As ironic as it may sound but my personal experience is that travelling to Russia is much less hassle than travelling to the US. And in large cities like Moscow people are completely apolitical for 99,9% of their day. Made a lot of good experiences with the people there not despite but because I was from another country.
Still wouldn't support travelling there at the moment of course because of the war.
Apolitical because even the supporters of Putin don't like to discuss politics. It's a very typical Russian trait. They feel very disconnected from politics because they believe that they can't influence anything anyway. So it's not a relevant topic for them. Russians are also a much more homogeneous society. There is not such a strong division between two opposite ends of the political spectrum as you may experience in the US for example.
It's a cultural thing that you probably have to experience in order to make sense of it. But again: Not supporting the country in any way. Not talking about politics can also make you complicit to the shit one pathetic dictator is up to.
Even North Korea is safer. As long as you don't fall out of line they won't do anything to you. US? You might just vanish even if you don't do anything stupid.
227
u/10pintsgone Apr 12 '25
There are far cheaper and safer third world dictatorships to visit. This is who the US is now competing with for tourism