Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends • Hacker News Board

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#41

Post by therusskiy » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #26

bsedlm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a lot of people seem ok with punishing Russian individuals for the actions of the government. maybe these people have grown in better functioning democracies (unlike Russia or my own country) so they act as if the people were well represented by their governments; unlike reality for most countries with a serious corruption problem.

> a lot of people seem ok with punishing Russian individuals for the actions of the government. What's the option, though? Inaction? Sanctions hurt the people because hurting the support base is the only way to exert pressure on those unrepresentative governments. At the end of the day, all governments operate via the consent of the governed, even autocracies. But the expression of that consent gets really ugly the l…

what's going to happen with so many countries / companies cutting Russia off is that it's going to play into Putin's narrative that Russia is surrounded by enemies. Imagine you are a neutral teenager who never cared about politics, then Playstation takes all your games, you don't have access to any of the media sources that can explain the situation (they are all banned now), you can only hear what government tells you.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#42

Post by martinko » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:26 PM UTC

therusskiy wrote: post #30

martinko wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered being paid in, for example, USDC? You could then get a visa card that you could top up with it for spending.

I've been a big crypto sceptic for a long time, but with the current situation I had to deposit a lot of money to Binance, because Russian banks/government has stopped allowing people to withdraw USD from ATMs, forbidden transfers to other countries (only $5k/m to relatives), forbidden to cross borders with more than $10k (not they are possible to cross at all now).

Don't want to come of as a crypto shill, but check out the crypto.com card. It could be pretty useful for you (if they give you one, not sure about the whole sanctions situation). I have been using it for daily payments for over a year and I'm pretty happy with my experience.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#43

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:26 PM UTC

formvoltron wrote: post #34

therusskiy wrote: post #6

I managed to escape the country yesterday, had to flight to Egypt of all places, because ALL (even business) tickets were sold out. The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed. The disheartening thing is that even if you never supported Putin, other countries treat you as enemy. I am at Georgia now and banks refuse to open bank accounts to Russians, and I need…

We are afraid Putin will use nuclear weapons. We don't like that he came from a KGB background and that he seems to be friends with mafia. And that he likes to assassinate his rivals. If the Russian people are so much against Putin and on the side of the West, then why not arrange them to all leave their apartments at the same time, to walk into their central squares, and to start shaking their keys -- as the Czechs…

Fair chance it would turn into a bloodbath. Better would a national strike. Equally difficult to organize but much harder to attack.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#44

Post by flavius29663 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:27 PM UTC

daenz wrote: post #2

This may very well be true, but I'm having trouble believing anything, from anyone, about the conflict. There is so much propaganda around the subject, that unless you are personally connected to an official source, I believe you can't know with any reasonable certainty. The primary source for this story appears to be public Google Trends data.

I hope you still believe that Russian is shelling civilian cities, because that is on video

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#45

Post by vbezhenar » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:27 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #28

droptablemain wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> Seems like most of the disinformation is currently coming from the NATO/Ukraine side. Sure... /s That's probably why the West has just enacted a law that whoever talks about the war in Ukraine in terms of war will face all kinds of trouble. Oh, wait. Really, you can't make this stuff up, do you actually believe that people on HN will read what you say and then dutifully turn to Pravda for their news from now on?

No post body was provided.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#46

Post by bootlooped » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:27 PM UTC

bsedlm wrote: post #11

therusskiy wrote: post #6

I managed to escape the country yesterday, had to flight to Egypt of all places, because ALL (even business) tickets were sold out. The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed. The disheartening thing is that even if you never supported Putin, other countries treat you as enemy. I am at Georgia now and banks refuse to open bank accounts to Russians, and I need…

a lot of people seem ok with punishing Russian individuals for the actions of the government. maybe these people have grown in better functioning democracies (unlike Russia or my own country) so they act as if the people were well represented by their governments; unlike reality for most countries with a serious corruption problem.

I support the economic warfare against Russia, not because I'm OK with hurting average Russians citizens, but because I don't know any better alternative. Would NATO entering Ukraine and engaging Russian troops be better? I don't think doing nothing would be better. I don't think lighter sanctions would save Ukraine or sufficiently punish Putin, because it's questionable whether the current harsh sanctions will even save Ukraine or sufficiently punish Putin. This is a horrible situation all around.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#47

Post by Tistron » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

bsedlm wrote: post #11

therusskiy wrote: post #6

I managed to escape the country yesterday, had to flight to Egypt of all places, because ALL (even business) tickets were sold out. The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed. The disheartening thing is that even if you never supported Putin, other countries treat you as enemy. I am at Georgia now and banks refuse to open bank accounts to Russians, and I need…

a lot of people seem ok with punishing Russian individuals for the actions of the government. maybe these people have grown in better functioning democracies (unlike Russia or my own country) so they act as if the people were well represented by their governments; unlike reality for most countries with a serious corruption problem.

Everywhere I've seen anyone motivate restrictions on Russian citizens it's been about pushing them to revolt against their government, not about punishing. I don't know whether it makes sense, but it does seem like one of few avenues to try to get rid of putin that has low chance of resulting in atomic war.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#48

Post by gabereiser » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

daenz wrote: post #13

slim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe someone else is falsifying google trends ?

I can't even confirm their statements, but I may be using google trends wrong: >More Russians are asking Google “how to leave Russia” than have done so in 18 years since such data became public. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...

The problem with this assumption is you think people “don’t know how to leave” so they must look it up on Google. I’m pretty sure people flee with family and friends together and don’t need instructions on how to get out of Dodge. You can look at news reports of the foot traffic coming from Russia. You can look at social media on the dissent with the war before Putin axed access. This skepticism is good for assessing the feasibility of a solution, it’s not good when peoples lives are on the line and there’s plenty of reporting from the ground. Wake up.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#49

Post by awb » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

thepasswordis wrote: post #19

martinko wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered being paid in, for example, USDC? You could then get a visa card that you could top up with it for spending.

This is a good idea. The only issue will be if any of the offramps start banning Russian citizens as well.

Luckily I haven’t heard of a country seriously considering that and I’m not sure what goal that would achieve. It sounds like a win/win to help people leave who want to.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#50

Post by bluejekyll » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

dolni wrote: post #21

bluejekyll wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is the exactly why lies and dis/misinformation are so dangerous to society. It makes every source questionable, even one’s like the economist that have tended to give fairly accurate balanced news. The first amendment is a double edged sword, but all false statements need to be challenged so that a free and Democratic society can function properly. The problem is that lies are cheap to produce, and the truth…

Are you suggesting that free speech is responsible for misinformation? The first amendment is absolutely not a double-edged sword. The alternative is STRICTLY worse. You end up with governments, like China's, who lie and challenging that lie is punishable.

It fits a pretty strong definition of a double edged sword. It protects the rights of people say false statements as equally as true statements. The false statements are dangerous as it makes it difficult to make good decisions with it because those are based off of bad information.

Calling it a double-edged sword is not meant to say it’s not valuable. It absolutely is. It’s the bedrock of our democracy in the US. The question is only, how do we make sure the truth is more widely known than the lies?