Safe for whom? Also, speaking Russian might not be the most popular right now, depending on where you go.
I've kind of wondered if they'd fault a foreigner for using Russian in Ukraine. It's just so much more widely spoken.
Estonia is like an extension of Finland (although using Russian there might be hard for the same reason). Kazakhstan has a good rep.
Moldova, Georgia and Armenia have fighting or unrest. Azerbaijan too although they kind of won, and Belarus is party to the whole Russia/Ukraine thing. Turkmenistan has a bad rep for other reasons and is hard to legally get into.
I know less about the other Baltics and 'stans from a safety perspective, although presumably the Baltics are similar to other poor areas of the EU.
Besides Tbilisi Georgia is nice, calm and pleasant. Kazakhstan is mostly a shithole, but if you're not into interacting with people and enjoy flat steppes with endless views of nothing to the horizon, or beautiful mountains in the south, it's a nice and calm place too.
I've been in Georgia a few years after the 2008 war and it was as safe as it gets. Only the younger people either didn't speak or didn't want to speak Russian. After 2022 there was an influx of Russian expats to the country, so the chances of finding someone to talk to should be even higher.
Even aside from the border issues, there's definitive unrest right now. They've been spraying people with straight-up Camite. Definitely not recommendable just based on that.
It's a shame, they have such an interesting history, and one that goes way way further back than most would guess.
Ah, you're talking about the anti-government protests which started a year ago after the pro-Russian party took power. That's a valid point, even though as far as I can see the protests have waned since then. The anniversary event this November was peaceful.
Probably not Russia or Ukraine because of the war but yeah.
It's safe in Russia. Safier than in US. But still do not as safe as in Belarus.
Not safe if you're queer. And there's a shitton of censorship.
Not safe if you're queer.
bullshit, I have friends with non-tradicional sexual orientation and gender. All the mess - they do not have right to agitate others to be "non-binary" or something like that. Thats all, they work, live, relax and have relations with other people without any problem with their identity.
And there's a shitton of censorship.
less than in UK, btw))
Safety is liberty.
What the bloody hell I just read?
Most liberate countries - USA, France - are in the top of the most dangeous places to live.
But Russia - is not safe because of.... what?
Cause in Russia you can not kill or rape someone and say "It's my right to live with my culture! My culture\religion do not punish for that! You can't blame me for that by your awefull laws"?
Cause you can not change religious rules and just rewrite sacred books to cooperate with modern sjw ideology?
Or what?
Do not believe in shit you massmedia spread along. I'm from Russia and I see how it's going in my country every f*ckin day.
they do not have right to agitate others to be "non-binary" or something like that.
Can you give some examples of what is and isn't allowed so that I can understand where the line is?
@stray You can have any identity you want.
You have no right to agitate anyone to be a u are or that you behavior is "good" or "cool". Nobody asks you to tell that is a perversion or something like that. Official position - it's every gromnup's personal business.
You cannot agitate children to make experiments with their sexuality or identification.
The main problem as I see it - you cannot have any legal relationship with the person of your sex. Marriage or something like that. Marriage - officially is a union between a man and a woman. As for me - I wish our country to have any kind of a legal union for that people. Something like legal partnership where one can be a legal presentation of the other, inherit his property and so on. This shall bring in our life a little bit more justice.
You cannot make public demonstration any asocial behavior like pride parades.
But. You can live open life with your identity and be who you are. Nobody have right to make any agressive moves to you, chace you and so on.
Russia is big and very multicultural country ande there are regions with more agressive position to that question - muslim Caucasus regions by example. But in common - nobody gives a fuck about you until you try to manifistate your behavior to others. And agressive position of some regions do not have support in others.
You are queer? Ok and what? - people mostly do not even wonder.
But when people see photos and videos from prides in EU - they wonder. Why? For what purpose people do that to themselves?
Ah, one more thing. Women and non-binary person can not be the priest of Orthodox church or be a mullah in Islamic ymmah. But thats not a law, thats a religion's principle.
Thank you for the first-hand perspective.
France ? most dangerous places to live ? by what sort of metric ?
According to the travel advisory, that would be Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan where you can all "exercise normal precautions".
Would not recommend people to go to the Baltic states in order to use/practice their Russian though. Central Asia is probably the way to go for that purpose.
Why not? Not spoken enough or frowned upon or something else?
Afaik it's somewhat frowned upon in Baltic societies since the Russian war in Ukraine. You'll probably find some people who'll happily speak Russian with you, but others might judge you for speaking Russian but not their national language.
Armenia is perfectly safe as well and everyone speaks Russian there.
Depends. If you're queer, definitely not anywhere in the former USSR (except for some of the Baltics).
If you're not queer, and speak a language of that region, probably that area is your best bet to blend in.
I'm queer sadly :(
Then definitely Estonia, or Lithuania. Although I think it'd be much better to live in the non-Russian part and learn Estonian/Lithuanian (and use it) there. I strongly recommend you do that last part especially.
Alternatively, you could go to Slovakia, Russia is a minority official language there, though a lot of hospitals refuse service for transition stuff.
For queer in general, not trans, Estonia still would be the best option.
You could also go to Canada - there aren't many Russian speakers, but there are small communities. Not enough to warrant a "minority" by a certain tyrant, thankfully. Winnipeg has some of them, I think.
You can also get away with being queer in Yerevan. Not anywhere else in Armenia sadly.
Good catch!
Definitely not good for queer issues. Better than sub-Saharan Africa, I guess, but that's it. Even the fancy parts of MENA seem easier as that kind of traveler.
I guess it's Belarus.
Are you looking for practicing your Russian?
Are you gonna suggest CS2?
@IHatePepRallies I'd vote for Kazakhstan although the country isn't completely Russian-speaking but there are no problems getting by.
@IHatePepRallies@discuss.online
I live in Kazakhstan. It's pretty safe here.
@IHatePepRallies@discuss.online
Safer, than in Russia, Ukraine and Tajikistan (because of Taliban on the borders), I guess.
None of the above..
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