Thread: Is Russsia Dangerous?

Robbery consists of either pulling a knife or gun, or tying you up and demanding money. You were swindled i say, swindled.

I have a feeling that if he didn't play their "game" he would have seen the knife or gun......

I doubt it. Why not show it at once if you have one?

Technically, KV's instincts worked fine, there is no point being a hero or risk the things to get physical over twenty bucks. That whole story looks like a secondary school encounter. Maybe a black eye, but no more than that. If they were serious about robbing someone, there'd be no talking. A crowbar makes the shortest conversation.

Originally Posted by adoc

I doubt it. Why not show it at once if you have one?
A crowbar makes the shortest conversation.

Yes, but if you know you can get the money without any risk of police involvement by playing a game it is a win-win situation. And, anyway it is not like bandits have something else better to do with their time now, is it?

A) They were very inquisitive to find out where I live, who I was with and my family status. Intimidation? Maybe.
B) We were in an open public place, I am sure they would restrain themselves with crowbars and violence.
C) I firmly believe that I was not delibrately targeted, it was somewhat random. I didn't look like a tourist, people mistook me for being a Russian many times (mainly because I always wore balck and a shapka). Basbushkas kept asking me for directions

Of course it's hard to tell for sure what sort of trash it was, and my limited knowledge of the situation strictly speaking is only applicable to the beginning of the 90s in Moscow. I somehow think things have not changed much since then, particularly far away from M. and St-P. There would be two kinds of groups on any given market. The organized racketeers, but they would only collect money from the entrepreneurs. I've never heard of them harassing the clients or bystanders, that just would not be wise, unless they were some dumb newcomers. Those people are armed and dangerous, and would there be a showdown of any sort, no police would get involved. It's all divided territory, the police would just turn a blind eye, so the bandits would not make a small talk, just get straight to business.

Others are small time criminals, thieves and some punk street gangs. They know they are on other people's turf, so they would not start anything big. Asking for an address is a typical intimidation strategy, so is the "good gangster-bad gangster" role playing. Overall I believe, you, KV, did very well, considering your first (I assume) experience (no confrontation, no cries for police or help, no panic, did not let them follow you). I also somehow think they knew you were from out of town (just look at your picture )

Robbery is how the gypsies got my metro token.

Gypsy 1 pesters me for money.
I, heavily laden with wares, have none, and merely say "no" and continue on my way.
Gypsies 2, 3, 4, 5, and 5.5 (5.5 being the baby strapped to 5s back) harrass me more, pulling at things until I got pissed and started pushing people.
I beat them back with my AK-47, but after I ducked into a metro station I found I had lost my metro token.

Moral of the story: don't look like a tourist.

Only time I've ever felt any danger or been seriously hassled...anywhere in Russia...

Moscow militzia...Moscow militzia...Moscow militzia...

...on the other hand, a few years back I had a very young, probably novice militzia, help me out a great deal when I was a bit confused where the heck I was, and where the heck I was going...after a bit of a bender...he was a truly kind soul, and I'll never forget his kindness...I just wish they were all like that.

You..uh..didn't tell them about masterrussian... did you?

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Haven't you seen the movie I made about it yet?

The story is, I went to the chinese market alone (my Russian friend, whom I was visiting, had to go on an unexpected business trip), bought my food and was about to leave. Then these two guys walk past me and one of them says something. Like any warm-blooded Russian I ignore him. But he is insulted (later I find out he is a whacko) and follows after me. So finally he stops me and asks me something. Now this is in low-level street Russian in overdrive and I humbly say I don't understand (in Russian). The light in his eyes lit up, right there, when he discovered I was a foreigner!

Well he talks to me, keep asking if I have met any Russian bandits yet and whether I like Russia, bla bla, where do I live, what is the name of my friend (I "couldn't" remember the address, but only the area (lie lie lie)) etc. So eventually they walk me out and ask for "help" for their friends in jail, so he asks how much money do I have. And I say 100 roubles (I had 600). He asks "врёшь?", and I pretend to be insulted (so far things were cordial between us) so he backed off. He collected his money and wrote down a name and number to call if I ever have trouble in Vladivostok (my very own крыша). But only between 8 am and 10 am or 8 pm and 10 pm (that was weird). All this time hundreds of people were walking around us looking at me giving money to them. Thanks guys! (but I understand their predicament)

You think it ends there? I start walking in the general direction of home, and after 5 minutes I see his friend running after me!! He quickly explains that there is another gang who saw me give money to them and are after me (oh @@@@), so he wants to escort me home. This would cost me another 200 roubles. So we start going (fast) and we agree only to go to the bus stop (not far from where I lived), because I didn't feel comfortable with them all the way home (I tried as hard as I could to not allow them to find out where I lived). Then the other guy (first one) comes running all excited describing the other gang, I still don't know if they were making it all up, or if it was real, but it seemed very real at the time. So they wanted their money... So I said I only have a 500... (basically I told them I lied earlier) and didn't have change. They said no problem there is a little shop right here and we can get change.

So I buy us three beers and we sit down talking. They were very interested in my family, what does my dad do, what do I do (I am a poor student, my dad paid for my trip here as a birthday present (man I lie good)), etc. Then they teach me some русский мать, they were quite impressed with my level of Russian and swear word vocab. They also gave me a new number to call (the other one was fake) which I could call any time (at this time we were "friends")

Now to describe the two. One was a dark haired with a big nose and a really strange look, as if he was constantly thinking: should I beat up everybody in this room? He was the one calling the shots, the other one was a much nicer one (in my mind), a blonde man (they were both in their early 20s) and with a scar on his left cheek. The blonde would calm down the dark one, but the dark one would get angry at the other one quite often. Both seemed kind of dim-witted... and of course were dressed in black leather.

Well the dark went out to see if they were still following us, and I took the oppertunity to let the blonde one know that it was time for me to go home, and I said my goodbyes and left (the dark one is probably still pissed about it). I went in a different entrance and ran in and locked myself. Didn't leave until Ivan (my friend) got back...

Wheew, what an experience!!! Sorry if it was boring...

Originally Posted by Rosa Anna

You..uh..didn't tell them about masterrussian... did you?

Luckily it was before Masterrussian, if not, they would be coming here knocking on our virtual door!!

I had a similarly scary experience while I was staying in Saratov over the summer. It was me and my american friend, and we were also with a few of our russian friends. We were walking past lib'ki park at about 1 o'clock in the morning, when a drunk guy started shouting a bunch of swear words at us in english. We were all a little drunk, and thought this was pretty amusing, so my friend gave him a thumbs up and we continued on our way. That was a mistake.

Apparently, the guy thought my friend was flicking him off, and became rather belligerant with us. He ran up to my friend and grabbed him by the neck, and was shouting at us incoherently (nonsensical even in russian!). Meanwhile, i'm pretty shooken up, and don't speak fluent russian by any stretch of the imagination. I'm trying to tell this guy that we're sorry, that doing that in america is a good thing, and that it wasn't meant as an insult. To furthermore exacerbate the situation, the two russian girls we were with ran off, so we were pretty much on our own at this point.

Then, all of a sudden out of nowhere these three guys run up and beat the living hell out of the kid who was holding my friends neck. As soon as my friend was free, we took off down the prospekt and actually saw our two friends a few blocks away. When I asked them what had just happened, my friend Julia said not to worry, that her chechnyan friends would take care of us.

At any rate, I think my best advice to anybody would be to try and make a couple of russian friends when you get wherever you're going. While that was my most violent encounter, there were a few other potentially dangerous situations that would have escalated had I not had a few native russians around to talk our way out of it.

Also, I guess as a disclaimer, I didn't exactly make the best safety-conscious decisions while I was there. We'd often be hanging around on the streets late at night, drunk, etc... so one could easily make the argument that we set ourselves up for it.

tdk

There are many dangerous places here in America that I would not dare go. In fact, there are some places here in Las Vegas that I would not dare go.

I am sure the same holds true in Russia or any other country.

Just use your common sense and don't go walking around the slums and dark alleyways at 3:00 in the morning.

Originally Posted by tdk2fe

Also, I guess as a disclaimer, I didn't exactly make the best safety-conscious decisions while I was there. We'd often be hanging around on the streets late at night, drunk, etc... so one could easily make the argument that we set ourselves up for it.

tdk

Yep, agreed, with you and kwatts. I've done this also, but I've been lucky I guess...and I tend to have a knack for fading into the scenery, avoiding, and going unnoticed. But kwatts is absolutely right...there are places in America where I've felt in FAR greater danger than I EVER have in Russia. I can think of several potentially dangerous situations I was in, even in the supposedly "safe, quiet" heartland cities of St. Louis, and Kansas City...my old stomping grounds many years ago...they make Moscow and Petersburg guys look like little children in the field of violence. No joke. Welcome to gangstas and the 'hood...it's as bad as South Central L.A., and with the meth and crack drug businesses fueling much of the rage, violence, and gang actions.
And man, don't even get me started on Wash, DC.

Well, at least in America you can expect to get help from the police, something that is not always true with the милиция...

Howcome the average joes are alwasy scarred to go in dark alleys at night, but weirdos arnt? I mean. arnt they afraid they might get attacked by yet another weirdo? If ur ever walking alone late at night, just pretend ur a weirdo and if u see someone just try to attack them and then everyone should leave you alone.

lol, that is exactly what I did once in Piter.

I was walking on Vasilievsky Ostrov home at midnight, after escorting a girl home. I saw two guys walking on my side of the street coming towards me. I put on the meanest face I could, and puffed myself up to seem bigger. And they went to the other side of the street!!!

[quote="JB"]I'm an American girl from a big city and consider myself street-wise and careful. I think Russia is dangerous for fools and those who come here unprepared (lacking language and knowledge of the culture).

Russia as dangerous as any other country. plus "skeenheads" for those who are not Caucasian, especially afroamericans. That is all.

Well, one thing my friend said to me was that (at least in saratov), nobody really used guns. Just bottles and streetsigns.

tdk

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Howcome the average joes are alwasy scarred to go in dark alleys at night, but weirdos arnt? I mean. arnt they afraid they might get attacked by yet another weirdo? If ur ever walking alone late at night, just pretend ur a weirdo and if u see someone just try to attack them and then everyone should leave you alone.

That's EXACTLY what works...

Originally Posted by zheku

Originally Posted by JB

Russia as dangerous as any other country. plus "skeenheads" for those who are not Caucasian, especially afroamericans. That is all.

Thanks. Makes Russia seem like a really friendly country for non-whites.
I am continuing to learn the language for several reasons, but won't be visiting Russia anytime soon.