, 4% in 2003, 2% in 2006 ...

Moreover, the Western model of society no longer attracts Russians who have traveled a lot (1/4 of Russian citizens have already visited Europe), they are more focused on maintaining national sovereignty. And finally, the methods of Kasparov and his associates - holding illegal protests by force (they deliberately go to arrests) with slogans in English (which are undoubtedly addressed to the foreign press) do not inspire confidence in Russians.

7. Russians are racist, sexist and hate the West.

Russians are not racists insofar as they live in a multinational and multi-confessional state. There are no more (if not less) racists in Russia than in other civilized countries (America, Germany, Ukraine…).

As for the treatment of women, Slavic societies are matriarchal, and women play a leading role in the economy here, and have long enjoyed suffrage and the right to abortion. Russian women began to vote 30 years earlier than the French!

8. Russia is aggressive towards its closest neighbors.

Unlike other empires, Russia has never conquered anyone by force of arms. By the way, many citizens of neighboring states would agree to their countries becoming part of Russia again.

9. In Russia, the AIDS epidemic.

Everywhere they write that in Russia there is a huge number of HIV-infected people. In fact, the screening of the population is almost over, that is, most of the HIV-infected people have already been identified. The ceiling was reached in 2002, since then the number of patients has been declining, except for risk groups (injecting drug users, prostitutes, prisoners). Thus, while the AIDS epidemic remains an important factor(as in all developed countries), the situation in Russia is still very far from what can be observed in sub-Saharan Africa.

10. A people with a European birth rate and an African mentality has no future.

Why all of a sudden? The decline in the birth rate in the post-Soviet period is the result of the situation in the 1990s: the economic and psychological shock from the collapse of the USSR. Since then, the birth rate has risen to the level of the current European (see point 2), and nothing tells us that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow it will not become even higher.

As for ultra-high mortality, it is now also declining and affects only the elderly, which does not affect the birth rate in any way, because they already have children and even grandchildren.

11. The level of social inequality is approaching Tsarist Russia and is exacerbated by widespread corruption. With the coming to power of Vladimir Putin, these trends have only intensified.

The Russian economy is rather peculiar - it cannot be called either absolutely liberal or absolutely authoritarian. This is a semi-open and semi-closed economy, its distinctive feature is a strong state presence and a fairly high level of corruption - no one denies this.

However, with the arrival of Vladimir Putin, a successful war against the oligarchs began. In the 1990s, the Western press denounced the oligarchs, but switched to Putin as soon as he began to fight them. Why?

As one economic security expert said during a forum in the French Senate, “The time of bad guys in black jackets knocking on the door ended in 1995. In the 2000s, racketeers were replaced by administrative resources (the police and former intelligence officers). At present, the Russian market has almost come close to the standards of a civilized one.”

12. Russia suppresses the Chechen fighters for independence in the most cruel way.

It is not true. After the first Chechen war(1995) and the retreat of the Russians, the Chechens gained de facto independence. The situation deteriorated sharply: alien Islamists (Wahhabis) began to terrorize the local population and organize armed raids into neighboring regions in order to destabilize the entire Caucasus and create an Islamic caliphate there independent of Russia. Since Chechnya is inside Russia, most Chechens do not want independence, but peace. After the end of the second Chechen war, Ramzan Kadyrov holds the republic in a tight grip, but peace and law have been restored in the region.

13. The Soviet space program was created by the hands of German prisoners of war.

Unfortunately for Germany, the Soviet space program was created by the Russians (like Korolev), nor did they have a Marshall Plan to help them rebuild the country after World War II. But in the United States, captured Nazi scientists worked, one of the most famous - Wernher von Braun (Wernher von Braun).

14. There were no democratic elections in Russia - Putin put a puppet Medvedev in his place.

Putin is regularly mistranslated, loosely interpreted, and often called a dictator and opponent of democracy. After Medvedev was elected, the press assured us that he was nothing, would quickly resign or change the law so that Putin would again lead the country. In the end, nothing of the sort happened. There is no mention of any resignation. The duet of Putin and Medvedev has existed since 2000 (for 10 years now).

15. The Far East is colonized by the Chinese, the situation is simply catastrophic: soon all of Siberia will go to China!

Relations between Russia and China have never been bad, despite the claims of "Western experts". For starters, there is no Chinese expansion that people like to talk about so much. A study conducted in 2008 made it possible to draw a portrait of a typical Chinese immigrant, this is what happened: 60% are men, 20% have a higher education (China average is 12%), 94% work and the vast majority come from border cities. More than half are entrepreneurs.

The main question is how many? According to the FMS, in 2006 there were 200,000, in 2007 - 320,000, many of whom are seasonal workers. Of course, this does not take into account illegal immigrants, but so far, despite the cries of some (Latynina, Goltz), Far East Russia has not yet discovered a single Chinese millionaire city. Most likely, in the Far East, for 5 million Russians, there are about half a million Chinese (2/3 of which are legal migrants and seasonal workers).

Even assuming that the Chinese decide to withdraw from Asia (which is unlikely) and go into conflict with Russia (which is even more unlikely), Russian military superiority (especially nuclear) will quickly dissuade them.

16. Russia has proved to be an unreliable partner, especially when it comes to energy supplies (see gas supply disruptions).

If we try to figure it out properly and understand who started it first, it turns out that everything is just the opposite. How were the Russians supposed to react to the eastward expansion of NATO, to the recognition of Kosovo's independence, to the treatment of the Russian minority in the Baltic states, to Georgian aggression, to the CIA-sponsored color revolutions, etc.?

The same is true with interruptions in gas supplies, which were provoked by Ukraine, which did not pay Russia for gas and began to “bleed” gas on its territory.

Russia has been supplying gas to Turkey for a long time (since 2003 via the Blue Stream gas pipeline), and there have never been any problems - this proves that Russia cannot be considered an unreliable supplier and partner.

17. Discrimination against Russians in Estonia and Latvia is a strong exaggeration.

No, many European human rights associations pointed fingers at the appalling plight of the Russian minority. Russians are subject to administrative obstacles, their language is discriminated against, employment is prevented, etc.

As a result, a quarter of the population of these countries is deprived of the right to education and even the right to obtain citizenship! Not all of them are Russian (but with Soviet passports), and they become stateless, stateless, treated like second-class citizens, all in the heart of Europe.

In the same countries, marches of SS veterans are tolerated, but Soviet symbols are prohibited. Russians are being killed, and the EU is silent.

18. The Russian army is absolutely outdated, as well as its military doctrine. Russia will not be able to withstand a blow from China or NATO.

In reality, everything is different: at present, Russia is actively developing high-tech weapons - fighter aircraft, heavy bombers, tracking systems, as well as weapons of mass destruction (bulava, voivode missiles), etc.

The war with Georgia proved the superiority of the Russian army over the army of the country, which was helped by NATO for 5 years.

The new military doctrine is quite modern and linked to the "2020 strategy", the Kremlin's recent proposals regarding new strategy European security is very reasonable and fruitful. And the plans to modernize the army are impressive.

19. Civil society was destroyed under Putin, all judicial system"under the hood".

In fact, the number of lawsuits has increased significantly since 1999. Over the past 10 years, there have been 6 times more of them! Judicial reform has passed in Russia, and plaintiffs win 71% of lawsuits against the state. There are also free legal consultations.

The idea that non-governmental organizations are being harassed in Russia developed after Freedom House was expelled from the country in 2004 for not paying rent. But we know that such NGOs were involved in organizing the Orange Revolutions, so it is only natural that the authorities seized the first opportunity to ban them.

20. Khodorkovsky was arrested and unfairly convicted because he was an effective manager, a Westerner and a liberal.

Khodorkovsky was convicted of fraud (corruption, bribery, tax evasion). More than half of Russians believe that he was justly convicted (54% in 2006).

Khodorkovsky threatened Russian national interests because he was going to sell Yukos to Exxon, that is, he was going to sell Russian raw materials that did not belong to him, American company and all this on the eve of the Cold War. Moreover, after his arrest, his personal funds were transferred to Rothschild, and this is quite natural, since Khodorkovsky is associated with American neo-conservatives close to Bush.

21. Yeltsin was a real democrat.

He even climbed onto the tank along with those who fired at the Duma, where the deputies (communists) opposed his liberal-corruption reforms. Then, without preparation, he declared war on Chechnya and lost. He appointed incompetent thieves as ministers, the oligarchs got richer, while the people became impoverished, and the Caucasian mafia seized control of the country.

22. Russia uses its energy resources to keep its neighbors in line and derives political benefit from energy expansion.

The supplier has the right to set tariffs, and customers - to pay or not. If there is any country that uses energy for political purposes, it is America, which allows itself to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan.

23. Russia is ruled by neo-communists, Eurasians and nationalists who hate the West and Europe the most.

The Russian political system is very different from the European one. The political spectrum is very wide even within the same party. However, it is true that Russians are very patriotic, and this is evident in parties of both the right and the left.

When asked what ideology he adheres to, Vladimir Putin replied: “Don’t you think that ideologies have already done enough harm?” Recently Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is part of European civilization.

24. By 2050, Russia will become an Islamic caliphate.

In reality, everything is quite different: ethnic Russians make up 80% of the country's population. According to a survey conducted in 2006, only 6% of Russian citizens consider themselves Muslims, confirming the proverb: "In Russia, the Koran was dissolved in vodka." Moreover, even in the traditionally Muslim regions of Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan), “Russians Slavic origin» make up more than 50% of the population.

25. Berezovsky let Putin come to power, and then they quarreled, and he was never allowed to return to his country.

General Lebed said: "Berezovsky is the apotheosis of abomination at the state level: it is not enough for this representative of a small clique in power to simply steal - he needs everyone to see that he steals with complete impunity." The swan died in a plane crash.

Forbes magazine journalist Paul Klebnikov wrote the book "Godfather of the Kremlin Boris Berezovsky, or the History of the Plundering of Russia", in which he spoke about Berezovsky's connections with the mafia. Paul Khlebnikov was killed.

Berezovsky was involved in many dirty deeds and unsolved murders. Warrants for his arrest have been issued in Russia and in South America. Not surprisingly, many in the West defended this "great democrat" literally to death. Berezovsky died under mysterious circumstances.

Foreigners coming to Russia do not hide the fact that they are waiting for the exotic. But often they discover even more amazing things than they expected. And this is not about some incredible single facts, but about things that are quite everyday for Russians, which look very strange in the eyes of the Western world.

People in Russia: a view from the outside

Here are some observations shared by one of the co-authors of the popular blog Tim Urban, who made his first long trip around our country.

1. Russians are incredibly sweet and extremely unfriendly at the same time.

They are accommodating and help even where a foreigner does not expect any help or participation from them at all, but remain completely indifferent in the most obvious situations or where a foreigner needs help most of all.

For example, at the airport, after passing through control, an employee of the screening service gave him her bag when she saw that he was carrying shoes in his hands (at the US airport, this is not expected from employees, the author notes). The woman in the seat next to him on the plane offered to raise the back of her seat so he could sit comfortably. Or in line at the station, a man standing close to the ticket office offered him to buy a ticket, realizing that he was in a hurry.

But the other man on the platform did not help the woman who was descending the stairs with heavy bags - he simply stepped aside. The waiter in the cafe stubbornly averted his eyes, pretending not to notice the gaze clearly directed at him. And passers-by on the street, seeing a lost foreigner, rushed past, not showing the slightest desire to show the way.

2. Russians are hostile to the US

Twenty-eight of Tim's 30 interviewees were blatantly anti-American. For example, they explain the crisis around Ukraine as follows: “the Americans spent a lot of money to turn the Ukrainians against Russia for the sake of their selfish interests.” At the same time, they treat the Americans themselves quite well, they just emphasize every now and then: "Your country is shit, and there's nothing you can do about it."

3. Russians value power differently, but are almost equally filled with national pride

The main idea: "We are not some small European country, but a great world power." And Russians are also terribly annoyed when foreigners consider them vulgar and obsessed with vodka.

4. Russians continue to communicate with foreigners in Russian, even seeing that they do not understand anything

It happens all over the place and it is not clear why.

Mysterious Siberia

Apparently, in the West, Siberia is so overgrown with legends and fables that many began to consider it a semi-mythical region.

And here are the real facts that amazed Tim Urban. Siberia makes up 77% of Russia's territory. If it existed separately, it could become one of largest countries in the world, but would also be one of the most sparsely populated (about 3 people per 1 square kilometer).

And in Siberian cities one can observe scenes that are incomprehensible to a foreign eye, like this one, in a city park. The audience is surprisingly diverse: a woman in a cocktail dress and high heels, there are also men with a bare torso (one of them in slippers and jeans with cut-off legs). And a little to the side - men in suits (not included in the photo).

What is surprising in the behavior and habits of Russians

The main oddities from the list:

1. Dress up even for going to the store (girls and women)

2. Sit down for a minute before a long road

3. Pronouncing long intricate toasts

4. Congratulate each other after visiting the bath, saying "Enjoy your bath!"

5. Honestly and thoroughly answer the question "How are you?"

6. Don't smile at strangers they make eye contact with

7. But quickly make friends

8. Vigorously celebrate New Year and not Christmas

9. They receive guests at the table with food and sit at it for hours

10. They cook more food than guests can eat (and put tons of mayonnaise in the food)

11. Do not throw away packages

12. Live with parents (often several generations live in the same apartment)

13. Do not come to visit without a gift

Facts about Russia through the eyes of a foreigner

Observations collected in the blog:

1. In Russia, a person who has achieved something looks down on the less fortunate

2. Just a good car is not enough: you need a really “cool” one to make way for it

3. People love to gather in kitchens and philosophize about life.

4. Away and at parties, men communicate with men, women with women

5. There are many police patrols on the streets and in public places

6. Outsiders are addressed unceremoniously: "man" or "woman". The polite phrase "I'm sorry I'm talking to you" can only be heard from beggars

7. In Russia, an incomprehensible proverb is popular: "Impudence is the second happiness"

8. For all their patriotism, Russians do not understand foreigners who come to live in Russia. And on the contrary, “suitcase moods” among Russians are very high

9. Moscow has a very convenient metro, but car owners prefer many kilometers of traffic jams

10. And one more thing invariably surprises foreigners - that in apartments carpets are hung on the wall.

What should never be done in Russia

• Walk into the apartment in shoes
• Make jokes about parents (you can tell any politically incorrect jokes about nationality, appearance, gender, etc., but not about parents (although jokes about mother-in-law are very popular))
• Pay only for yourself (if big company it’s still permissible to split the bill, then on a date it’s impossible categorically)
• Do not give up your seat to an elderly person (in America, an elderly person will be greatly offended if you give in to him).

(According to the site. All kinds of reference books and textbooks from this series "for dummies" are quite popular in Russia itself).