The. Hello and welcome to the UK
column. Today I am joined by Malcolm
Hill, AUK column member who's been following the UK columns
work I believe since 2019. Malcolm and you are working UK
based but living in Russia. Just give us a little background
on on why you got involved with the UK column and why you're
living in Russia. Hi, thanks for the invitation to
come on. Got involved with the columns,
started watching it. I was already looking at various
channels and following people and I can't remember how I came
across you, to be honest, to start with.
But it's it seemed you were saying the right things and
started following you on a fairly regular basis.
And then when COVID came, that became a permanent thing,
essential viewing. What took you to to live in
Russia in the first place? Well, my wife's Russian and we
were lived over here for several years in in London and in Wales
and then fancy the change was starting to dislike the UK more
and more in terms of being here and it seemed the next logical
step to try living there. We thought we'd give it a go,
see if I liked it or not, and I seem to fit right in.
So we're settled, happy, and we stayed there.
What I'd like to do is to to discuss why you fit right in,
because, you know, this is something a lot of people in the
UK have no understanding of, of Russia, no understanding of
China. Today we're talking about
Russia. It's understandable that we
don't because we've, you know, many of us have grown up
believing that Russia is a great enemy, whether that be because
we're old enough to have lived through the Cold War or the end
of the Cold War or because we've listened, if we're younger,
listen to the propaganda that we've been bombarded with over
the last 20 years or so. So Russia is perceived as being
the great enemy. How have you found it?
What are the people like actually when you meet them day
to day? And, and I suppose what is
really would be of interest is what's their view of the world?
Are they optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
Oh good questions. How I find them when I first got
there and how I find them still to this day.
Warm, open, friendly, incredibly receptive.
I've never had any issues or problems at all.
Everybody knows I'm English because I walk around and speak
English. I converse in English with my
wife when we're out, quite often get people come up and ask where
I'm from, what I'm doing there and that sort of thing.
Genuine interest. They sometimes seem a bit
disbelieving that I'm there and why would I be there?
Because from social media and from particularly the younger
generations, they're up to sort of mid 20s who didn't live
perhaps through some of the harder times.
They're obsessed with the West and how great it seems to be and
how great it's portrayed. But a short conversation seems
to put them right on that score, how they view the world, that
they themselves realistically positive.
Life's been getting better and continuously there since the
beginning of the 2000s. It was a slow progression to
start with, but certainly in the last 10 years that's
accelerated. Everybody's better off.
Everybody's got a more comfortable standard of living
and the future looks bright. So everyone's better off.
Is that including in the last two or three years since the
West has been imposing sanctions?
Especially in the last two or three years, there's an awful
lot of industry that's come back, There's more employment,
there's a lot more money floating around.
So this is quite contrary to the narrative that we've presented
because we're being told that sanctions are really hitting the
Russian economy hard and and life is getting harder for
Russians every day. Yes, I see that because I do
follow Western news to an extent just to keep a finger on the
pulse. But no, the truth is that where
a lot of industry was taken away in the in the 1990s and shipped
abroad, certainly lots of profits from industry and from
resources were taken away in the 90s and they all disappeared
abroad. They've been coming back
gradually since then, since the early 2000s, but in the last,
not just the last 2-3 years, because sanctions against Russia
started around 2014. So they've developed over the
last 10 years. Industry has come back, the
economy has improved. It grew very well last year.
Everybody's happy. And So what?
What is the attitude amongst ordinary people in Saint
Petersburg to what's going on in Ukraine then?
The attitude is the same as it wasn't the start of the
problems. It it's a shame it's happening.
Nobody wants it to happen. But they understand that if the
security of the Russia, of Russia and the Russian border
isn't resolved, then it's a problem that's never going to go
away. It does need fixing one way or
the other, through preferably through negotiation and through
peaceful talk. That didn't seem to work.
So they want it to the conflict to end.
Of course they do, but they understand at the moment for
Russian security it's necessary until a better alternative
presents itself, which is the ideal solution.
So they're generally supportive of the action that the Russian
government has taken. Would that be a fair thing to
say? Yes, very supportive and more
supportive as time has gone on. Right.
And so what's their view of NATO and the West then?
Much as you'd probably imagine what what's what's NATO doing
better better perhaps, rather than having a view most a lot of
Russians day to day on the street don't have a particular
world view of politics and what's going on in the greater
world as a nation. It's just why can't we live in
peace? Why don't you just leave us
alone? That's.
That's that's pretty clear that, yeah.
And what about their attitude towards China, the so called
global S BRICS and this kind of initiative?
The more, the more trade and international trade, the better.
Why can't we? Why can't we trade more like,
you know, why? Why can't we get on?
What's the problem with the, the wars and issues that we don't
need, whether that's coming from the West or from anywhere else,
You know, the world's a big place.
There's room for everybody. Trade is good, travel is good,
and integration with other nations is good.
Russia's got so many different ethnicities and a lot of
immigration from foreign countries, and everybody rubs
along fairly well. So you've brought up the issue
of immigration, that they do have an immigration situation.
Do they or is it not perceived as being a negative thing?
There's been a clampdown or starting to be a clampdown on
illegal immigration. Immigration per SE is absolutely
fine. It's it's welcome.
The population of Russia is not growing fast.
In fact it's been declining fairly over the last few years.
So immigration is a good thing, it seems a positive thing.
But there is elements of illegal immigration which they are
trying to clamp down on because that's where there are more
complicated social issues involved with that.
And is there a significant English speaking community in
Russia then? Yes, there's not a massive
community where everybody gets together and and has gatherings
and that sort of thing. But there is a growing number of
people of English speaking people who are emigrating out
there. I'm in touch and at the moment
with about 30 people in the UK who are in the process of moving
out there in the next year or two.
There's a new, if we want to talk about it, we can get on to
that. There's a new Russian visa
that's been launched end of last year to make it very easy for
people from a large number of countries, predominantly
Western, to emigrate if they wish to.
Let's talk about that. I mean, obviously without giving
away any personal information, what would be the motivation
that that the people you know, are going there?
What? What's their motivation for
doing that? Similar to mine, a
disillusionment with the UK. Also there's a fairly large
contingent from America and Canada as well.
It's not just from the UK, but disillusionment with the UK,
with the cultural values, with the social values and the way
things are changing. On that basis.
The the, the new visa programme that was introduced is called
the Shared Values Visa and essentially is on the basis that
you state that you are, you disagree with the imposed
ideological views of your current nation that contradict
Russian spiritual and moral values.
And on that basis, that's basically all you need to do to
applying a getter will turn out to be a three year temporary
residency. And what would be the
expectations from the Russian government about your ability to
to survive financially and so on?
Work work is your own problem. It does give you does have
permission to work, so you're free to work there.
It's a three year temporary residency and at the end of
that, if you wish to settle, you would need to then pass a
Russian language exam as as per other methods of gaining
permanent residency. Essentially it's a very, very
quick way to get across to to move over there, move to any
part of the country you wish to settle, work and start to make a
life for yourself if that's what you want to do.
But there's no particular support if if you do that,
you've got to you absolutely have to stand on your own 2
feet. Yes, there's no financial
support for that, but it's it's it's it's designed as an
opportunity for people who don't share their own country's moral
value, shall we say. And and would like to raise
their children, perhaps elsewhere or just to themselves,
live in somewhere that's more welcoming to their views of
life. You know, one of the criticisms
of of Russia and China is that they are simply the other side
of the same coin that they're building technocracy in the same
way that we are in the West, that AI and CBDC and digital ID
and these types of things are just around the corner as much
there as they are here. What's what's your perception of
that? Yes, that's definitely
happening. I'm not a fan of those things.
Having said that, it's a lot of it will come down to how it's
implemented and how it's used or abused.
I think we're it's inevitable wherever you're going to be in
the world, the technology is coming in terms of
identification, there's always been more of that out there
anyway. It's very natural to be Russians
have a like an internal passport, shall we say, which
they use for identification for things.
And what's what will happen is a digital version of that.
But you need that anyway to, you know, to open a bank account or
to go to do government services or a lot of other things.
You need your ID with you anyway.
But that's just always been a part of the Russian culture from
from the year dot. So that's not seen as a threat
in the same way. I'm sort of generally anti that
sort of thing, but I think it's going to be eventually end up
wherever you are in the world inevitable to an extent.
But how they implement say digital currency and the way
they use it or abuse it is more the issue for.
Me but they they are not generally looking at that in the
same negative light as as people in the West might for the.
Normal person No, no, it's just it, it is what it is.
If it happens, that's what happens and that's the way it is
now. They're, they're very, although
they have a good understanding of what's going on in the world
and how things are and how different countries are acting
positively or negatively against the country.
They're sort of slightly disassociated from politics in
the sense that, well, there's, there's a, a government, it's
their job to run the country. It's their job to do that.
My job is to get on with my life and what the government does
doesn't impact me particularly greatly.
So that's sort of the general attitude of, of the, they're
aware of what's going on. They're not particularly engaged
in a political way apart from a young, younger subset of people
and again, it's those that largely have been caught up in
the social media campaigns who are far more vociferous about
their political views. What kind of opposition is
allowed in Russia? What kind of freedom of speech
is there? Do people speak out against
Putin and the and the government?
Absolutely. There's a little bit more
constraint at the moment because the country is in a a war
situation. So there are a few things that
you can't go out and campaign against, which is general I
think in in most countries that are on a war footing, shall we
say. But generally speaking, freedom
of speech is fine. I've probably got a lot more
freedom to say and speak my opinions there than I have in
the UK. I'm not going to get arrested
for saying the wrong thing. There are arrests in Saint
Petersburg's even from time to time, but usually it's where
protests have gone into certain parts of the city.
You can't protest, for example, you know, in the same way in the
UK you can't just turn up and have a, an agreed March on
Parliament Square or, you know, the certain parts of the city
centre where you can't just go around.
And then people do that and they do it quite deliberately because
then they get arrested and then it makes good visuals.
So but there is there is an opposition.
Yes, yes, yes. There is an opposition.
It's, it's not constrained to in its ability to present itself.
There's, I don't know how many political parties because I
don't engage particularly at that amount of that sort of
politics in Russia, but there are several political parties
and they all do rather well. Some do better than others.
The the second in the last few elections, the second most
popular party is still the Communist Party.
That varies between sort of 10 and 15% of the vote.
Usually, apart from the last election, it was reduced because
the the support for Putin grew dramatically during the first
couple of years of the the military goings on.
Is there an awareness in Russia in the general population of,
you know, some of the big anti Russia stories that we've seen
in the West like Skripal or Navalny or these Litvinenko, any
of these kinds of allegations that are made against the
Russian state of attacking the West?
Yes, they're aware of it, and they mostly sort of dismiss it
out of hand as as nonsense is the short answer.
And what about the likes of of Durgan and the killing of his
daughter? Is the West blamed for that?
Very much so, yes, that that was that was a major event and was
the scene with fairly outwardly expressed disgust by most
people. It was a very sad event, very
unnecessary, but but yes, a Western, Western attack.
That was viewed as a Western attack as opposed to a Ukrainian
attack. Yes, because they have a good
understanding that Ukraine is sort of the the piggy in the
middle and not the ultimate cause of the issues.
Quite, quite a lot of people will will look to what's
happening in Ukraine and say well that's that's down to
America or that's down to the UK at the end of the day.
So they've got good awareness there.
Let's talk about the media in general.
Is Russia Today have a have a presence in Russia or is it
mainly media? Is that Russian media being
exported to other countries? It's both.
I don't watch in the same way. I don't watch much UK mainstream
stuff. I don't watch particularly any
or much Russian mainstream stuff.
Is RT for you just being mainstream then?
Well. Yes, I mean it's yes there is,
there is Russian language RT and then they do export in the
various other languages. But yeah, it's reasonably
mainstream. There are there are a few state
proper state sponsored channels shall we say that have a variety
of programmes on. I tend not to watch any of
those, as I say, in the same way that we will watch the BBC,
although for the same reasons. Is that all all programming like
that is going to be biassed to an extent.
Although what I would say is that when I do watch those sort
of programme political programmes and discussions on
the the state channels, the alignment, although in favour of
Russia and biassed yes, without a doubt, the the reporting of
the news and the discussions centred around it are far more
what far similar, more similar to what I pick up from
independent media in the West. So the the points of view will
be very similar to say conversation on the UK column or
a number of other independent media channels in the West,
perhaps more with a little bit of favour towards Russia, but
but far more balanced than I would get from ABBC or a or CNN
or Fox or or whatever in the West.
Are you saying that they would actually attempt to hold the
Russians did too kind? Within a reason, yes.
Not as much as you want them to, no, but, but yeah, there are,
there are, there are conversations that that that
happen on. There's a, there's a programme
on every morning where they discuss the news of the day.
It goes on for like 2 hours. There's a panel who, who stand
around talking about it and there's voices of dissent on
there and they have arguments and disagreements.
So they're there are presentation of the views, the
the Russian state political view will usually win out in the end,
but there are alternative views expressed on on the TV on a more
or less daily basis for people to watch, observe, think about
and make, you know, decide what they think.
Malcolm there's a story about a Christmas tree and people
meeting Putin. What's the score with that?
In Moscow there there's a Christmas tree they have every
year and people are invited to go and hang wishes on it and
Putin is directly involved in that and last, not this
Christmas, the one before someone, a little girl, hung her
wish on the tree and her wish was to meet Putin.
And that's exactly what happened.
He arranged that and turned up and presented it with little
bouquet of flowers and had a nice chat with her.
This little 4 year old girl I think she was.
Did he do that kind of privately or did that become APR exercise?
It was, it was televised, but the, the, the event is usually
televised anyway because there's various things going on there.
And it's, it's kind of like a, not a charity, but it's various
people who put particularly young, young, young children
will be putting wishes on the tree and then a number of them
are made to happen. This one obviously got a bit
more coverage perhaps than usual.
But it is a fairly well known event anyway.
In terms of sort of day to day to day life, then what's the
situation with transport, with supermarkets, with just ordinary
day to day stuff? Is it Does that all function or
is that like the UK or Europe with with trains not running on
time, breaking down, signalling, not working, this kind of thing?
It functions better, but they've, I mean, I do
understand, I live in one of the larger cities, much bigger than
Birmingham, not quite as big as London.
And Moscow again is obviously huge as well.
But in there the transportation works.
There's trams, metros, normal buses and other fault, the usual
forms of transport and they all function very, very well.
Leave it in the winter, Even in the winter, yes.
Well, this is this. Is it because Because obviously
Saint Petersburg and Moscow will have proper winters with proper
below 0 temperatures and proper snow.
So I mean, I presume you still have proper snow, but it's still
all functions. Yes, yeah, global warming means
that our winters only get down to about -30 now on a cold day,
the average at around -10 to -15 But yeah, all, all the public
transport still works perfectly fine.
The trains are still running, obviously the, the metro still
runs, but the buses and the trams and everything else still
go. They, they're geared up for the
the weather and they're used to it.
It's just life just carries on. And in terms of just everyday
life, as you were asking earlier, yeah, it's it's very
similar. There's plenty of shops, there's
plenty of food. I haven't starved yet through
that lack of lack of food being supplied on the shelves and that
sort of in fact, there's too much, if anything.
It's generally the food is cheaper, It's generally the
better quality because there is fruit and vegetables, for
example, coming in from all over the countries surrounding
Russia, on the southern side particularly.
So pick one example tomatoes is is not just those tasteless
watery Spanish tomatoes that you can get in the UK.
There's 6 or 8 varieties of tomato.
They're all different, they all have different flavours,
different qualities and the quality of food generally is of
a higher standard and the same. That extends to lead fish, and
it's bound to fill. It's plentiful, and it's much
more reasonably priced. And what about healthcare?
Healthcare is excellent. I've not had much use for it
myself. It's free for citizens.
I have to pay. I've used a doctor once.
We've had an issue with my eye and I went to the local doctor
and they said we'll come back in an hour because they have a
optician basically attached to the clinic.
Although they they have AGP clinic, they have tend to have
specialists attached anyway. So there's a dermatologist that
will work in the clinic. There's an optician that works
in the clinic. Went back an hour later, had my
issue resolved. They had to I had something in
my eye which she had to take out.
Gave me an eye test, gave me some treat, medical treatment
and the whole thing with the appointment was about 16 lbs.
No waiting for an appointment. Yeah, I had to wait an hour
because she didn't start work till an hour after I've turned
up there. My, my wife, my wife a couple of
winters ago needed an X ray. She went to her doctor about a
back issue and they said, well, let's just get an X ray, check
it out. And they didn't have an X ray
there. They said go to the next clinic
down the road. So it's about a 10 minute walk
to the next doctor's clinic who did have an X ray machine.
And she went in and said I need an X ray, blah blah, blah.
Hopefully. Is it any chance you could see
me like in the next week? Because it's, it's quite
painful. And the receptionist just looked
through and said no, said we can see you now.
So she went straight through. She was X rayed within 30
minutes. Results supplied the next
morning, which she took back to a doctor and treatment was dealt
with. Why do you think it is that
their system seems to function? And I guarantee that they're not
putting anywhere near the amount of money into it that we are in
Britain. There's probably a long answer,
but the short answer is it's it's run by the state.
And yes there is. There are issues as with any
state run organisation without doubt, but there's a lot of
accountability as well. If there's any, any service that
you're not happy about, there are direct ways to complain.
That goes quite high up the chain quite quickly.
So if you have an issue with your medical board or you, you
suspect there's been misappropriation of funds, which
does happen time to time as with any, you know, any society,
there's ways to report it fairly quickly and they tend to get
dealt with. And if they do find any sort of
corruption or misappropriation of or wastage of funds, they get
dealt with fairly severely and it doesn't happen so.
Often, I suppose, the measure of any state in any government is
what happens when it's under stress of some kind.
And, you know, you mentioned earlier the fact that Russia is
currently on a war footing, although by the side of things
that hasn't resulted in massively stringent emergency
powers being used. But what was the situation
during COVID? I wasn't there during COVID, my
wife was. There was a injection campaign.
It was not mandatory for anybody and most people didn't bother
with it. Russians, Russians generally are
fairly self aware of their health, have a better education
or better understanding perhaps of their own health.
So there's more treatments for example you can buy over the
counter than you can here without prescription because it
doesn't get abused in the same way.
Generally speaking, they have a better understanding of what
their body needs and if they need something they'll go and
get it. If they don't need it, they
don't. Well they they do understand
that good diet is important. Most of them eat a far better
diet than that I was having in the UK, for example, but during
COVID, so there was an injection.
It wasn't MRMRNA based. I don't know more than a couple
of people out of a circle of 40. So people that I know, I think
only maybe one or two of them bothered getting it.
Most didn't bother. This is interesting conflict,
conflict out there. It's one thing to have
government rules and regulations on anything, any aspect of life
out there. It's another for the people to
actually follow it. So when my wife was there, there
was a sign went up outside one day and someone came round
knocking on the door saying there's a case of COVID on this
floor to be identified. Nobody can leave their flats for
a week. And they put up signs and they
put up some tape to say to people, you know, you must stay
indoors, you must stay at home for the next week, blah, blah,
blah. And within 30 minutes of that
being done, someone would come out, RIP down all the signs
taken, all the take someone else that leaves them and that's it.
And then life just carried on as normal.
You can make rules and regulations, but you can't tell
Russians how to live their life. They will just do what they want
to do anyway, which is I find very refreshing.
It is indeed and of course cut again, completely contrary to
the idea that we may have of the Russians did, which is that you
know that there would be quite a strong crackdown on on that type
of behaviour. I I can also happy to confirm
I've never been interviewed or followed by anyone from the KGB.
Well, FSB now I don't have say, anyone spying on me or following
me door to door to see what I'm up to each day.
Is there an idea in Russia, in Russia of, you know, foreign
agents? I mean, for example, you know,
in the United States and the United Kingdom, we have this
legislation which requires you to register if you're perceived
as being some kind of mouthpiece for a foreign government.
Or you know, for example, people that are working for Press TV or
Russia Today are are now required to to register as being
foreign influencers effectively. Is that is that a thing?
Yes, there there is a requirement there that came in.
I'm hazy on those details. I don't know any nitty gritty
about that, but there there is a requirement that came in think a
few years ago of a similar nature that if you're funded
from a foreign, foreign organisation then it has to be
declared. That's something that's fairly
recent in the last couple of years as I recall.
But if yeah, it's similar fashion is there and do.
You know what the consequences are of registering that.
I don't know. I think the consequences are you
have to register so that people are aware.
I don't think there's a, there's a restriction only necessarily
that I'm aware of, but it's not something I know a great deal
about. You're presenting an idea of a
country that that is functioning better than many Western
countries, that that has better quality food than most Western
countries, better healthcare than most Western countries, and
a better attitude towards their own, their government than
perhaps many people have in Western countries.
What are the downsides to living there?
Yes, there's downsides. 11 is a result of the current situation,
which is not that easy to get directly in and out of the
country depending on where you're wanting to fly to.
And likewise a transfer of money across the border is tricky, but
that's just because of the current situation.
Although that is going to stay long term, I don't see sanctions
being lifted anytime soon. Things they're not particularly
good at is Rd planning and Rd building they're fairly
appalling at and there is still corruption in in the country.
It tends to be mostly private. So there might be a for example,
there's a building near us for example, a block of flats that
went up a few years ago. It got half built, the flats got
sold and then the, the people running the business fled to
London with all the money. And those situations do get
sorted out. But the, it's, there's a long
procedure to do that. Eventually the government will
take over the building, they'll finish building it and then
people will get the properties that they paid for.
So there's that sort of corruption at the, the local
level does go on. It's those sort of things that
that could be improved. But yeah, they're terrible at
building roads. They'll build them and then six
months later they'll they'll need filling in again.
Having said that, from where I grew up in in Kent, the roads
are better than there and. What about the railways?
Are they better at building railways?
They're much better at building railways.
There's, there's so good high speed links and they're just
starting to build another high speed link between Saint
Petersburg and Moscow, which will go into operation in a few
years. They started it I think last
year, can't remember exactly, but within sort of 5-6 years it
will be certainly testing and probably getting nearly
operational. And then they'll be running
services that take two, about two to 2 1/2 hours instead of
the current 3 1/2 to 4 hours to get from Saint Petersburg to
Moscow. And they'll eventually be
running those trains every 15 minutes.
It's a few 100 miles and the current high speed train takes
about 3 1/2 hours. When you say high speed, what do
you mean by that? Oh, it's it's around about 150
off the top of my head. Yeah, 150 a 160.
It's not it's not the the 8090 miles an hour high speed.
No, no, I was just wondering what's China about 230 or
something at the moment? Miles an hour, so 350 kilometres
an hour, whatever that is. I'm just wondering if they were
if they're beginning to compete. The current system, no, it's not
at that level. I don't know what the new one's
going to be, but they're they're building a new track
specifically for a faster train. It probably won't be as good as
China's, let's face it, but it will be a significant
improvement on the current, the current system.
And they're also, they're also developing it because of the,
the sanction situation. They're also having to develop
it now using their own technology and developing their
own technology as opposed to using overseas technology in
many cases. Another example of that is at
the moment they're just doing final testing flights of the
first commercial jet liner that Russia's built, where everything
is from within Russia using no external resources or anything.
So it's been designed, built, developed and built purely using
Russian resources from everything within the country.
And that will go into production, I think next year to
replace all the Boeing's that they're currently relying on
through air travel. Yes, because, well, it's, it's
interesting because I noticed that China is, is using Boeing
and Airbus, but they're using a lot of Boeing aircraft.
And China has, has just recently decided to suspend the delivery
of of a whole batch of new Boeing aircraft that we're
expecting to get because of the the tariff situation.
But you know, spare parts are going to be subjected to tariff
problems as well. So I just wonder.
It is interesting that countries are starting to to look at their
own industry again. Yes.
I don't know whether China could get some spare parts from Russia
for their Boeing's spare parts were part of the sanction from
the beginning. So they've they've had to again,
it's another aspect of industry. They've had to develop their
own. It is a fascinating country and
I'm interested that that you know, you you are aware of
people that are planning on immigrating and what kind of
time scales are they sort of looking at for that?
There's a couple that have already gone.
This is a group of I'm in touch with about 30 and we try and
meet up when we, when we can get together from time to time as
well to, to have physically me as opposed to just communicate
via phones. But there's, there's a couple,
there's a couple who are coming out for a few weeks later this
year for a holiday to visit the area they wish to move to, but
they're planning on moving fairly soon after that.
There's another couple with a young family who are gearing up
to move next summer and then others at various stages.
It takes, it can take a while to pack up your life and then ship
everything abroad and there's complications with applications
and the the humdrum of paperwork and all that sort of thing.
So it's not something that happens.
Overnight. Are these old people that have
taken inspiration from you, or have you just got to know them?
Because, in fact, how have you got to know them?
Yeah. I've got to, I've got to know
them completely opposite. They, they, they were inspired
to, to go. And then I, I got in touch just
through comments on the social media chat, Telegram chat, got
to know one person and then in, in that group and then said,
well, come along and join. It'll be interesting to have
your experience because you're already on the other side.
And so got to know them that way and happy to help out where I
can. I'm happy to have a conversation
like this because although Russia is far from perfect,
it's, it's more perfect than a lot of other places to live.
So my campaign, if anything, is just to try and open a window on
Russia, try and help people understand it a bit better than
it was and encourage people to come and visit, at least for
yourself, because you can still get a tourist visa, you can
still come over and have a great holiday.
I'm quite happy to act as a tour guide if you're in the Saint
Petersburg area, but just to try and open up people's minds a bit
to help them understand that Russia isn't how it's perceived.
But it's it's just a normal country full of normal people
who happen to live in a different country, speak a
different language, and live under a political system that is
in disagreement with their political system.
But at the end of the day, people are people.
To sum it up best, my son, one of my sons came out a couple of
years ago for a visit. And I said, just form your own
opinion. Go back and tell everybody
whatever you think, whatever your honest opinion of the
country, you love it, hate it, whatever you've found.
And I, and I said to him at the end, I said, just what's your,
what's your summing up? What do you think of, of Russia?
And his response, first response was it's just so normal.
And that's it. It's just, it's just, it's a
country full of normal people living their normal lives.
Or trying to and and probably succeeding a lot better than
than we are. Well, you know, you paint you
paint a generally optimistic view of it.
You're clearly you're living there most of the time.
So so you clearly do enjoy it. These people we should not be
viewing as our enemy. A. 100% yeah.
They're not our enemy. The the the enemy is the As with
most places, the enemy is your your your own your own political
class. The want of a better expression.
Well, Malcolm, we'll leave it there for today.
Thank you very much. It's been a fascinating
conversation. If anybody is inspired by this
to to move, how would they contact you if they wanted to?
Easiest way to contact me? I've got a very small telegram
channel where I occasionally post day to day life is called
An Englishman Abroad and you can get in touch with me through
that. Brilliant.
Thank you very much. And hopefully you'll get a few
more subscribers to that Channel in the not too distant future.
So thank you for joining me. Thank you.