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WeekendJen t1_j40u6ts wrote

no problem. I think the sanctions weren't really designed to affect citizens as much as industry. For things like ikea, adidas, mcdonalds, disney, etc leaving the country, it was mostly an "image" thing but also tied to the banking sanctions making payments / profits more difficult to move in / out of the country around to different branches of the company and so on. The biggest effects I have noticed is definitely on cars. Once the lots are cleared you will need to go to another country to buy a car that is not a russian or chinese brand. Also parts for those korean, japanese, etc cars that already exist are getting squeezed and drying up.

Transferring money out of the country or paying for goods in another currency (like to buy something from europe and have it shipped) is very difficult to impossible for the average person. Alot of companies that used to ship wordwide now do not ship to russia.

Covid - I actually have no idea what the situation is like. I haven't seen much coverage of it. I would extrapolate from what I see about China having an outbreak and the new variant in the US that there is probably a covid season occurring, but maybe a little less severe since there's way fewer people traveling? Right now there are no covid restrictions / mask requirements, but a small few people do opt to wear them, esp now in winter cause it keeps your face warm anyway if outside from place to place. For the initial covid times, people wore masks and vaccines and boosters were free and easy to get. bigger cities required QR codes to prove vaccination and be allowed into non-necessity, high traffic areas. For example, my local mall has an Auchan (walmart grocery type store). Teh QR code scanner people were arranged so that you could go into the mall and enter the Auchan with no code check, but to go into the walkways to get to any other store you needed a QR code. most stand alone stores in the ground floors of apartments did not bother checking qr codes, even if they were inessential stores. The vaccination rate was low because a lot of people were superstitious about it and there was a lot of sanitation theater with like steaming railings in the communal stairways of buildings and stuff like that. I cant remember if they required the QR code on trains from city to city, I'm inclined to say no because I think i used one before I got my QR code (I was vaccinated in russia, but am not from russia so it was a little bit of beauracratic legwork to get me a QR code even after I had the booster).

Soldiers not coming home- Simply put, they dont. There will occasionally be profile pieces on a soldier who died about how they are a hero and show their family, sad but proud or whatever but there is not a consolidated story about how many aren't coming home. Comments in local news sites on such stories about people who died have started to turn mostly negative saying things like "and for what?". You also rarely see stories about soldiers who do come home as I imagine it's hard to get a feel good vibe from most of them for obvious reasons. The few I have seen involve people that were maimed and it highlights the help and rehab they are receiving (like some artificial limb etc.) and they seem to be trying to saying "see, we will take care of you!".

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CathrynMcCoy t1_j40x54g wrote

Thank you very much for those details! We only ever get information third or fourth hand, this is actually a nice documentary about the true situation.

Do you consider to start an AMA sometime?

I can imagine people have questions and would want to understand what is really going on inside Russia.

Thanks again!

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