Before formally going into uniform, I lived and worked in Russia for nearly a decade, there were many times when we as Americans had no choice but to wash our clothes by hand, and then hang them out however we could to get them dry. We also gave out a lot of body soap and laundry detergent at times, or it was nearly unsurvivable. Russia is so stratified, a high percentage of the non-elite’s live in 3rd world conditions.
One of the things which regularly got my team in trouble in Russia, was trying to get life and death medical attention to some of those poor, and a number of evangelical church members of “unregistered” churches, as the Russian government denied them healthcare due to being associated with “unregistered churches” and illegal churches, as the highly humanistic/socialist and gnostic Russian Orthodox Church is the state religion. Over the years, we had many pastor friends who were beaten, and families separated/children taken and placed in orphanages by the state, because they would not turn over list’s of church members.
Another area which caused trouble for us, was when we decided to teach (in our off time), in an actual WWII ghetto in Central East Moscow, as the Jewish children and teenagers were generally not allowed to attend school with “White Russians”. This ghetto was a large enclave surrounded by walls within Moscow, albeit the gates were removed for traffic. We tried to get Russian international passports for many of them, to enable them to travel outside of Russia, but the government would cause a lot of trouble for their families when we would try to intervene. As well, early on the Russian government didn’t allow for an actual Israeli embassy or consulate, (even while the “Palestinian” Consulate had existed for several decades). This eventually changed, but when we would try to get the international passport for the Jewish population, the Russian government would often deny the required passport for international travel, as they knew many of the Jewish people would get visa’s and leave so their children could have a future, and the Russian’s would lose a lot of street and tunnel sweepers and plant workers.
The Russian population is much more divided than the highly state controlled media and press are propagating globally.
As well, the average Ukrainian culture is nowhere near as stratified, much more friendly toward Jews, and is actually more open to Christianity.
Anecdotally, nearly all of the Russian friends who have tried to carefully communicate with me (and there are quite a number), are against what they have known for many years (in some cases since 1991), to be a rebranded socialist/corporatist Russian imperial nationalist movement, and its various parties. I also have numerous Russian friends trying to do all they can to help the 2 + million Ukrainian civilians taken prisoner since February, and a number of Russian friends fighting for Ukraine right now.
Before formally going into uniform, I lived and worked in Russia for nearly a decade, and there were many times when we as Americans had no choice but to wash our clothes by hand, and then hang them out however we could to get them dry. We also gave out a lot of body soap and laundry detergent at times, or it was nearly unsurvivable. Russia is so stratified, a high percentage of the non-elite’s live in 3rd world conditions.
One of the things which regularly got my team in trouble in Russia, was trying to get life and death medical attention to some of those poor, and a number of evangelical church members of “unregistered” churches, as the Russian government denied them healthcare due to being associated with “unregistered churches” and illegal churches, as the highly humanistic/socialist and gnostic Russian Orthodox Church is the state religion. Over the years, we had many pastor friends who were beaten, and families separated/children taken and placed in orphanages by the state, because they would not turn over list’s of church members.
Another area which caused trouble for us, was when we decided to teach (in our off time), in an actual WWII ghetto in Central East Moscow, as the Jewish children and teenagers were generally not allowed to attend school with “White Russians”. This ghetto was a large enclave surrounded by walls within Moscow, albeit the gates were removed for traffic. We tried to get Russian international passports for many of them, to enable them to travel outside of Russia, but the government would cause a lot of trouble for their families when we would try to intervene. As well, early on the Russian government didn’t allow for an actual Israeli embassy or consulate, (even while the “Palestinian” Consulate had existed for several decades). This eventually changed, but when we would try to get the international passport for the Jewish population, the Russian government would often deny the required passport for international travel, as they knew many of the Jewish people would get visa’s and leave so their children could have a future, and the Russian’s would lose a lot of street and tunnel sweepers and plant workers.
The Russian population is much more divided than the highly state controlled media and press are propagating globally.
As well, the average Ukrainian culture is nowhere near as stratified, much more friendly toward Jews, and is actually more open to Christianity.
Anecdotally, nearly all of the Russian friends who have tried to carefully communicate with me (and there are quite a number), are against what they have known for many years (in some cases since 1991), to be a rebranded socialist/corporatist Russian imperial nationalist movement, and its various parties. I also have numerous Russian friends trying to do all they can to help the 2 + million Ukrainian civilians taken prisoner since February, and a number of Russian friends fighting for Ukraine right now.