Thread: How bad off are Russians in reality?

Back on the original subject. I've been living and travelling in Russia for the last 18 months, and I think it's quite an expensive place to live. I'm here on a western european salary, but the supermarkets and restaurants are at western prices !

St Petersburg's probably the cheapest of the places I've been, certainly cheaper than Moscow and also, perhaps surprisingly, cheaper than say Krasnoyarsk. Maybe it's because St P is the first port of call for foreign imported goods.

Cannon, where were you when I needed you? Gunsmith? ........I am missing the screw that holds the ejector rod housing to the barrel of my Blackhawk. It all blew off (rod, housing,spring and screw) when I tried to put a sick cow down and landed under her head. To make matters worse the bullet must have glanced off her head and she was pretty mad by then. It took quite a while to get the parts back. She had big horns!
Never did find the screw.

@solaris: What country are you from? If you wrote it somewhere else and I didn't see, I apologize.

Originally Posted by DDT

Wikipaedia presents a watered down and PC view of Islam. Shortly after this his "ministry" went into full swing by "converting" people ............with his sword! And Islam continued converting in this fashion all the way up into the southern half of Europe. Rightly so the people of Europe were deathly afraid. Hence the Crusades. The Crusades saved Europe from complete Islamic domination. Yes, it is true that the Vatican backed the Crusades but keep in mind that it feared for its' own survival at the time of the firt crusade.
Islam is the fastest growing religion today, again. If you still want to defend her you have that right.

Actually, Convert or Die is a myth. Muslims had a special tax added on to non Muslims because they couldn't tax other Muslims besides what they payed to support the Ummah. So why would they want all the conquered people to convert to Islam if they would lose a giant tax base? I'm sure most people that converted to Islam at the time were doing it not because they believed in it, but it had its advantages. They wouldn't have to pay the extra taxes and they wouldn't be second class citizens. The Muslims allowed the Jews and Christians to stay in there only villages and govern themselves but once they left the village they were under Muslim law and they were still second class citizens. I do believe that Saladdin or one of the Turks that was in charge of Jerusalem at the time of the crusades allowed Jews and Christains to visit peacefully.