Considering Russian is not only spoken in Russia but also in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, what would be the safest country to travel to where you can speak Russian? Probably not Russia or Ukraine because of the war but yeah.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
    15·
    13 days ago

    Estonia is like an extension of Finland (although using Russian there might be hard for the same reason). Kazakhstan has a good rep.

    Moldova, Georgia and Armenia have fighting or unrest. Azerbaijan too although they kind of won, and Belarus is party to the whole Russia/Ukraine thing. Turkmenistan has a bad rep for other reasons and is hard to legally get into.

    I know less about the other Baltics and 'stans from a safety perspective, although presumably the Baltics are similar to other poor areas of the EU.

    • ashema@sopuli.xyz
      6·
      13 days ago

      I’ve been in Georgia a few years after the 2008 war and it was as safe as it gets. Only the younger people either didn’t speak or didn’t want to speak Russian. After 2022 there was an influx of Russian expats to the country, so the chances of finding someone to talk to should be even higher.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        3·
        12 days ago

        Even aside from the border issues, there’s definitive unrest right now. They’ve been spraying people with straight-up Camite. Definitely not recommendable just based on that.

        It’s a shame, they have such an interesting history, and one that goes way way further back than most would guess.

        • ashema@sopuli.xyz
          2·
          13 days ago

          Ah, you’re talking about the anti-government protests which started a year ago after the pro-Russian party took power. That’s a valid point, even though as far as I can see the protests have waned since then. The anniversary event this November was peaceful.

    • hobata@lemmy.ml
      3·
      13 days ago

      Besides Tbilisi Georgia is nice, calm and pleasant. Kazakhstan is mostly a shithole, but if you’re not into interacting with people and enjoy flat steppes with endless views of nothing to the horizon, or beautiful mountains in the south, it’s a nice and calm place too.

  • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    111·
    13 days ago

    Depends. If you’re queer, definitely not anywhere in the former USSR (except for some of the Baltics).

    If you’re not queer, and speak a language of that region, probably that area is your best bet to blend in.

      • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        172·
        13 days ago

        Then definitely Estonia, or Lithuania. Although I think it’d be much better to live in the non-Russian part and learn Estonian/Lithuanian (and use it) there. I strongly recommend you do that last part especially.

        Alternatively, you could go to Slovakia, Russia is a minority official language there, though a lot of hospitals refuse service for transition stuff.

        For queer in general, not trans, Estonia still would be the best option.

        You could also go to Canada - there aren’t many Russian speakers, but there are small communities. Not enough to warrant a “minority” by a certain tyrant, thankfully. Winnipeg has some of them, I think.

        • balsoft@lemmy.ml
          3·
          12 days ago

          You can also get away with being queer in Yerevan. Not anywhere else in Armenia sadly.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      2·
      13 days ago

      Good catch!

      Definitely not good for queer issues. Better than sub-Saharan Africa, I guess, but that’s it. Even the fancy parts of MENA seem easier as that kind of traveler.

  • Angel(she/they)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    6·
    13 days ago

    According to the travel advisory, that would be Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan where you can all “exercise normal precautions”.

    • Microw@piefed.zipEnglish
      4·
      12 days ago

      Would not recommend people to go to the Baltic states in order to use/practice their Russian though. Central Asia is probably the way to go for that purpose.

        • Microw@piefed.zipEnglish
          1·
          11 days ago

          Afaik it’s somewhat frowned upon in Baltic societies since the Russian war in Ukraine. You’ll probably find some people who’ll happily speak Russian with you, but others might judge you for speaking Russian but not their national language.