Quote Originally Posted by Basil77 View Post
First, I don't think that the picture is strongly differ from any country around the world. All politicans are crooks and liars, didn't you know that? Second, Russia was run like that for centuries, patriotism has nothing to do with this, do you think that we never had some patriotic feelings?
I really don't think that all politicians are corrupt. It depends on what country you compare with. In several smaller countries in Europe there is practically no corruption among politicians. It's certainly not perfect, but there is no unholy alliance between business and politicians to rip off the people and manipulate politics, like there seems to be in the USA and Russia at the moment.

I know Russians are patriotic on holidays etc.... Seems to me like those who really love their country should try to do something stop it from being abused and plundered by crooks.

Quote Originally Posted by Ramil View Post
You need to make a distinction between the country and the state. One can love his country but hate the state.
Yeah that's true... That's an interesting discussion, really. Why should people be (or not be) patriots... Plus in the case of people from the ex-USSR area, it becomes more complicated since they were born in one country.. and find themselves living in another, without actually having moved... And also; people seemed to be mixed a bit; Russians living outside of Russia, and people from other parts of the CIS area living in Russia. How does that affect things... ?

Regardless though; I think the way that the country is run affects whether you want to live there or not..! If politicians make a complete shambles of things or the political climate is intolerable for some reason; then I imagine it must be hard to feel patriotic.

I agree that Russian culture and nature are both great, and I can understand this compensates for the other areas.