Hello everyone,

I am from Italy and I registered on this forum for two reasons.

Firstly, I decided to invest a great amount of my time to study Russian.

Secondly, I would like to better understand the perceptions and norms about (love) relationships in Russia. My questions are in no way related to commercial dating, but rather to what is generally common within the society of modern Russia.

I have already seen 4-5 Russian films in which infidelity and affairs are condoned as something positive, and also one of my best friends (a daughter of Russian immigrants) says that she will "love/marry only one person, but can have many lovers" - and she is one of the most religious people I have ever met (in the sense of good qualities).
I once even dated a Russian girl for a week until she admitted to me that I am just her "lover" and her true boyfriend is in Russia.................... that was outrageous! But somehow for them it is normal.

So alltogether I got the impression that in Russia it is normal/positive/accepted to fall in love with other people while being in a fixed relationship. Am I right?

Are Russians generally more promiscuous/"open-minded" about relationships (open relationships)?

I am asking these questions because, should I ever go and live in Russia any time in my life and/or develop any relationships there, I wouldn't want to end up neither someone's secondary lover nor be cheated on...
...or simply I would like to be prepared what to expect.

Thanks