New show: NewsReal with Joe & Niall

Joe said:
Yeah, gloves are off!
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Good on you for doing that!

One can say that even if the Epstein files are not being released and pedephiles not going to jail, it has still served greatly as it has been a massive unveiling, just as with the genocide 24/7 with the Western 'tacit' report. Before we were not even aware of this, the scale of it or that there was a power so great that it could silence most of the world's leaders. Now that is being shown, light is being shown into the cesspools of darkness. So as a positive, that knowledge can not be taken away again. The 'leaders' have been shown to prefer to kowtow to that power of darkness rather than speak up, just as a single saviour type is not going to come in and 'clean the swamp'.
 
seve said:
Niall, Would it be possible to have a brief written summary of your findings on the situation in Russia and Western misinformation? Thank you very much.
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A brief summary?!

The first, general thing to note is that Russia's economy appears to be booming. While my wife and I were only visiting Moscow and St Petersburg, the two biggest cities, and thus we obviously couldn't gauge how life is in more distant locations in rural, southern and eastern Russia, there is no economic formula on Earth where you can observe positive economic growth and prosperity in a country's major cities, and then find mostly decay and despair in the rest of the country. So Russia's critics are almost certainly using the wrong assumption when claiming that "Moscow and St Pete don't count because they don't reflect the real Russia": when you visit Paris and London and New York City, you note what is good and bad about those cities, and what appears to be trending upwards or downwards based on your previous visit there, and then you CAN reasonably infer general socio-economic conditions for the remainder of those respective countries.

Anyway, with that caveat in mind, Russia's two largest cities are as modern and well-functioning as those of any developed country: Superb, integrated, easy-to-grasp public transport system, reliable internet and phone coverage, and great apps like Yandex 'Go' for near-instant taxi service, Yandex Maps (which is better, more in-depth, and faster, in my experience, than Google Maps). The catch, however, is that since 2022 you need either an e-sim to access their mobile network, or an actual Russian sim. Only Russian citizens can get a sim card, so it helps if you know someone there who'll get one for you. One key sector in which Russia is not as developed as western Europe is its road network. I'd been warned beforehand - by a Russian! - to, "for God's sake," NOT drive in and around Moscow, in part because major roadworks are always underway during the summer months, making traffic jams even worse than normal, in part because of 'corruption' (specifically, 'bandits' staging accidents to bilk foreign tourists!? Never saw or heard anything about such while I was there), and in part because Russians drive 'erratically'.

Well, the temptation was too much to not experience it for myself... so I rented a car! Just for two days, so that we could visit a couple of monumental cathedrals in the wider Moscow region. I found driving there to be fine: they have European standards and signage in most matters, and the traffic was not so bad in Moscow city itself (despite major roadworks, which is another sign of healthy economic activity). Once out in open countryside, the highways were generally in 'normal' condition... except for the odd (deep!) pothole on highway entry/exit ramps. Oh, and the speed limits were patronizingly low: 110 km/h on the highways, for example. Most Russian drivers respect the limits, but quite often an expensive, sporty car zooms past you on your inside, and continues weaving in and out of traffic at speeds well above the speed limit. What's that about!? Our Russian companion told us that those are the "rich kids' cars," and that they just pay fines all day, everyday, so they effectively get to drive however they like. "But what about a penalty system deducting points from their driving licenses?" I asked. "No such thing," he said. "Ok, forget about speed cameras, fixed or mobile, what if they're physically pulled over by the police?" "Then they just produce the right documents."

Aha, so there is corruption in Russia! We met up with Irish RT journalist Chay Bowes one afternoon and one of the things he told us was that corruption has been stamped out - in Moscow at least. What he was referring to specifically was bribery: attempt to bribe an official, from a lowly traffic warden to a high state official, and you're going to jail. But if you have "the right documents," indicating that either you or your daddy is "connected" to either the apparatus of government and/or "the oligarchy," then you apparently enjoy more freedoms than most. I didn't like that. I felt that such 'in-your-face' rule-bending couldn't be good for social morale. But hey, isn't such 'hierarchical', preferential treatment the case - in one form or another - the world over?

I mentioned major roadworks. Russians are also driving modern cars! Sure we saw the odd banger like an old Lada, but Lada today also makes modern SUVs! Inside and outside Moscow city, we saw lots of new European cars, American cars, Chinese cars (which really are the future!) and Korean and Japanese cars. We also saw major, active building sites: for more residential apartment blocks, more metro stations, more multi-storey carparks, more shopping malls, etc. All of which is to say that the Russia we saw is developing as if it was not under tight sanctions, and as if it was not engaged in a fairly major war with a neighboring country. And yet it is, on both counts, and thus we can reasonably deduce that its economy would be booming even more but for those impediments. Its shopping malls, generally attractive and actually pleasant to be in, were chok full of goods and shoppers. Its grocery stores too, and its open markets, with tropical fruits galore from its southern neighbors. And we saw loads of goods 'made in Europe' being sold in them. So much for sanctions! European companies are clearly getting around them. In fact, Russia's overall economic problem these days is that its economy is running too hot, hence interests rates are very high compared with the West: the government is concerned with keeping inflation down and keeping things steady and stable. As for the war's impact on daily life, we saw updates from the front on their local TV news, streets advertisements encouraging people to enlist, one temporary recruitment stall at one Metro station, and a dozen or so uniformed soldiers at the train station in St Petersburg (either on leave or returning to duty). Otherwise, you wouldn't really know Russia is 'at war'.

When we departed, I was worried about Ukrainian drones reaching Moscow. This didn't happen while we were there, but even if some had, people in Moscow didn't behave like they're afraid of such. The main inconvenience this has caused so far is flight delays when the airports are temporarily closed. Many Muscovites and Peterburgers speak or at least understand English, so the language barrier wasn't a problem. Some were surprised (and happy) to meet Westerners because so few of us visit Russia these days. None of them were even remotely hostile, more sad that Westerners don't seem to understand Russia and Russians. Anyway, the streets were nonetheless thronged with tourists because visitors from China, Japan, India, and the Middle East have 'filled in the gaps'. Plus, Russians themselves: if they're not welcome in other countries, they'll just go on holiday within their own vast country! We observed and met lots of people 'from the other Russia' in Moscow and St Pete, another sure sign that their economic conditions 'back home' provide them with sufficient disposable income to enjoy the 'expensive, not-real-Russia' of the Big Two cities.

Cleanliness and orderliness: it's true, Russia's streets are very clean. It's also true that there are next-to-no homeless people in Moscow/St Pete (I counted 6 in total, 4 of those in the latter city.) We only saw grafitti along laneways and sidestreets in what was otherwise a pretty, though somewhat ramshackle, small suburban town on the northeastern outskirts of Moscow. Taking taxis to and from our base outside Moscow to the nearest Metro terminal, we at times observed that the roadside verges and hedges were unkempt and wild... but in other, inhabited, locations, they were well-managed. In some respects, much of Moscow is indeed 'ugly', with its huge number of tower-blocks of flats ("commie-blocks") lining vast, multi-lane avenues. For the most part, however, these were at least set back from the main roads, spaced apart from each other, and interspersed with modern amenities and green spaces. Oh, and their metro stations are indeed works of art!

Another sign of order is the number (and cleanliness - luxurious, even!) of public toilets, which are always staffed by cleaners, no matter how small the facility. And Russians all use them - we encountered NO smell of urine on the streets! - even though you pay up to 100 rubles (1.20 euros) for the privilege. And they will queue to use one if they have to - sneaking off around a corner somewhere isn't even countenanced. Then there's security: surveillance cameras are everywhere, Metro security personnel are stationed throughout the underground, and you go through airport-like security everytime you enter the Metro system... and major landmarks like palaces and museums, and even some shopping malls! Heavily-armed police are stationed at key intersections in central Moscow, and both uniformed and - I suspect, plain-clothed - security personnel of either local or state police patrol its parks, churches and other landmarks.

So yeah, it's 'Big Brother Police State' conditions, and if you'd asked me ten years ago whether that was ever acceptable, I'd have said, "no, that's fascism and oppressive." But now I'm not so sure that this is always the case. Is urban Russia 'clean and orderly' because Big Brother is watching over everyone? Or is urban Russia clean and orderly because those few who would otherwise be anti-social no longer have as much 'freedom' to be so? We encountered no 'no-go zones', saw no groups of people - young men in particular - just 'hanging around' and looking shifty, sadly commonplace now in Western cities, big and small. Everyone weems to have something to do and somewhere to be, even if it's just to enjoy a leisurely stroll and listen to musicians busking on the streets or in the Metro stations. On the other side of the 'freedom equation', we DID encounter openly LGB (and possibly T!) folks, particularly in St Petersburg. So no, Russia is not 'anti-gay'. It is as it says it is: against using state and corporate powers to actively promote 'alternative and/or hedonistic lifestyles'. Otherwise, it's "classicly liberal": live and let live.
 
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Thanks @Niall for sharing your impressions, very, very interesting!

With regard to this:

Niall said:
Then there's security: surveillance cameras are everywhere, Metro security personnel are stationed throughout the underground, and you go through airport-like security everytime you enter the Metro system... and major landmarks like palaces and museums, and even some shopping malls! Heavily-armed police are stationed at key intersections in central Moscow, and both uniformed and - I suspect, plain-clothed - security personnel of either local or state police patrol its parks, churches and other landmarks.
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I share your general sentiment that heavy security isn't always bad, it depends on who is doing the "securing" and for what reasons. I'm all for getting the riff-raff out of the city, etc. However, the one thing that I really don't like is the obsessive "airport-like" controls at malls, shops, etc. This has a very "third world" flavor to it; I've seen it in places like India, the Arab world and so on, where they have to have security everywhere in these places to separate the folks with money from the riff-raff. It creates a sense of illusion, like a theme park for the better-off... Not to mention the inconvenience and general vibe of low-trust society and control.

Now I wonder, from what you've said, Moscow and St Pete aren't "third-worldish" at all, so what's the deal with that? Is it to give the population a sense of safety, especially regarding terrorism? But that always struck me as absurd, except perhaps for a few politically charged landmark sites and such, because terrorists can always just find another place, or just start mass shootings or whatever. You fight these things on a higher level. It also can't be to keep the riff-raff out, since there seems hardly to be any, and besides you just need one security guy watching somewhere for that. So what's the deal? Or maybe it's just my Western sensibilities, and Russians are much more used to tight security like that, as are people in other parts of the world? Dunno. It's just something that really bothers me ever since they introduced the nonsensical theater at the airports...
 
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