The only tourist in Moldova

For this conversation, I'm staying focused on Ukraine.

I suggest you do the same, otherwise there's a risk of diluting a very important topic.

The Kremlin has followed on from Nazi Germany in evolving and maturing its propaganda tactics. One of these tactics is to devalue and delegitimize other nations.

The addition of one simple word - "the" - is enough to shift the perception of a country (with its own culture, language, and history) into that of a mere region (an errant extension of Russia that needs to be brought back into the fold).

Russia has a long history of terrorism and genocide. It was one of the 'great' imperial powers, and its crimes over the last century were never punished, the way Germany was. Now, with invasion, further genocide, and threats of nuclear aggression, there's an urgent need for the world to step up and step forward to eradicate Russia altogether.

From the propagandist's mouth: "Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of the Earth’s land area. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe... The Russian Federation includes 21 republics, 9 territories, 46 regions, 1 autonomous region, 4 autonomous districts, and 2 cities of federal subordination" (https://canada.mid.ru/en/o_rossii/russia_in_facts_and_number...)

Considering how many other nations were subsumed by Muscovy, your assertion of "noble white people" is inflammatory and irrelevant.

Furthermore - to pre-empt anyone who might be offended - I refer to uncountable acts of terror, genocide, violation of the 'rules of war', and violation of the UN Charter. Keep in mind, Russia has an illegitimate permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Put simply: Russia has forfeited its right to exist.

That's ridiculously stretched. Russia is huge. Plenty of choice of "where you've been to". And you absolutely don't have to answer anything about where you've been to in Russia, because it's actually not their fucking business. Worst they can do is not let you into Ukraine. Surely, theoretically they can illegally arrest you, and torture you, and whatever, but doing that to a USA citizen (or whoever you are) on a basis of slight suspicion you could've been in Crimea or some other territory they consider theirs inside of Russia, well, that's risking way more than you do.

For me that was a pretty normal trip, 10th one (2nd one in this year) planned like this.

About 6 hours a day of driving, total visited about 45 out of 52 planned points. For example I don't understand people who go to a beach and spend half a day there, I go, swim for 30 minutes, and I'm out. Same for any other attraction. How long should I spend on a beautiful viewpoint in Greek mountains? For me it's a stop, take photo, admire for 3 minutes, and be on my way. I avoid museums, except transport/communication/computer museums, as they are pretty boring.

I will do exceptions for stuff like Louvre, but sometimes I will just say no to even biggest attractions, like I did earlier this year looking at Stonehenge, +30 minutes of walking and I think +1 hour of driving from my route just to see bunch of rocks - yeah, not for me.

I will go back though, if I found the country particularly nice/pleasing, like I've been to Sweden/Norway/Finland on 2-week road trips two times in summer and two times in winter, and planning another winter one - there is just something about sleeping in car in -15°C (5F) that's just amazing.

> So, which industries did European countries develop in their African colonies, for example?

Racists usually bring up ports, railways and whatever resource extraction they set up in Africa as their gift to humanity. As the other poster said, that's a very common thing to say for imperialists who justify colonization. Incredibly funny that you keep doubling down on the same tropes without recognizing how they sound.

> Compare that to what USSR developed in Moldavia: power plants, large steel plant, metalworking, machine building, construction materials production, chemical industry, electronics, parts of defense industry, etc

... as if as a free European country, none of that (and much more) would've happened. The common case study is Estonia vs Finland, two very similar countries in the 1930s, both got invaded by Russians, one remained free, the other occupied for 50 years. Despite a very similar culture, language, history and socio-economic starting position, Finland ended up as one of the most prosperous nations on the planet, while Estonia was a "1 dollar a day" shithole (along with rest of the USSR and Eastern Bloc) by 1990. After Russian geniuses were overthrown, Estonia started a meteoric climb and is on track of catching up with Finland. All these Russian "factories and industries" were nothing but a horrible stagnation that robbed the country of 50 years of proper progress. They were wasteful and polluting, produced for USSR's internal consumption and had to be scrapped because they were utterly uncompetitive on the global market.

It's been the same externally forced stagnation, followed by meteoric success everywhere where they decisively got rid of Russian domination in the 1990s (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, etc). The greater role Russia has played in post-USSR times in a country, the worse the outcomes (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, etc).

This map sums it up: https://i.imgur.com/4bEf0Sr.jpeg

As does this chart: https://i.imgur.com/uDpWHNq.png (Polish GDP PPP per capita as a fraction of the US')

Even the most envied parts of the Eastern Bloc were depressingly poor by Western European standards, several laps behind the worst performers. Immense negative impact on Central and Eastern Europe is the reason why Russia and Russians are considered a cancer on humanity in this part of the world. Somehow, everything you touch turns to shit, and you can't stop sticking your fingers into where they don't belong.

My point was that the original poster was wrong saying that Soviet and Post-soviet cities had and have hot water only during winters. This is idiocy; you know that, I know that. Right now, while I am writing, my relative is using hot water to wash her head.

What is your point?