A huge influx of Russians in Phuket is producing a backlash from locals, amid complaints of a booming Russian-only economy that covers everything from hair salons to taxi firms.
More than 400,000 Russians arrived on the Thai tourist island between January and July this year, according to authorities, double the number of visitors before Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Many have secured long stay-visas, buying properties and establishing businesses to escape economic turmoil and the possibility of being conscripted following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
They do that in Goa too. They’re the worst. They steal business and opportunities from locals left and right and are rude and belligerent to everyone, especially locals. I had no opinions about Russians before travelling there in 2015, but I certainly do now.
My opinions on Russians are based off the ones that immigrated to the US in the late 90’s. After doing business with a few, I will never sell or buy anything from a Russian. They lie, steal, deceive, threaten, and overall rip you off any way they can.
Granted there are plenty of Americans I feel that same way about. Just have never met a Russian with any sense of ethics. Doesn’t matter male or female everyone has been a disgusting human with how they treat others.
They live in a society that is based on corruption. Literally the only way to get anything done in Russia is to be corrupt.
To take bribes is the norm.
It’s easier to have ethics when you’re stably immigrated from 3 generations ago with the security that a roof over your head and a social net brings
There’s definitely a lot of truth to “A man is only as good as his conditions allow him to be.” However, that’s not really a good excuse to emigrate to another country and not respect the cultural norms of where moving to.
That is such a shit take on this. Because of adversity it justifies a lack of ethics? Seriously? This sentiment is a major part of social issues.
Kick them out, Thailand! That’s 400,000 orcs leaching off your country that should be forced to face what their country is doing.
That’s 400,000 soldiers for the war effort. Much better they stay on vacation than fight in Ukraine
Where do you think their money is going?
Surely there must be a way to get them out of the country while making them useless for war?
Break their legs before sending them back?
400,000 meat for the grinder
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For a left leaning group I’m kind of apauled by the straight up racism in this comment section… These people left conscription. Which means less Russian soldiers. Perhaps there should be more aid offered to help people escape putins regime?
For a more reality leaning person I can tell you that fleeing conscription in no way equals not being imperialist/supporting the war. I am from Georgia and they are constantly protesting the Ukranian flags everywhere and start crying every time someone says something negative about Putin or his politics. They know only Russian and have only consumed Putin’s propaganda media all their life. They have more disposable income than the locals, buy up all the property, and never hire locals. You’re leaving your house and every second cafe/bar you enter, the staff only speaks Russian. All of my friends have been driven out of their homes due to rent increase too. They’re truly parasites.
If you are left leaning you should perhaps oppose imperialism?
Well, here’s the scoop: Russia is a land empire. The soldiers dying on the front are disproportionately taken from minority ethnicities, who live under the same conditions as any other colonized people.
There are liberal opposition figures, sure. They are a small minority - by most generous estimations, maybe around 15% of Russians. The far right opposition is much greater in Russia, unfortunately.
Seems like people are irrationally angry at Russian people as a whole for not yet managing to overthrow the Putin regime. It’s easy to call for revolution in a far away country when it’s not you or your family living under the boot.
Russia has no shortage of opposition, like the Novaya Gazeta newspaper for example which has had many of it’s journalists assassinated over the years for criticising the Kremlin.
The prejudice against the entire Russian population is absurd to me, there are many Russians who are on the same page as us but who don’t have a voice.
Plenty, yes. A majority, far from it.
The problem is it’s likely a majority of them don’t even openly oppose the war/occupation of Ukraine. They just don’t want to go die for the cause. If these were people fleeing political oppression maybe you’d have a point.
Every thread with the left:
“Oh, you’re America, you invaded iraq!” “Oh you cant talk, your country murdered Iraqis and afganis!” “Filthy war-mongering American!!!”
He had like a 89% approval rating for the war before it went wrong.
I had Russians everywhere talking about how the west gave them no choice but to show them a lesson.
I get that we all hate what Russia is doing in Ukraine but yikes y’all are racist.
Perhaps prejudiced is a more appropriate term. And I agree, I think we ought to avoid such inflammatory statements about an entire nation of people based on the actions of a relatively small few, even when those actions are despicable.
Russia is a big country, do you have a particular race in mind?
It’s a big empire. Let’s not pretend Russia is a nation state like the others in Europe or Asia. It’s a federation of states that fell victim to imperialism at some point in history.
Russian is not a race…
Slavic would be, but Ukrainians are Slavic too.
Interesting fact, many of whom putin sends aren’t ethnically “russian” at least to him, he’s managing to both wage a war and cleanse his population at the same time, how efficient.
The racist is Putin sending all of Russia’s ethnic minorities to slaughter in Ukraine.
Of course they came in, took over, and are excluding the local population; imperialism is their natural state of being.
To the surprise of no one
So Phuket is next up for annexation then.
