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Life in the MOST SANCTIONED COUNTRY in the World
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Life in the MOST SANCTIONED COUNTRY in the World
#Mysticlove #world #worldtour #sanctioned #life #country #travel #WorldTravel
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TravelTranscript
00:00I live in the most sanctioned country in the world.
00:04There are more sanctions here than in North Korea, Syria, and Iran summed up.
00:10Because of the war in Ukraine, there are now more than 17,000 sanctions against Russia.
00:16I will not discuss politics, my channel is not for that,
00:20but I will simply show what it's like to live in Russia at this particular time,
00:26what it's like to be this passport holder,
00:29and what foreign people must know if they decided to visit Russia at this weird time.
00:36Since 2022, 45 countries have imposed sanctions on Russia.
00:41This February, the European Union together with the US and the UK
00:44adopted a 13th its largest ever sanctions package targeting Russia.
00:49The majority of those sanctions aim individuals,
00:52and some of them target entities, vessels, and aircraft.
00:55When I read the news, it feels almost scary to live in Russia.
01:01But the reality is that if you're an average Russian, if you're not a politician,
01:07it does not feel so awful and terrible to live in Russia.
01:12I guess many people don't understand how sanctions work.
01:16So I will share my perspective.
01:18I will go through several areas of life that are affected or could be affected by sanctions.
01:24Groceries, shops and brands, social media access, money transfers, payment systems,
01:31and traveling to and from Russia.
01:37There are so many videos on the Internet.
01:39Russian supermarkets after sanctions.
01:42Empty supermarkets. How do Russians survive?
01:46Honestly, probably these bloggers want some clickbait content.
01:53But we have a huge abundance of anything and everything that you would ever want to eat.
02:02For groceries, I think nothing changed.
02:07Prices are probably higher than two years ago, but when weren't they rising?
02:13As for imported products, I see many Italian products, for instance.
02:18There is even this Italian cake, panettone, which in Italy they usually have for Christmas,
02:25but in Russia we have it for our Easter.
02:40So, it's totally a myth that we have empty supermarkets or food shortages.
02:46Even if we had only domestic products from Russia, I think it's impossible.
02:51None of the European Union sanctions adopted against Russia prevent the supply of agri-food.
02:56They don't target the agricultural and food products.
03:00Sanctions mainly target the Russian political elites and focus on limiting Russia's access to military technologies,
03:07such as drones, for example.
03:09And they focus on decreasing Russia's economic ability to wage war.
03:13For groceries, you can see that everything is alright.
03:33Now about the brands. More than 1,000 companies left Russia.
03:38And two years ago we saw some closed shops in shopping malls,
03:43but then they reopened, rebranded, changed their owners to some Russian businessmen,
03:48started to import the same stuff, but from other countries.
03:53Some new domestic brands appeared.
03:56Some brands stayed in Russia, stayed the same.
04:00Let's have a walk in this mall and see what changed.
04:02McDonald's rebranded to вкусный и точка, or tasty and that's it.
04:07And now it's owned by an entrepreneur from Siberia.
04:10Basically, it's the same cafe, but Mac prefix was removed from the names of the dishes.
04:15In a happy meal, there is now a choice between a book and a Russian character Masha.
04:19Starbucks became Stars, and now it's owned by a Russian rapper Timothy.
04:24I never liked Starbucks coffee and not a fan of Stars as well.
04:28KFC became Rostics, and now it's owned by some businessman from Udmurtia region.
04:33Domino's Pizza became Domino Pizza.
04:36They literally just changed one letter to a Cyrillic one,
04:39and now the chain is also owned by a rapper Timothy.
04:42Coca-Cola became Добрый кола, which is translated as Kind Cola.
04:47They also added flavors of vanilla and gingerbread.
04:51Fanta became Kind Orange, and Sprite became Kind Lemon.
04:56Schweppes turned into Rich Tonic.
04:59Mars company that includes products like sneakers, Twix, Bounty, Milky Way, Orbit
05:04supposedly left, but all the products are still here.
05:07What else?
05:08Ikea became Belarus-based furniture outfit Sweathouse.
05:12Sephora was sold to a local management and was renamed to Ильдаботе.
05:16Zara is now Mac and owned by a company from the UAE.
05:20L'Occitane literally just changed its letters to a Cyrillic alphabet.
05:24Apple Store became ReStore, and they import electronics under the parallel import scheme.
05:29And there are hundreds more clothes brands, restaurants, hotels, home appliances and electronics,
05:35cars, airplanes, magazines, entertainment services and other companies that left Russia.
05:41But now they got some rebranding treatment.
05:43You get an idea.
05:44The next aspect is social media.
05:47The Russian government banned Facebook and Instagram, naming them the extremist organizations.
05:54But Facebook I still can access without VPN.
05:58To use Insta you do need VPN.
06:01Twitter is banned as well.
06:03TikTok is available, but Russians can no longer upload new content.
06:08WhatsApp and Telegram messengers are available without VPN.
06:12Same for YouTube.
06:13YouTube was not affected in Russia as well.
06:16But Russian YouTube creators were affected a lot.
06:21I feel like for the last 2 years only 50% of the time I do something creative, make videos, actually work on my channel.
06:31And other 50% I spent on overcoming sanctions, trying to get monetization, finding different ways.
06:39Also many companies don't want to work with creators from Russia.
06:44But it's been 2 years and I'm still here.
06:48But for average users you can watch YouTube from Russia.
06:52You will not see ads if you watch videos from Russia.
06:56That's why many Russian creators lost their monetization on YouTube.
07:02As for anything else you can access any website, read any news.
07:07And if you're smart enough you read the news from all the sites from Russia, US, Europe and then make your own conclusions.
07:16So, I named all the sanctions and as you can see life here is not affected that much.
07:22Maybe it will be more feasible in the future, we will see.
07:26But if you're an average Russian, life here is kind of the same.
07:32But when you want to travel abroad as a Russian, that's when you start getting troubles.
07:39Russia was switched off from Swift system.
07:42We can still use cards inside the country.
07:45We have Russian Mir system instead of Visa or Mastercard.
07:48We can even use our phones to pay with MirPay or buy QR codes.
07:53But Russian cards don't work anywhere outside of Russia.
07:59So, if we have to go to other countries, we need to bring a lot of cash or open a bank card in another country, which is not always easy.
08:10So, yes, Russians can go abroad, can go anywhere.
08:14But it's just very difficult to travel when you can't use a card, you have to bring lots of cash or find other ways.
08:22Or, for example, if you work for a foreign company, then they can't pay your salary or it's super difficult.
08:32Or if you have foreign clients.
08:34Also, any transfers in dollars to or from Russia are almost impossible, but we will talk about this later.
08:44Now, the second part of my video.
08:47Watch it if you're a foreigner that is going to Russia in 2024 for some reason.
08:52I decided to make this because recently I met a guy from Nicaragua and he told me that he visited Russia this summer.
09:01And he didn't know that foreign cards don't work in Russia.
09:06He didn't have money.
09:08He slept on a bus stop for several nights.
09:12Then he found some locals that helped him to get out of the country.
09:18So, watch this video till the end not to end up like this guy and so that you don't have any surprises when you come here.
09:26First question is visa.
09:28Recently I organized a tour with an international group.
09:31They were from all over.
09:33So, yes, it is possible to get a tourist visa to go to Russia now.
09:37For Americans I think it takes only 2 weeks to get such a visa, to stay in Russia for 2 weeks.
09:45If they want a 3-year visa and I think they can stay 6 months uninterrupted in Russia.
09:53They just need an invitation letter from a tour company or just make a reservation in a hotel just for several days.
10:02And then get an invitation letter from this hotel.
10:06Or actually now there are special websites and hotels that provide a service where you can get an invitation letter.
10:14So, Americans can even get this tourist visa for 3 years.
10:20Now many direct flights from the West, from the US, Europe to Russia don't function anymore.
10:27But foreigners usually fly to Russia through Turkey, Dubai or Georgia.
10:33Overall getting a tourist visa shouldn't be a problem for any nationalities.
10:37For instance, recently one of subscribers of my channel from Australia sent me his video of him in Russia.
10:43I was touched so much and I want to share it here.
10:49There she is. Elbrus.
10:54She is the one who got me here with a little inspiration from Ellie from Russia.
11:01She is a very inspiring young girl.
11:04She does amazing things all around the world.
11:07She sent me two videos on Elbrus to come to this beautiful country called Russia.
11:16And I've met so many beautiful Russian people, honestly.
11:21They are just at the biggest hearts.
11:24So kind.
11:26They've helped me travel all over Russia.
11:30Book flights, book train tickets.
11:33It's just amazing.
11:35Payments.
11:37Foreign cards don't work in Russia.
11:40Visa or Mastercard issued abroad will not work here.
11:46You will not be able to pay in a shop, in a cafe.
11:49You will not be able to withdraw at ATM.
11:53Nowhere. Please remember this.
11:55So if you come to Russia you will need to bring lots of cash.
12:00And then here you can exchange at some exchange points or any bank from euros or dollars, yuan or some other main currencies.
12:12You can exchange to rubles and then use it.
12:14Or when you already come here you will be able also to open a bank account in Russia.
12:20It's a super easy process.
12:22You will just need your passport and as a foreign citizen you can also open a bank account.
12:27For instance my Italian friend said that it takes less than one hour.
12:33You just go to a bank with your passport and you can have your bank card super fast.
12:39For instance you can use such banks as Tinkoff.
12:43This one you can even open remotely through the app.
12:48I think this is the most convenient bank in Russia.
12:52In Russia also to withdraw money at ATM you will not have commission at any ATM.
12:58It's like their feature.
12:59Other popular banks that we have are Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank.
13:03About money transfers.
13:05SWIFT system is switched off in Russia.
13:09PayPal or any other foreign payment transfer systems are banned here in Russia.
13:17I mean they banned Russia.
13:19So now I only found two banks in Russia that accept transfers in dollars.
13:27It took me a long time to find it and I'm going to share it with you.
13:32These banks are Chelyabinvestbank and Moskomertzbank.
13:37And they do accept transfers in dollars and they have no commission.
13:44There is Raiffeisenbank.
13:46It accepts transfers in dollars as well but with a 50% commission.
13:51So those two banks are the only ones without a commission that still accept dollar transfers to Russia as of April 2024.
14:03Another option is to find Facebook or Telegram groups to swap money with other people.
14:08But you will need to have accounts in these two countries.
14:12For example, a person from Australia needs Australian dollars and you send him Australian dollars.
14:18But he also has an account in Russia and he sends you rubles.
14:23Another option is to send money as they call now friendly countries.
14:28So many Russians now open bank accounts in other countries.
14:34For instance, Georgia, Kazakhstan.
14:38Now we even have a special service to open cards remotely.
14:44You don't even need to leave Moscow, Russia.
14:47And you open this card remotely and they deliver it to you on the next day.
14:53It's super fast.
14:54So then when you have an account in these friendly countries,
14:59from there you can already send rubles to Russia basically almost to any bank.
15:06It's difficult to make dollar or any other currency transfer,
15:12but it's easy to make a transfer in rubles.
15:15So for example, if you have a card in Kazakhstan,
15:19you can keep money there in tenge, dollars, rubles.
15:23And then you can send your rubles to Kazakhstan or from Kazakhstan or to any friendly country.
15:31And then from this country, which is not sanctioned,
15:34you can do what you want with this money.
15:37Now let's imagine that you arrived in Russia.
15:40You will probably need a taxi.
15:43Uber service will not work here.
15:45So download an app named Yandex Taxi.
15:49Download it and set it up in advance because it will be very useful to you.
15:55If you find some taxi driver in the street,
15:58they can overcharge foreigners a lot.
16:01And you will find the best price in this app.
16:05They cannot cheat there.
16:07And this app works in almost all the cities of Russia.
16:13Very useful.
16:14Then if you need to book a hotel,
16:17a service booking doesn't work in Russia as well.
16:21So probably you will need to find hotels and directly book through these hotels.
16:29A service like booking in Russia is also Yandex Travel, Yandex Hotels or Astrovok service.
16:39And then you can go directly to the pages of the hotels and make a reservation.
16:46Many hotels accept reservation without payment.
16:50So you can pay with cash when you arrive.
16:54Or if you're looking for an apartment here, Airbnb.
16:59Of course, it doesn't work in Russia,
17:01but you can use Russian version of Airbnb named Sutochno.ru
17:08Unfortunately for me, this video is not sponsored by these companies.
17:13But these are just popular services that Russians use
17:18and analogs of foreign services that you're used to.
17:23Remember, if you want to pay for something online on a Russian website,
17:27for a hotel, train, any service, your foreign card will not work.
17:33So before you come to Russia, plan carefully how you're gonna pay for things here.
17:40At this particular time, you need to plan this out.
17:43That's it from me.
17:44You know, a long time ago, I heard stories about China,
17:48that they can't use Facebook or YouTube there,
17:51that they need VPN.
17:52And I thought, oh, it's such a closed country, so awful.
17:58How do people even live there?
18:00But now it's our reality and we're already used to it.
18:06And to sum up, if you're an average Russian,
18:09receiving your salary in Russian rubles,
18:13and if you don't travel abroad, then life is kind of normal for you.
18:19But if you're a Russian who travels abroad,
18:23who wants to work for a foreign company,
18:26or you need to make transfers to Russia or from Russia,
18:30especially in dollars, then life gets kind of complicated.
18:35But as I said, we're already used to it.
18:38Some people have very bad expectations about Russia's future and future overall.
18:47But what I choose for myself is to never lose hope,
18:53to always have hope for a better tomorrow.
18:57And that's how you keep going every day.
19:01Write in the comments what other concerns or questions you have about visiting Russia,
19:05about traveling to Russia, and I will try to help.
19:09Or some other people who are already experienced in this topic will help you.
19:14Let's create such a space in the comments
19:18where we can share our experiences on these complicated topics
19:24and where anyone can find advice or a tip.
19:28I hope that this video was useful and see you in my next video.
19:44Bye-bye.
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