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⁠Malcolm Hills: An Englishman Abroad⁠ · UK Column Radio

0:17
Speaker 1: Hello, one, Welcome to the UK Column today. I am
0:20
Speaker 1: joined by Malcolm Hill, a UK column member who's been
0:23
Speaker 1: following the UK Column's work I believe since twenty nineteen. Malcolm,
0:27
Speaker 1: and you are working UK based but living in Russia.
0:33
Speaker 1: Just give us a little background on why you got
0:36
Speaker 1: involved with the UK Coleman and why you're living in Russia.
0:39
Speaker 2: Hi, thanks for the invitation to come on. Got involved
0:43
Speaker 2: with the column, started watching it. I was already looking
0:45
Speaker 2: at various channels and following people, and I can't remember
0:49
Speaker 2: how I came across you, to be honest to start with,
0:52
Speaker 2: but it seemed you were saying the right things, and
0:55
Speaker 2: started following you on a fairly regular basis. And then
0:59
Speaker 2: when COVID came, that became a permanent thing essential viewing.
1:03
Speaker 1: What took you to live in Russia in the first place.
1:06
Speaker 2: More, My wife's Russian and we were lived over here
1:11
Speaker 2: for several years, in London and in Wales and then
1:15
Speaker 2: fancy the change was starting dislike the UK more and
1:19
Speaker 2: more in terms of being here, and it seemed the
1:22
Speaker 2: next logical step to try living there. We thought we'd
1:24
Speaker 2: give it to go see if I liked it or not.
1:28
Speaker 2: And I seem to fit right in. So we're settled, happy,
1:31
Speaker 2: and we stayed there.
1:32
Speaker 1: What I'd like to do is to discuss why you
1:36
Speaker 1: fit right in, because you know, this is something a
1:39
Speaker 1: lot of people in the UK have no understanding of Russia,
1:43
Speaker 1: no understanding of China. Today we're talking about Russia. It's
1:47
Speaker 1: understandable that we don't because we've you know, many of
1:50
Speaker 1: us have grown up believing that Russia is the great enemy.
1:53
Speaker 1: Whether that be because we're old enough to have lived
1:56
Speaker 1: through the Cold War or the end of the Cold War,
1:59
Speaker 1: or because we've listened if we're younger and listened to
2:02
Speaker 1: the propaganda that we've been bombarded with over the last
2:05
Speaker 1: twenty years or so. So Russia is perceived as being
2:08
Speaker 1: the great enemy. How have you find it? What are
2:13
Speaker 1: the people like actually when you meet them day to day?
2:17
Speaker 1: And I suppose what is really would be of interest
2:22
Speaker 1: is what's the view of the world. Are they optimistic
2:25
Speaker 1: or pessimistic about the future?
2:27
Speaker 2: Oh? Good questions? How I find them when I first
2:30
Speaker 2: got there, and how I find them still to this day, warm, open, friendly,
2:35
Speaker 2: incredibly receptive. I've never had any issues or problems at all.
2:41
Speaker 2: Everybody knows I'm English because I walk around and speak English.
2:44
Speaker 2: I converse in English with my wife when we're out
2:47
Speaker 2: quite often get people come up and ask where I'm from,
2:51
Speaker 2: what I'm doing there, and that sort of thing, genuine interest.
2:56
Speaker 2: They're sometimes seeing a bit disbelieving that I'm there and
2:59
Speaker 2: what I be there, because from social media and from
3:03
Speaker 2: particularly the younger generations they're up to sort of mid
3:05
Speaker 2: twenties who didn't live perhaps through some of the harder times.
3:10
Speaker 2: They're obsessed with the West and how great it seems
3:13
Speaker 2: to be and how great it's portrayed. But a short
3:17
Speaker 2: conversation seems to put them right on that score. How
3:21
Speaker 2: they view the world that they themselves realistically positive. Life's
3:29
Speaker 2: been getting better continuously there since the beginning of the
3:32
Speaker 2: two thousands. It was a slow progression to start with,
3:35
Speaker 2: but certainly in the last ten years that's accelerated. Everybody's
3:38
Speaker 2: better off, everybody's got a more comfortable standard of living,
3:43
Speaker 2: and the future looked bright.
3:45
Speaker 1: So everyone's better off. Is that, including in the last
3:49
Speaker 1: two or three years since the West has been imposing sanctions.
3:53
Speaker 2: Especially in the last two or three years, there's an
3:56
Speaker 2: awful lot of industry that's come back there's more employment,
3:59
Speaker 2: there's a lot more money floating around.
4:01
Speaker 1: So this is quite contrary to the narrative that we're presented,
4:05
Speaker 1: because we're being told that sanctions are really heading the
4:08
Speaker 1: Russian economy hard and life is getting harder for Russians
4:11
Speaker 1: every day.
4:13
Speaker 2: Yes, I see that, because I do follow Western US
4:17
Speaker 2: to an extent, just to keep a finger on the pulse.
4:20
Speaker 2: But no, the truth is that where a lot of
4:24
Speaker 2: industry was taken away in the nineteen nineties and shipped abroad,
4:31
Speaker 2: Certainly lots of profits from industry and from resources were
4:34
Speaker 2: taken away in the nineties and they have disappeared abroad.
4:37
Speaker 2: They've been coming back gradually since then, since the early
4:40
Speaker 2: two thousands, but in the last not just the last
4:43
Speaker 2: two three years, because sanctions against Russia started around twenty fourteen,
4:49
Speaker 2: so they've developed over the last ten years. Industry has
4:53
Speaker 2: come back, the economy has improved, It grew very well
4:58
Speaker 2: last year. Everybody is happy.
5:01
Speaker 1: And so what is the attitude amongst ordinary people in
5:06
Speaker 1: Saint Petersburg to what's going on in Ukraine.
5:08
Speaker 2: Then the attitude is the same as that it was
5:10
Speaker 2: at the start of the problems. It's a shame it's happening.
5:14
Speaker 2: Nobody wants it to happen, but they understand that if
5:18
Speaker 2: the security the Russia of Russia and the Russian border
5:23
Speaker 2: isn't resolved, then it's a problem that's never going to
5:26
Speaker 2: go away. It does need fixing one way or the other,
5:31
Speaker 2: through preferably through negotiation and through peaceful talk that didn't
5:35
Speaker 2: seem to work. So they want it to the conflict
5:38
Speaker 2: to end, of course they do, but they understand at
5:42
Speaker 2: the moment for Russian security it's necessary until a better
5:46
Speaker 2: alternative presents itself, which is the ideal solution.
5:50
Speaker 1: So they're generally supportive of the action that the Russian
5:53
Speaker 1: government has taken. Would that be a fair thing to say?
5:56
Speaker 2: Yes, very supportive and more supportive as time has gone on.
6:00
Speaker 1: Right, And so what's their view of NATO and the West?
6:02
Speaker 2: Then, much as you'd probably imagine what what's what's NATO
6:08
Speaker 2: doing better? Better? Perhaps? Rather than having a view most
6:12
Speaker 2: a lot of Russians day to day on the street
6:15
Speaker 2: don't have a particular worldview of politics and what's going
6:21
Speaker 2: on in the greater world. As a nation, it's just
6:24
Speaker 2: why can't we live in peace? Why don't you just
6:26
Speaker 2: leave us alone?
6:27
Speaker 1: That's pretty clear. Then, yeah, what about their attitude towards China,
6:33
Speaker 1: the so called global size bricks and this kind of initiative.
6:38
Speaker 2: The more the more trade and international trade, the better.
6:42
Speaker 2: Why can't we Why can't we trade more? You know?
6:44
Speaker 2: Why why can't we get on? What's the problem with
6:47
Speaker 2: the wars and issues that we don't need, whether that's
6:51
Speaker 2: coming from the West or from anywhere else. You know,
6:53
Speaker 2: the world's a big place, the room for everybody. Trade
6:56
Speaker 2: is good, travel is good, and integration with other nations
7:01
Speaker 2: is good. Russia's got so many different ethnicities and a
7:04
Speaker 2: lot of immigration from foreign countries, and everybody rubs along
7:08
Speaker 2: fairly well.
7:08
Speaker 1: So you've brought up the issue of immigration that they
7:11
Speaker 1: do have an immigration situation, do they or is it
7:16
Speaker 1: not perceived as being a negative thing.
7:19
Speaker 2: There's been a clamp down or starting to be a
7:21
Speaker 2: clamp down on illegal immigration. Immigration per se is absolutely fine,
7:25
Speaker 2: it's welcome. The population of Russia is not growing far.
7:30
Speaker 2: In fact, it's been declining fairly over the last few years.
7:35
Speaker 2: So immigration is a good thing. It seems a positive thing.
7:38
Speaker 2: But there is elements of illegal immigration which they are
7:40
Speaker 2: trying to clamp down on because that's where there are
7:45
Speaker 2: more complicated social issues involved with that.
7:47
Speaker 1: And is there a significant English speaking community in Russia.
7:51
Speaker 2: Then yes, there's not a massive community where everybody gets
7:57
Speaker 2: together and has got and that sort of thing, but
8:01
Speaker 2: there is a growing number of people of English speaking
8:05
Speaker 2: people who are emigrating out there. I'm in touch at
8:11
Speaker 2: the moment with about thirty people in the UK who
8:13
Speaker 2: are in the process of moving out there in the
8:16
Speaker 2: next year or two. There's a new if we want
8:19
Speaker 2: to talk about it, we can get onto that. There's
8:21
Speaker 2: a new Russian visa that's been launched end of last
8:25
Speaker 2: year to make it very easy for people from a
8:28
Speaker 2: large number of countries, predominantly Western to emigrate if they
8:31
Speaker 2: wish to.
8:31
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. I mean, obviously without giving away
8:34
Speaker 1: any personal information, what would be the motivation that the
8:38
Speaker 1: people you know are going there? What's their motivation for
8:41
Speaker 1: doing that?
8:42
Speaker 2: Similar to mine, a disillusionment with the UK. Also there's
8:47
Speaker 2: a very large contingent from America and Canada as well.
8:51
Speaker 2: It's not just from the UK, but disillusionment with the UK,
8:56
Speaker 2: with the cultural values, with the social values, and the
8:59
Speaker 2: way things are changed. On that basis, the new visa
9:02
Speaker 2: program that was introduced is called the Shared Values Visa
9:05
Speaker 2: and essentially is on the basis that you state that
9:09
Speaker 2: you are you disagree with the imposed ideological views of
9:14
Speaker 2: your current nation that contradict Russian spiritual and moral values,
9:19
Speaker 2: and on that basis, that's basically all you need to
9:22
Speaker 2: do to applying age what will turn out to be
9:26
Speaker 2: a three year temporary residency.
9:28
Speaker 1: And what would be the expectations from the Russian government
9:32
Speaker 1: about your ability to survive financially and so on.
9:36
Speaker 2: Work is your own problem. It does give you, it
9:40
Speaker 2: does have permission to work, so you're free to work there.
9:43
Speaker 2: It's a three year temporary residency and at the end
9:45
Speaker 2: of that if you wish to settle and you would
9:47
Speaker 2: need to then pass a Russian language exam as per
9:51
Speaker 2: other methods of gaining permanent residency. Essentially, it's a very
9:57
Speaker 2: very quick way to get across to to move over there,
10:01
Speaker 2: move to any part of the country you wish to settle,
10:06
Speaker 2: work and start to make a life for yourself if
10:08
Speaker 2: that's what you want to do.
10:09
Speaker 1: But there's no particular support if you do that, you've
10:13
Speaker 1: got to you absolutely have to stand on your own
10:15
Speaker 1: two feet.
10:16
Speaker 2: Yes, there's no financial support for that, But it's designed
10:20
Speaker 2: as an opportunity for people who don't share their own
10:24
Speaker 2: countries moral value, shall we say, and would like to
10:28
Speaker 2: raise their children, perhaps elsewhere, or just to themselves live
10:32
Speaker 2: in some where that's more welcoming to their views of life.
10:36
Speaker 1: You know, one of the criticisms of Russia and China
10:39
Speaker 1: is that they are simply the other side of the
10:42
Speaker 1: same coin, that they're building technocracy in the same way
10:46
Speaker 1: that we are in the West. That AI and CBDC
10:51
Speaker 1: and digital ID and these types of things are just
10:54
Speaker 1: around the corner as much there as they are here.
10:57
Speaker 1: What's your perception of that.
11:00
Speaker 2: Yes, that's definitely happening. I'm not a fan of those things.
11:05
Speaker 2: Having said that, it's a lot of it will come
11:08
Speaker 2: down to how it's implemented and how it's used or abused.
11:12
Speaker 2: I think it's inevitable wherever you're going to be in
11:14
Speaker 2: the world, the technology is coming. In terms of identification.
11:20
Speaker 2: There's always been more of that out there anyway. It's
11:22
Speaker 2: very natural to be Russians have an internal passport, shall
11:26
Speaker 2: we say, which they use for identification for things, and
11:32
Speaker 2: what will happen is a digital version of that. But
11:35
Speaker 2: you need that anyway, you know, to open a bank
11:38
Speaker 2: account or to go to do government services or a
11:40
Speaker 2: lot of other things. You need your idea with you anyway.
11:45
Speaker 2: But that's just always been a part of the Russian
11:47
Speaker 2: culture from the year dot so that's not seen as
11:51
Speaker 2: a threat in the same way. I'm sort of generally
11:54
Speaker 2: anti that sort of thing, but I think it's going
11:56
Speaker 2: to be eventually end up wherever you are in the
11:58
Speaker 2: world to an extent. But how they implement, say digital currency,
12:04
Speaker 2: and the way they use it or abuse it is
12:07
Speaker 2: more the issue for me.
12:09
Speaker 1: But they are not generally looking at that in the
12:12
Speaker 1: same negative light as people in the West might.
12:15
Speaker 2: For the normal person, No, No, it's just it is
12:20
Speaker 2: what it is. If it happens, that's what happens, and
12:22
Speaker 2: that's the way it is now. They're very although they
12:26
Speaker 2: have a good understanding of what's going on in the
12:28
Speaker 2: world and how things are and how different countries are
12:33
Speaker 2: acting positively or negatively against the country. They're sort of
12:37
Speaker 2: slightly disassociated from politics in the sense that there's a government.
12:42
Speaker 2: It's their job to run the country, their job to
12:44
Speaker 2: do that. My job is to get on with my life,
12:48
Speaker 2: and what the government does doesn't impact me particularly greatly.
12:52
Speaker 2: So that's kind of the general attitude of they're awhere,
12:57
Speaker 2: what's going on. They're not particularly engaged in a political way,
13:01
Speaker 2: apart from a young, younger subset of people. And again
13:05
Speaker 2: it's those that largely have been caught up in the
13:08
Speaker 2: social media campaigns who are far more vociferous about their
13:16
Speaker 2: political views.
13:17
Speaker 1: Of what kind of opposition is allied in Russia, of
13:22
Speaker 1: what kind of freedom of speech is there? Do people
13:24
Speaker 1: speak out against Putin and the government.
13:28
Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's a little bit more constraint at the moment
13:31
Speaker 2: because the country is in a war situation, so there
13:34
Speaker 2: are a few things that you can't go out campaign against,
13:40
Speaker 2: which is general and thinking in most countries that are
13:44
Speaker 2: on a war footing, shall we say, But generally speaking,
13:48
Speaker 2: freedom of speech is fine. I've probably got a lot
13:52
Speaker 2: more freedom to say and speak my opinions there than
13:54
Speaker 2: I have in the UK. I'm not going to get
13:58
Speaker 2: arrested for saying the wrong thing. There are arrests and
14:02
Speaker 2: in Saint Petersburg's even from time to time, but usually
14:05
Speaker 2: it's where protests have gone into certain parts of the city.
14:10
Speaker 2: You can't protest, for example, you know in the same
14:13
Speaker 2: way in the UK. You can't just turn up and
14:15
Speaker 2: have an agreed march on Parliament Square or you know
14:20
Speaker 2: the certain parts of the city center where you can't
14:22
Speaker 2: just go around, and then people do that, and they
14:25
Speaker 2: do it quite deliberately because then they get arrested and
14:27
Speaker 2: then it makes good visuals.
14:29
Speaker 1: So but there is an opposition.
14:32
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, there is an opposition. It's not constrained
14:38
Speaker 2: in its ability to present itself. I don't know how
14:42
Speaker 2: many political parties because I don't engage particularly at that
14:47
Speaker 2: amount of that sort of politics in Russia, but there
14:50
Speaker 2: are several political parties. They will do rather well, some
14:54
Speaker 2: do better than others. The second In the last few elections,
14:58
Speaker 2: the second most popular party still the Communist Party, that
15:03
Speaker 2: varies between sort of ten and fifteen percent of the
15:05
Speaker 2: vote usually apart from the last election, it was reduced
15:08
Speaker 2: because the support for Pootin grew dramatically during the first
15:13
Speaker 2: couple of years of the military goings on.
15:17
Speaker 1: Is there an awareness in Russia in the general population
15:21
Speaker 1: of you know, some of the big anti Russia stories
15:24
Speaker 1: that we've seen in the West, like Scripple or NAVALNI
15:27
Speaker 1: or these Lavineko, any of these kinds of allegations that
15:31
Speaker 1: are made against the Russian state of attacking the West.
15:36
Speaker 2: Yes, they're aware of it, and they mostly sort of
15:39
Speaker 2: dismiss it out of hand as nonsense, is the short answer.
15:44
Speaker 1: And what about the likes of Dugan and the killing
15:51
Speaker 1: of his daughter? Is the West blame for that very much?
15:54
Speaker 2: So? Yes, that was a major event and was seen
16:00
Speaker 2: with fairly outwardly express discussed by most people. It was
16:08
Speaker 2: a very sad event, very unnecessary. But yes, a western
16:13
Speaker 2: Western attack.
16:14
Speaker 1: As that was viewed as a Western attack as opposed
16:16
Speaker 1: to Ukraine the end attack.
16:17
Speaker 2: Yes, because they have a good understanding that Ukraine is
16:21
Speaker 2: sort of the piggy in the middle and not the
16:24
Speaker 2: ultimate cause of the issues. Quite a lot of people
16:30
Speaker 2: will looked at what's happening in Ukraine and say, well,
16:33
Speaker 2: that's down to America. All that's down to the UK
16:36
Speaker 2: at the end of the day.
16:37
Speaker 1: So they've got good awareness there. Let's talk about the
16:40
Speaker 1: media in general. Does Russia today have a presence in
16:44
Speaker 1: Russia or is it mean the media is that Russian
16:47
Speaker 1: media being exported to other countries.
16:50
Speaker 2: It's both. I don't watch in the same way I
16:52
Speaker 2: don't watch much UK mainstream stuff. I don't watch particularly
16:57
Speaker 2: any or much Russian mainstream stuff.
17:00
Speaker 1: Is TV just being mainstream then.
17:02
Speaker 2: Well, yes, I mean it's yes, there is there is
17:05
Speaker 2: Russian language art, and then they do export in the
17:08
Speaker 2: various other languages. But yeah, it's reasonably mainstream. There are
17:15
Speaker 2: there are a few state proper state sponsored channels, shall
17:20
Speaker 2: we say, that have a variety of programs on I
17:24
Speaker 2: tend not to watch any of those, as I say,
17:26
Speaker 2: in the same way that watch the BBC, although for
17:31
Speaker 2: the same reasons is that all programming like that is
17:34
Speaker 2: going to be biased to an extent. Although what I
17:36
Speaker 2: would say is that when I do watch those sort
17:39
Speaker 2: of program political programs and discussions on the state channels,
17:44
Speaker 2: the alignment are though in favor of Russia and biased. Yes,
17:48
Speaker 2: without a doubt. The reporting of the news and the
17:52
Speaker 2: discussions centered around it are far more, far similar, more
17:56
Speaker 2: similar to what I pick up from independent media in
18:00
Speaker 2: the West. So the points of view will be very
18:03
Speaker 2: similar to say, conversation with a UK column or a
18:05
Speaker 2: number of other independent media channels in the West, perhaps
18:11
Speaker 2: more with a little bit of favor towards Russia, but
18:15
Speaker 2: far more balanced than I would get from a BBC
18:21
Speaker 2: or CNN or Fox or or whatever in the West.
18:25
Speaker 1: Are you saying that they would actually attempt to hold
18:28
Speaker 1: the Russian stead to a kind within reason.
18:31
Speaker 2: Yes, not as much as you want them to, no,
18:34
Speaker 2: but but yeah, there are there. There are conversations that
18:37
Speaker 2: that happen on There's a there's a program on every
18:40
Speaker 2: morning where they discuss the news of the day. It
18:43
Speaker 2: goes over two hours. There's a panel we stand around
18:46
Speaker 2: talking about it, and there's voices of dissent on there,
18:49
Speaker 2: and they have arguments and disagreements. So there are presentation
18:53
Speaker 2: of the views. The the Russian state political view will
18:59
Speaker 2: usually out in the end, but there are alternative views
19:03
Speaker 2: expressed on the TV on a more or less daily
19:06
Speaker 2: basis for people to watch, observe, think about, and didn't
19:10
Speaker 2: make you decide what they think.
19:12
Speaker 1: Maldam, there's a story about Christmas tree and people meeting
19:16
Speaker 1: putin what's the score with that?
19:18
Speaker 2: In Moscow there's a Christmas tree they have every year
19:21
Speaker 2: and people who invited to go and hang wishes on it,
19:25
Speaker 2: and Pootin is directly involving in that. And last not
19:31
Speaker 2: this Christmas, the one before someone a little girl hung
19:36
Speaker 2: her wish on the tree and her wish was to
19:38
Speaker 2: meet Pootin and that's exactly what happened to He arranged
19:41
Speaker 2: that and turned up and present it with little bouquet
19:45
Speaker 2: of flowers and had a nice chat with her, this
19:48
Speaker 2: four year old girl, I think she was.
19:50
Speaker 1: Did he do that kind of privately or did that
19:52
Speaker 1: become a pr exercise?
19:54
Speaker 2: It was televised, but the event is usually televised anyway,
19:59
Speaker 2: because there's various things going on there, and it's it's
20:02
Speaker 2: kind of like a not a charity, but it's various
20:05
Speaker 2: people who put particularly young young young children will be
20:08
Speaker 2: putting wishes on the tree and then a number of
20:11
Speaker 2: them are made to happen. This one obviously got a
20:13
Speaker 2: bit more coverage perhaps than usual, but it is a
20:16
Speaker 2: fairly well known event anyway.
20:17
Speaker 1: In terms of sort of day day to day life.
20:20
Speaker 1: Then what's the situation with transport, with supermarkets, with just
20:26
Speaker 1: ordinary day to day stuff? Does that or function or
20:31
Speaker 1: is that like the UK or Europe with trends not
20:35
Speaker 1: running on time, breaking down, signaling not working this kind
20:39
Speaker 1: of thing.
20:40
Speaker 2: It functions better they I mean, I do understand I
20:45
Speaker 2: live in one of the larger cities, much bigger than
20:49
Speaker 2: Birmingham not quite as big as London, and Moscow again
20:52
Speaker 2: is obviously huge as well. But in there the transportation works.
20:57
Speaker 2: There's trams, metros, normal buses and other fault of the
21:04
Speaker 2: usual forms of transport, and they all function very very
21:07
Speaker 2: well in the winter, even in the winter.
21:11
Speaker 1: Yes, well this is this is it because obviously Saint
21:15
Speaker 1: Petersburg and Moscow will have proper winters with proper below
21:20
Speaker 1: zero temperatures and proper snow. So I mean, I presume
21:24
Speaker 1: you still have proper snows, but are still all functions.
21:27
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, global warming means that our winters only get
21:30
Speaker 2: down through about minus thirty now on a cold day,
21:34
Speaker 2: the average it around minus ten to minus fifteen. But yeah,
21:40
Speaker 2: all the public transport still works perfectly. Find the trains
21:43
Speaker 2: are still running, obviously, the metro still runs, but the
21:47
Speaker 2: buses and the trams and everything else still go. They
21:51
Speaker 2: geared up for the weather and they used to it.
21:55
Speaker 2: It's just life just carries on. And in terms of
21:59
Speaker 2: just everyday life, as you were asking earlier, yeah, it's
22:04
Speaker 2: very similar. There's plenty of shops, there's plenty of food.
22:07
Speaker 2: I haven't starved yet through that lack of lack of
22:12
Speaker 2: food being supplied on the shelves and that sort of
22:14
Speaker 2: In fact, there's too much. If anything, it's generally the
22:19
Speaker 2: food is cheaper. It's generally the better quality because there
22:23
Speaker 2: is fruit and vegetables, for example, coming in from all
22:26
Speaker 2: over the country, is surrounding Russia on the southern side particularly,
22:31
Speaker 2: so pick one example. Tomatoes is not just those tastelessma
22:39
Speaker 2: to eat Spanish tomatoes that you can get in the UK.
22:43
Speaker 2: There's six or eight varieties of tomato. They're all different,
22:46
Speaker 2: they all have different flavors, different qualities, and the quality
22:51
Speaker 2: of food generally is of a higher standard. And the
22:53
Speaker 2: same then extends to meat, fish, and it's boundiful, it's plentiful,
22:59
Speaker 2: and it's much more priced.
23:00
Speaker 1: And what about healthcare.
23:01
Speaker 2: Healthcare is excellent. I've not had much use for it myself.
23:06
Speaker 2: It's free for citizens. I have to pay. I've used
23:09
Speaker 2: a doctor once or had an issue with my eye
23:12
Speaker 2: and I went to the local doctor and they said, well,
23:15
Speaker 2: come back in an hour. Because they have an optician
23:18
Speaker 2: basically attached to the clinic. Although they have a GP clinic,
23:23
Speaker 2: they have tend to have specialists attached anyway. So there's
23:26
Speaker 2: a dermatologist that will working as an optician that works
23:28
Speaker 2: in the finning. Went back an hour later to have
23:30
Speaker 2: my issue resolved. They had to I had something in
23:33
Speaker 2: my eye which she had to take out, gave me
23:35
Speaker 2: an eye test, gave me some treatment, medical treatment, and
23:38
Speaker 2: the whole thing with the appointment was about sixteen pounds.
23:41
Speaker 1: No wedding for an appointment.
23:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had to wait an hour because she didn't
23:44
Speaker 2: start work till an hour after I've turned up there.
23:49
Speaker 2: My wife, my wife a couple of winters ago, needed
23:52
Speaker 2: an X ray. She went to her doctor about a
23:56
Speaker 2: back issue and they said, well, let's just get an
23:57
Speaker 2: X ray check it out. And they didn't have an
23:59
Speaker 2: X ray. They said, go to the next clinic down
24:01
Speaker 2: the road. So it's about a ten minute walk to
24:04
Speaker 2: the next doctor's clinic who did have an X ray machine.
24:06
Speaker 2: And she went in and said, I need an X ray,
24:10
Speaker 2: blah blah blah, hopefully is it any chance you could
24:13
Speaker 2: see me in the next week because it's quite painful,
24:17
Speaker 2: And the receptions just looked and said no, so we
24:20
Speaker 2: can see you now. So she went straight through. She
24:24
Speaker 2: was x ray within thirty minutes. The results supplied the
24:28
Speaker 2: next morning, she took back to a doctor and the
24:33
Speaker 2: treatment was dealt with.
24:35
Speaker 1: Why do you think it is that their system seems
24:37
Speaker 1: to function and I guarantee that they're not putting anywhere
24:43
Speaker 1: near the amount of money into that we are in Britain.
24:46
Speaker 2: There's probably a long answer, but the short answer is
24:49
Speaker 2: it's run by the state, and yes there is there
24:52
Speaker 2: are issues as with any state run organization, without doubt,
24:58
Speaker 2: but there's a lot of accountability. Well, if there's any
25:01
Speaker 2: service that you're not happy about, there are direct ways
25:06
Speaker 2: to complain that goes quite high up the chain quite quickly.
25:10
Speaker 2: So if you have an issue with your medical board,
25:12
Speaker 2: or you suspect there's been misappropriation of funds, which does
25:17
Speaker 2: happen time to time, as with any you know, any society,
25:22
Speaker 2: there's ways to report it fairly quickly and they tend
25:24
Speaker 2: to get dealt with and if they do find any
25:27
Speaker 2: sort of corruption or misappropriation of or wastage of funds,
25:32
Speaker 2: they get dealt with fairly severely, and it doesn't happen
25:35
Speaker 2: so often.
25:35
Speaker 1: I suppose the measure of any state and any government
25:39
Speaker 1: is what happens when it's under stress of some kind.
25:43
Speaker 1: And I mean, you know you mentioned earlier the fact
25:45
Speaker 1: that Russia's currently on warfetting, although by the side of
25:49
Speaker 1: things that hasn't resulted in massively stringent emergency powers being used.
25:57
Speaker 1: But what was the situation during COVID.
26:01
Speaker 2: I wasn't there during COVID, my wife was. There was
26:06
Speaker 2: a injection campaign, it was not mandatory for anybody, and
26:12
Speaker 2: most people didn't bother with it. Russians generally are fairly
26:17
Speaker 2: self aware of their health, have a better education or
26:20
Speaker 2: better understanding perhaps of their own health, so that there's
26:23
Speaker 2: more treatments for example, you can buy over the counter
26:25
Speaker 2: than you can hear without prescription because it doesn't get
26:29
Speaker 2: abused in the same way. Generally speaking, they have a
26:34
Speaker 2: better understanding of what their body needs and if they
26:37
Speaker 2: need something, they go and get it. If they don't
26:39
Speaker 2: need it, they don't. They do understand that good diet
26:43
Speaker 2: is important. Most of them meet a far better diet
26:47
Speaker 2: than that I was having in the UK, for example.
26:51
Speaker 2: But during COVID, so there was an injection, it wasn't
26:56
Speaker 2: mRNA based don't know more than a couple of people.
27:02
Speaker 2: Out of a circle of forty so people that I know,
27:06
Speaker 2: I think only maybe one or two of them bothered
27:08
Speaker 2: getting it. Most didn't bother. This is interesting conflict out there.
27:14
Speaker 2: It's one thing to have government rules and regulations on anything,
27:17
Speaker 2: any aspect of life out there. It's another for the
27:20
Speaker 2: people to actually follow it. So when my wife was there,
27:25
Speaker 2: there was a sign went up outside one day and
27:27
Speaker 2: someone came around knocking on the door saying, there's a
27:29
Speaker 2: case of COVID on this floor to be identified. Nobody
27:32
Speaker 2: can leave their flats for a week, and they put
27:34
Speaker 2: up signs, and they put up some take to say
27:36
Speaker 2: to people, you know, you must stay indoors, you must
27:38
Speaker 2: stay at home for the next week, blah blah blah.
27:41
Speaker 2: And within thirty minutes of that being done, someone had
27:45
Speaker 2: come out, ripped down all the signs, taken all the takedown.
27:48
Speaker 2: Someone else lived them and that's it, and life just
27:51
Speaker 2: carried on as normal. You can make rules and regulations,
27:55
Speaker 2: but you can't tell Russians how to live their life.
27:58
Speaker 2: They will just do what they want to do anyway,
28:00
Speaker 2: which is I find very refreshing.
28:02
Speaker 1: It is, indeed, and of course cut again completely contrary
28:05
Speaker 1: to the idea that we may have of the Russian steate,
28:07
Speaker 1: which is that you know that there would be quite
28:10
Speaker 1: a strong crackdown on that type of behavior.
28:14
Speaker 2: I can also happy to confirm I've never been interviewed
28:18
Speaker 2: or followed by anyone from the KG bit well FSB,
28:23
Speaker 2: I don't have anyone spying on me or following me
28:26
Speaker 2: door to door to see what I'm up to each day.
28:28
Speaker 1: Is there an idea in Russian and Russia of you know,
28:32
Speaker 1: foreign agent? I mean, for example, you know, in the
28:35
Speaker 1: United States and the United Kingdom, we have this legislation
28:39
Speaker 1: which requires you to register if you're perceived as being
28:42
Speaker 1: some kind of mouthpiece for a foreign government or you know,
28:45
Speaker 1: for example, people that are working for Press TV or
28:49
Speaker 1: Russia today are now required to register as being foreign
28:53
Speaker 1: influencers effectively, Is that a thing?
28:55
Speaker 2: Yes, there is a requirement there that came in. I'm
28:59
Speaker 2: hazy on those day details. I don't know any nitty
29:02
Speaker 2: gritty about that, but there is a requirement that came
29:05
Speaker 2: in I think a few years ago of a similar
29:08
Speaker 2: nature that if you're funded from a foreign a foreign organization,
29:13
Speaker 2: then it has to be declared. That's something that's fairly
29:17
Speaker 2: recent in the last couple of years, as I recall,
29:20
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's there.
29:22
Speaker 1: And do you know what the consequences are of registering that.
29:25
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think the consequences are you have
29:28
Speaker 2: to register so that people are aware. I don't think
29:32
Speaker 2: there's a restriction on you necessarily that I'm aware of,
29:37
Speaker 2: but it's not something I know a great deal about.
29:40
Speaker 1: You're presenting an idea of a country that is functioning
29:44
Speaker 1: better than many Western countries, that has better quality food
29:48
Speaker 1: than most Western countries, better healthcare than most Western countries,
29:53
Speaker 1: and a better attitude towards their government than perhaps many
29:58
Speaker 1: people have in Western countries. What are the dying sides
30:01
Speaker 1: delivering there?
30:02
Speaker 2: Yes, there's downsides. One is a result of the current situation,
30:07
Speaker 2: which is not that easy to get directly in and
30:11
Speaker 2: out of the country, depending on where you wanted to
30:14
Speaker 2: fly to, and likewise a transfer of money across the
30:18
Speaker 2: border is tricky, but that's just because of the current situation.
30:21
Speaker 2: Although that is going to stay long term. I don't
30:23
Speaker 2: see sanctions being lifted anytime soon. The things they're not
30:27
Speaker 2: particularly good at is road planning and road building. They're
30:32
Speaker 2: fairly appalling at, and there is still corruption in the country.
30:41
Speaker 2: It tends to be mostly private, so there might be
30:45
Speaker 2: a for exact there's a building near us, for example,
30:49
Speaker 2: a block of flats that went up a few years ago.
30:52
Speaker 2: He got half built, the flats got sold and then
30:56
Speaker 2: the people running the business fled to London with all
31:00
Speaker 2: the money. And uh, those situations do get sorted out,
31:05
Speaker 2: but it's there's a long procedure to do that. Eventually
31:11
Speaker 2: the government will take over the building, they'll finish building it,
31:14
Speaker 2: and then people will get the properties that they paid for.
31:17
Speaker 2: So there's that sort of corruption at the local level
31:20
Speaker 2: does go on. It's those sort of things that that
31:23
Speaker 2: could be improved. But yeah, they're terrible at building roads.
31:26
Speaker 2: They'll build them and then six months later they'll they'll
31:29
Speaker 2: need filling in again. Having sent that from where I
31:34
Speaker 2: grew up in Kent, the roads are better than there.
31:39
Speaker 1: What about the railways? Are they better at building railways?
31:42
Speaker 2: They're much better at building railways. There's there's good high
31:46
Speaker 2: speed links and they're just starting to build another high
31:49
Speaker 2: speed link between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, which we'll go
31:53
Speaker 2: into operation in a few years. They started it I
31:56
Speaker 2: think last year, I can't remember exactly, but within sort
32:00
Speaker 2: of five six years it will be certainly testing and
32:03
Speaker 2: probably getting nearly operational, and then they'll be running services
32:10
Speaker 2: that take about two to two and a half hours
32:13
Speaker 2: instead of the current three and a half to four
32:15
Speaker 2: hours to get from St. Petersburgh to Moscow, and they'll
32:17
Speaker 2: eventually be running those trains every fifteen minutes. It's a
32:20
Speaker 2: few hundred miles and the current high speed train takes
32:24
Speaker 2: about three and a half hours.
32:25
Speaker 1: When you say high speed, what do you mean by that?
32:27
Speaker 2: Oh, it's around about one hundred and it's off the
32:31
Speaker 2: top of my head. Ye, one hundred and fifteen hundred
32:34
Speaker 2: and sixty. It's not the eighty ninety miles an hour
32:38
Speaker 2: high speed.
32:38
Speaker 1: No. No, I was just wondering, what's China about two
32:41
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty or something at the moment miles an hour,
32:43
Speaker 1: so three hundred and fifty kilometers in ur, whatever that is.
32:47
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering if they're beginning to compete.
32:50
Speaker 2: The current system. No, it's not at that level. I
32:52
Speaker 2: don't know what the new one's going to be, but
32:54
Speaker 2: they're building a new track specifically for a faster train.
32:58
Speaker 2: It probably won't be as good as China's, let's face it,
33:01
Speaker 2: but it will be a significant improvement on the current system.
33:05
Speaker 2: And they're also they're also developing it because of the
33:09
Speaker 2: sanctioned situation. They're also having to develop it now using
33:12
Speaker 2: their own technology and developing their own technology as opposed
33:16
Speaker 2: to using overseas technology in many cases. Another example of
33:20
Speaker 2: that is at the moment, they're just doing final testing
33:23
Speaker 2: flights of the first commercial jet liner that Russia's built,
33:27
Speaker 2: where everything is from within Russia using no external resources
33:33
Speaker 2: or anything. So it's been designed, built, developed, and built
33:36
Speaker 2: purely using Russian resources from everything within the country, and
33:41
Speaker 2: that will go into production i think next year to
33:44
Speaker 2: replace all the Boeings that they're currently relying on through
33:47
Speaker 2: air travel.
33:48
Speaker 1: Yes, because well it's interesting because I've noticed that China
33:52
Speaker 1: is using Boeing and Airbus, but they're using a lot
33:54
Speaker 1: of boring aircraft in China has has just recently decided
33:58
Speaker 1: to suspend the delivery of a whole batch of new
34:02
Speaker 1: Boeing aircraft that we're expecting to get because of the
34:05
Speaker 1: tariff situation. But you know, spare parts are going to
34:09
Speaker 1: be subject to tariff problems as well, So I just
34:13
Speaker 1: wonder it is interesting that countries are starting to look
34:16
Speaker 1: at their own industry again.
34:18
Speaker 2: Yes, I don't know whether China, who gets from spare
34:21
Speaker 2: parts from Russia for their boeings. Spare parts were part
34:26
Speaker 2: of the sanction from the beginning, so they've had again
34:29
Speaker 2: it's another aspect of industry they've had to develop their own.
34:32
Speaker 1: It's a fascinating country, and I'm interested that you know,
34:35
Speaker 1: you are aware of people that are planning on emigranting
34:38
Speaker 1: and what kind of time skills are they sort of
34:40
Speaker 1: looking at for that.
34:41
Speaker 2: The couple have already gone. This is a group of
34:45
Speaker 2: I'm in touch with at about thirty and we try
34:48
Speaker 2: and meet up when we can get together from time
34:52
Speaker 2: to time as well to have physically meet as opposed
34:56
Speaker 2: to just communicate via phones. But there's there's a couple.
35:02
Speaker 2: There's a couple who are coming out for a few
35:05
Speaker 2: weeks later this year for a holiday to visit the
35:08
Speaker 2: area they wish to move to, but they're planning on
35:10
Speaker 2: moving fairly soon after that. There's another couple with a
35:14
Speaker 2: young family who are gearing up to move next summer,
35:19
Speaker 2: and then others at various stages. It takes. It can
35:23
Speaker 2: take a while to pack up your life and then
35:27
Speaker 2: ship everything abroad, and there's complications with applications and the
35:36
Speaker 2: hum drum of paperwork and all that sort of thing,
35:39
Speaker 2: so it's not something that happens overnight.
35:41
Speaker 1: Are these other people that have taken inspiration from you
35:44
Speaker 1: or have you just got to know them? Because in fact,
35:47
Speaker 1: have you got to know them?
35:49
Speaker 2: I've got to I've got to know them completely opposite.
35:52
Speaker 2: They were inspired to go and then I got in
35:56
Speaker 2: touch just through comments on the social media chat telegram, chat,
36:03
Speaker 2: got to know one person and then in that group
36:06
Speaker 2: and then say well, come along and join it. It'll
36:08
Speaker 2: be interesting to have your experience because you're already on
36:10
Speaker 2: the other side and so got to know them that
36:13
Speaker 2: way and happy to help out where I can. I'm
36:18
Speaker 2: happy to have a conversation like this because although Russia
36:21
Speaker 2: is far from perfect, it's more perfect than a lot
36:25
Speaker 2: of other places to live. So my campaign, if anything,
36:29
Speaker 2: is just to try and open a window on Russia,
36:34
Speaker 2: try and help people understand it a bit better than
36:37
Speaker 2: it was, and encourage people to come and visit, at
36:42
Speaker 2: least for yourself, because you can still get a tourist beees,
36:44
Speaker 2: you can still come over and have a great holiday.
36:47
Speaker 2: I'm quite happy to act as a tour guide if
36:49
Speaker 2: you're in the Saint Petersburg area, But just to try
36:53
Speaker 2: and open up people's minds a bit to help them
36:56
Speaker 2: understand that Russia isn't how it's perceived. It's it's just
37:00
Speaker 2: a normal country full of normal people who happen to
37:04
Speaker 2: live in a different country, speak a different language, and
37:08
Speaker 2: live under a political system that is in disagreement with
37:13
Speaker 2: their political system. But at the end of the day,
37:16
Speaker 2: people the people to sum it up best. My son,
37:20
Speaker 2: one of my sons, came out a couple of years
37:21
Speaker 2: ago for a visit, and I said, just form your
37:25
Speaker 2: own opinion, go back and tell everybody whatever you think,
37:30
Speaker 2: whatever your honest opinion of the country. You love it,
37:32
Speaker 2: hate it, whatever you've found. And I said to him
37:36
Speaker 2: at the end, I said, just what's your what's your
37:37
Speaker 2: summing up? What do you think of Russia? And his
37:40
Speaker 2: response first response was, it's just so normal and that's it.
37:45
Speaker 2: It's just it's just it's a country full of normal
37:47
Speaker 2: people living their normal lives.
37:49
Speaker 1: Or trying to and probably succeeding a lot better than
37:52
Speaker 1: we are. Well, you know, you pen, you pen a
37:55
Speaker 1: generally optimistic view of it. You're clearly you're living there
37:59
Speaker 1: most of the time, so so you clearly do enjoy it.
38:02
Speaker 1: These people, we should not be viewing as our enemy.
38:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're not our enemy. The enemy is that, as
38:10
Speaker 2: with most places, the enemy is your own, your own
38:14
Speaker 2: political class. Wonderful better expression.
38:17
Speaker 1: Well, malcam we'll leave it there for today. Thank you
38:20
Speaker 1: very much. It's been a fascinating conversation. If anybody is
38:23
Speaker 1: inspired by this to move, how would they contact you
38:27
Speaker 1: if they wanted.
38:27
Speaker 2: To, the easiest way to contact me, I've got a
38:30
Speaker 2: very small telegram channel where I occasionally post day to
38:34
Speaker 2: day life is called an Englishman Abroad and you can
38:39
Speaker 2: get in touch with me through that.
38:40
Speaker 1: Brilliant Thank you very much, and hopefully you'll get a
38:43
Speaker 1: few more subscribers to that channel in the NATO Distant Futurists.
38:47
Speaker 1: So thank you for joining me.
38:48
Speaker 2: Thank you