I wouldn’t normally write a post like this, but WE ARE NOT going to find this level of ground reporting anywhere in U.S. media. As you might be aware, I have been doing extensive research on the Russian economy specifically with the outcome of western sanctions.
In his video a Youtuber I follow visited a local supermarket, similar to a WalMart Super Center to share information for his USA followers.
Dima Dear, a remarkably nice young man, lives in St Petersburg, Russia (formerly Leningrad), and he shares various experiences with his audience at their request. There is a lot of U.S interest as people following his story are starting to realize life in Russia is not what western media portray.
If you are familiar with USA grocery prices, what Dima shares in this ground report is stunning from a U.S. perspective. If you watch this livestream, keep in mind that 100 rubles equals $1.00. 350 rubles is $3.50. Additionally for weighted products 1kg equals 2.2 lbs. So generally speaking, if something is 100 rubles/kg it is $1 for two pounds.
Example from the video:
•Lean ground beef at 329 rubles/kg is less than $1.65/lb.
•Bacon at 250 rubles/kg is less than $1.25/lb.
•20 eggs are 139 rubles or $1.39.
•Boneless skinless chicken breast $4 for 4lbs.
•Typical Bagged salad mixes .79¢ each. etc.
The wild part is that in Russia they are getting worried these prices are too high. 👀
The average rent for a nicely furnished 2-bedroom modern apartment in St Pete Russia is around $500/month. Something akin to downtown Manhattan. Including rent, utilities, food, transportation, personal items and purchases, a Russian citizen can live very comfortably, remarkably comfortably, on an income of around $1,200 to $1,500/month. In downtown St Pete which is considered a more expensive place to live.
Put that into a USA middle-class perspective and evaluate the impact of western sanctions against the average Russian cost of living.
100 rubles = $1.00
.
.
.
.
.
Before you start packing your bags and putting your house up for sale, remember that Putin is still a dictator and Russia is a totalitarian technocracy. Putin is all-in on the Central Bank Digital Currency and the Digital Ruble. Along with the Digital Ruble you get a Chinese-style Digital ID and a Social Credit Score System. If you don’t fight now to preserve the US Constitution and your and your children’s Liberty & Rights, then the Republic is lost, just as Ben Franklin cautioned.
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Being Rolled Out NOW!
Virtually every government and central bank on the planet is rolling out Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) even as globalists and Deep State totalitarians brag about what they intend to use them for — shredding privacy and controlling your life.
https://libertysentinel.org/behind-the-deep-state-digital-currencies-being-rolled-out-now/
I prefer Putin over Bitem. I prefer Putin over Obamathon. I prefer Putin over Clinton. I prefer Putin over W. I prefer Putin over Bush Sr. I prefer Putin over McCain. I prefer Putin over Kerry. I prefer Putin over Jimmy Carter. I am sick of the criminals running the show in the USA. I don’t buy into all that anti Russian BS.
Yea!
Like that’s the only option!
The only thing I learned from this post is that you prefer their tyrants over our tyrants – but you still have a hankering for tyrants!
Principles are what they are these daze!
“Principles are what they are”
Spoken like a “principled conservative”, which translates to “I have no priciples”
DId you know that in Russia the vast majority of families attend Church on any given Sunday, while in the West, they probably attend a Drag Queen Story Hour?
Which country has those “principles” again?
I agree with you! At the very least Putin takes care of his people! He doesn’t starve his poor into oblivion! The thing in our white house is full of hatred, corruption and greed! I’ll take Putin any day of the week over what’s there now and that includes our “ elected officials” who swore to protect us but only contributed to our demise!
I hear you, however, the US is surely becoming/has become a dictatorship as well. What powers do we have to resist rapidly rising taxes, lock-step healthcare providers, stunning increases in violent crime, and a completely corrupt & totally inept government. Dare we whisper truths, we are mocked, fired, disowned, erased, or “cancelled”. By ignoring it or adhering to the MSM for “guidance”, we are sinking rapidly into a surrender by ignorance. Like most of us, I have no answers but continue to stand up, speak the truth, and strengthen my faith in God to guide us through this chaos.
Viva!!!! Mex.
The Russian Federation is a
Parliamentary Democracy .
Complete with the different
branches of government….
and by golly…it even
has a Constitution.
The answer depends on whether or not you want the heavy lifting do be done by others.
True. I overheard a condo neighbor complaining that he couldn’t make a digital payment for services performed. I told him to beware, the digital currency movement contains a control aspect. He replied “well yeah,” it’s one of the projects my division is working on! Another day in the swamp friends.
Simplicius’s Garden of Knowledge | Simplicius The Thinker | Substack
👍👍👍simplicius76 Click above to link
Smart guy..worth reading
many have explained difference
but he explains the best that
makes it understandable for
those not familiar with Russia.
And the comment about
Putin being a dictator…..
surely you forgot the /s tag.
The article explains the difference
between the current banking in
Russia. Especially since the
sanctions,etc.
Will give a better understanding.
I hope.
I have said from day 1 of the war- they are all in this together. Part of the great reset. And they have been able to murder 10s of thousands of brave fighting Europeans under the guise of “war”.
They are drinking champagne and smoking Havanas after hours- laughing their asses off at us morons.
They aren’t laughing.
But they are prep’ing/stashing their get away island retreats for the inevitable moment when the economic house of cards collapses.
What a strange and blind full comment. I bet you never been to Russia and just been fed by the mass media propaganda. I highly invite you to travel to Russia ( the custom are much nicer than the us customs, they are happy to receive americans😊😊). Then you’ll see by yourself. Regarding politic, I highly invite you to gather more infos from other sources, just to have another version and you’ll start wondering about what the occidental elite have done to your constitutions and human principles. I wish you one day, millions like you can wake up and see with their own eyes how changed are our life’s in this new world.
Western media has everyone brainwashed into believing big bad Russia and China are hellholes when I have found the opposite is true. I would not consider walking at night in San Francisco, Oakland, or Baltimore but I have walked around Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing without a worry.
People have core opinions and views of Russia with absolutely no basis to support them. As a foreigner who traveled extensively in their country, I found it the most interesting and fascinating country than any other I’ve seen. It has mixed aspects ranging from excellent to dangerous. It’s a world to itself, and any blanket comment from a person who has never been there is irrelevant. Our leaders made a huge mistake to alienate Russia and attempt to subdue her to exploitation following the collapse of Soviet control. The Russian people’s soul, faith and culture revived and survived the Soviet holocaust. Will our American culture, faith and national soul survive the hideous grip of perverse tyranny we are languishing in?
Sure says the people behind the curtain. Western media has lied about Russia and China so much that even my friends were worried when I traveled to China. I had been all over Vietnam and knew what Asian people are like and how they will become your friend almost instantly. So my trip to China taught me my instincts were true. After 11 years I don’t regret it a minute.
And you don’t realize that we’ve become Putin. Everything you cited is what the Dims are trying and usually succeeding in for us. I’m sorry but at least Putin is honest about his evil deeds and is proud to be a dictator Unlike the cowards in D C who hide their evil with platitudes and bromides for the masses.
We’re not seeing a lot of difference between Russian politics and the USA these days. And, at least Putin put his people first.
Sure. Next you’ll be telling us Ukraine (or any West country) is a country with a thriving free democracy , free speech, many political Party’s, great human rights, and there are no Nazi’s there at all.
Have you ever been to Russia? I think not. And before you accuse moe of being Russian, I am from Poland
You have to throw in the propaganda garbage, to make your “point” shows you don’t even have one, just propaganda. No one says you have to like Russia, or Putin, but when you have to throw out obvious lies to support your point you invalidate your own arguments.
“Putin is still a dictator” Sure, except they still have elections in Russia, that I am sure are far more fair than the fake “democracy” of the West, like in the USA, where online vote “counting” machines determine the winner, not voters. Putin is actually accountable to the Russian people, in that if he doesn’t do what they want done, he will not be re-elected. He wins elections by doing the things that the vast majority of the Russian people want to be done. Which is why his approval rating is consistently around 80%. He’s not trying to please you.
“Russia is a totalitarian technocracy” You made a grammar error there, substitute the name of any country in the West for Russia and you would be closer to the truth. In Russia they have every kind of political Party, from far right to far left, and far right to far left media, and they talk frankly about important issues in the way that almost no one does in the West.
In the West we have fake democracy, where only “approved” narratives can be spoken out loud
“Libertysentinel” hahahaha – try looking in the mirror.
The problem is Americans are ignorant concerning Russia, in that most of us have strong opinions without any basis in fact. This is compounded when those who are both ignorant and stupid tend to have strident opinions, and therefore are dangerous. This is how America ended up a dictatorship. No one can pretend that Biden is cogent and powerful. As a puppet he is so defective, that no longer can we pretend that those holding his office before him were not also puppets. Putin is a powerful and cogent man, and he has forged support networks to stay in power and lead Russia to a place the Russian people want. Traditional Americans, patriotic, God fearing, family oriented types have far more in common with Russian people than we have with our leadership class. Our leaders are so inept, they have destroyed the west but are failing at destroying Russia. Now we created an enemy instead of living in peace, trade and prosperity.
Sort of amazing that a supposedly failed State (Russia) is making the US look stupid. Oh what, that is Putin making Biden look stupid. Ok then.
We’ve been lied to – over, and over and over again! The US government and the US media are nothing but liars!
CUT THE CORD
I DID IN 2005. LYING THEN. LYING NOW.
CUT THE CORD
You are welcome. Hola from Gulfo de Mexico!
what areas do you recommend?
Look to the south of the border. The tropical areas of Mexico have a lot to offer. Catholic/ Christian family values. Very peaceful. Yucatan is especially safe from crime and homelessness. Your welcome
Not the best recourse IMO.
Better to know the narrative in order to shoot it down when convincing others of the “true path.”
Why are you sounding so surprised??
This is part of the plan https://archive.org/details/SilentWeaponsForQuietWarsOriginalDocumentCopy/mode/1up
Corporate Greed! Price gouging and hoax inflation!
Wait a second. I thought Putin was Hitler, Stalin, and Moa put together, only more evil? You mean, Russian isn’t hell on earth? Thank the Living God for the Guttenberg Press of the 21st century! The lies can no longer hide in the darkness, and Reformation is coming no matter what the secular globalist oligarchs do!
This is what American plans from Harvard looked like This is part of the plan https://archive.org/details/SilentWeaponsForQuietWarsOriginalDocumentCopy/mode/1up
How many homeless and drug addicts does one see? Beautiful Russia.
What I find particularly interesting is the lack of obese, slovenly dressed people, and of course the absence of panhandlers and derelicts. They as a people are on their way up while our society is on the way down, pure and simple.
Just how much of our PROCESSED foods have been stripped of nutrients to be replaced with useless fillers?
So what nutrients do the people actually get from their “food”?
And how much is eaten for those nutrients vs how much is unhappiness and Tourette of the elbow?
Our diets are the beginning of our health.
Processed food is junk food. America is addicted to sugar, salt and fats.
That’s the biggest complaint from Asians that I know is that food is too salty or sweet.
It’s only like that in Saint Petersburg for 2-3 months a year and the rest of the time it’s brutally cold. I wouldn’t trade living in the U.S. for anywhere in Russia even if I were wealthy.
Actually from late April to mid-October. Closer to 5-6 months, not too different from our upper Midwest.I was in Peterburg in March 2000. Cold but not brutal. And like the USA, it carries over to milder summers.
I live in Montana, and before that in NE Ohio.
St. Petersburg sounds good to me!
You should come to Green Bay. Or Buffalo NY. Summers are beautiful. Falls are exotic. Winters are brutal. Weather is not the real issue.
Saint Petersburg is on the Baltic Sea. It has a temperate climate. If you like cities, it actually is beautiful and filled with historic locations. If you like cold, dry climates you would look east of the Ural Mountains.
Notice what (who) else is missing?
Immediately. What a feast for the eyes.
Mmm hmmm.
Yeah, I didn’t watch the whole video, but in a few blocks I only saw one police officer on the corner.
It’s like laws are respected and not broken openly in the streets and sidewalks.
Monday’s! Nobody likes Monday’s.
I sure noticed.
Thank you for sharing this! One summer we had an exchange student lifeguard at our pool. What she described sounded good. Her family had an apartment in St Petersburg and a dasha in the country, but I assumed her family was well- connected and this wasn’t normal.
Somebody feeling porny lately?
And those Ukraine girls really knock me out! They leave the West behind.
How can this be, with such a lack of diversity? Diversity is our strength. Diversity is our strength. DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH!!!
Average lifestyle in America is now out of reach for most people.
Inflation over the past 3 years has been astonishing and crushing. The media has mainly ignored it. Most people allow the media to shape their opinion and their view of the world. Many people this block it out without realizing it.
It is wreaking further havoc on our country and economy that is already reeling from high taxes excess regulation and flat wages.
Don’ forget flat or negative ‘productivity’ growth for at least a decade; The Engine That Drives ALL Standard of Living Increases…and the excessive printing of “money” that serves as it’s Krypton.
Life in Russia might become an attractive option as our society collapses
Viva Mexico. Next door amigos. Awesome options abound!
Maybe if your heritage allows you to blend in. I wouldn’t want to be Scottish white down there during the collapse.
What about the drug cartels and human trafficking? If life is so affordable and pleasant why don’t migrants stop their journey and settle in Mexico?
I shop for my family and know the prices on everything we buy pretty much down to the penny. Bush started the run up in beef prices during the Golf war blaming it on meat supplied to our fighting forces. They’ve never settled down since except this exponential rise under Robert Peters.
Just one question. We know the cost of living, but what is the average salary? $1,500 is not so good if you make $500/mo. If you make $2,000/mo. Great!
Just googled this. It appears that the average salary in St Petersburg Russia is about $10,000 per year. Not so good.
Google? Better fact check that.
WHY is America overlooking the most obvious form of election interference that’s common throughout the world and throughout history: POLITICAL PROSECUTION? Between political prosecution, violating FEDERAL ELECTION LAWS, a corrupt media and communist democrat party ELECTION FRAUD, ELECTION INTEGRITY is ZERO! POLITICAL PROSECUTION VIOLATES the HATCH ACT – a federal law. ELECTION LAWS are being VIOLATED every election, yet the JUDICIAL SYSTEM DOES NOTHING! America has become a nation of COWARDS and USURPERS against American citizens. When the judicial system goes ROGUE, they too must be removed or VOTED OUT!
There is no “voting out”. The system has been corrupted for decades.
There was a time in Russia when the money was following but nothing could be found.. Some people were paid in appliances or product due to the availability of rubbles but no food.. This proves there is a place for nationalism and hard working farmers in any country.. Dump the socialist politicians and Oprah’s of the world and get back to fallowing God and Christ ..
Median income in Russia is less than $10,000 USD. like way less (median is $5500 or so) so these might seem cheap to us…
That is true. Where I am breakfast costs me $.40 USD and Dinner is $1.75 usd. A taxi ride for 10 miles is $1.75 USD but the yearly income of the locals is $540-700/month or $10,800-14,000/year. It makes me wonder how they afford to drive fancy cars and live in nice apartments. Also, the food is good and not Frankensteined with chemicals everything is fresh. There are many old people who seem to be pretty healthy when I go walking in the park and they are walking, dancing, and exercising. There are no homeless. You can walk the streets alone at night and not worry. Even though I don’t think I have ever walked alone. It’s usually a bunch of us who go to dinner and then to a karaoke bar or dance club. Gas is still $5.00/gal.
I found it interesting that there were plenty of American brands on the shelves in English print and the lack of virtue signaling brands , Coke and Pepsi opened up a more diverse and competitive selection of soft drinks. The same thing with bottled water. Pepsi is a big owner of the market here, that video showed larger selection of brands. Keep in mind that their prices are cheaper but so is their income.
Here in Florida, our Homeowners Insurance is $1000.00 a month and going up again in October. Russians probably dont have to deal with this insurance BS either.
Nor do we in Mexico!!
The price increase for 2023 is just outrageous.
I would live in Mexico but I have a wife and she wants to live in her hometown. We should visit sometime and miss the tourist spots where the last time we were going to go there is when they shot 3 or 4 people on the beach. We canceled and never thought about going again. Of course, where we live in the USA there is the black side of town where there is at least one sometimes two shootings a night. Of course, everyone knows not to go to that area. It’s the hookers and drugs area. Where we live in my wife’s hometown there is nothing bad happening. We travel back and forth every 6 months due to regulations.
My home insurance is $42.00 a month with AMFAM. I have a small house worth only $380,000. My taxes are or were $1200/year. I’ll see what it is next year soon. My car insurance for two cars is $3200/year.
during the wuhan flu panic i visited a fedex store several times where i got to know the customer service agent, a younger, recently divorced, russian lady. her english was good, and she was clearly overeducated for her current job and likely for her american ex-husband too. the last time we spoke she said that she planned to return to russia. my surprise was apparent and acknowledged that while america has problems, “at least we are free here.” she gave me a pleasant, wry look in return and asked, “are you so sure of that?”
That’s what my wife says about “freedom” in the USA. She wonders what we are so free about. There are still all the normal laws and unless you think you can’t do something because it’s illegal as oppression I would think that almost everywhere on earth is pretty free. I wouldn’t know about most of the earth though.
I have only traveled to three continents.
Dear Russia- please bring your economy here. I bet heating costs in winter are cheaper too.
But hey- it’s our Elected Class that must destroy the US middle class so they can enslave us before execution. Exception Maui where they got a two-fer.
From the Tsars to Stalin, Russia has always kept food prices low in the cities (when there was food) at the expense of the peasant/farmer. This is not new or surprising. What is surprising is Putin has more support in the rural areas and more dissenters in the cities.
We dissenters in the cities were wondering about that for a time, yeah. Putin takes their children and sends them to die in Ukraine, and gets even more support for that? How does that work?
Much like people in the rural areas of the US, Russians want huilo to make ~America~ Russia great again. That, and he pays them for it.
Here are couple channels
That I like.
American expat story | Business, dating, citizenship & building a house in Russia – YouTube
👆👆👆click to watch Eli from Russia Oct 2021
Life in Russia after sanctions – ULTIMATE journey through the east to the west – YouTube
👆👆Eli in Russia …title of this….Is Russia Poor
she filmed this 11 months ago
Bearly Speaking at the Russian Economic Forum – YouTube
Siberian Freedom 👆👆
Australia farming family who recently
moved to Russia
The start of our Homestead – YouTube
Siberian Freedom 👆👆 5 days ago
They have their permanent status citizenship
and have found where they want to live
Can we move to a rural Russian village – YouTube
👆👆 Siberian Freedom
around the 23:00 mark….
a small livable house ..
probably what we would call
a fixer upper…with nice yard—-
1650.00 USD😊
MAGA 👊👊🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️❤️
Study in Russia | Free education for international students – YouTube
👆👆 Eli from Russia from 2 years ago.
😊😊 wonder if the program is still ongoing
The childish and stupid sanctions vs Russia arent working. Silly stupid outdated foreign policy.
Our state dept et al do not know how to negotiate mutual peace and prosperity.
The MIC won’t let them .. peace is not good for the weapons business.
We are led by absolute idiots.
American retirees with only Social Security could survive very comfortably. Direct Deposit and bank online.
They ARE socialists. I don’t want no government subsidized food.
I find it difficult to comprehend that there are those in the CTH audience, (an audience smarter than the average audience) who get moving to Russia out of this. Russia is a communist country. Biden is turning us into a Communist country. Are you people for real? Shaking my head. Gotta be trolls. Keep up the good work Sundance.
Um… It might help to state that the average annual salary in Russia is 1,240,000 Rubles (RUB) or USD 14,771 (according to the exchange rate in June 2023).
Thing is they spend in rubles not dollars, and with sanctions & endless US currency debasement
dollar exchange rates are getting rather arbitrary at this point.
PPP is a more relevant way to judge an economy like Russia. As it takes into account how far the *local* money goes in terms of spending power.
In structural non-wage/income terms, I believe they have low flat tax rate (like 12%), high home ownership (de-commuism policy) electricity & gas are cheap (major energy exporter), staple food is cheap (major food exporter), and a hybrid state/private health & education system. Like say Germany you can pay for high-tier stuff. But there’s safety-net that stops you getting put into penury by a rapacious health-scam system.
So about the same as Poland or Portugal in socio-economic terms, not Gulf State rich, but not the stereotype of a poor country by any means.
Was in Singapore earlier this summer. A place which is typically discussed as one of the most expensive (and modern, and safe) nations in the world. And property there is crazy expensive, it’s a city state with limited land. However food, which due to the aforementioned small size of the nation, is almost all imported was very affordable. I didn’t check grocery stores (should have) but at food courts meal-sized dishes were in the S$5-9 range (US$3.68 – $6.62). Meanwhile my local food truck here in SC sells similar stuff for like US$10-12. Just a data point but one I found interesting.
Take a ride with Sergey (Baklykov. Live / Russia NOW). He walks and drives throughout Russia. Yes, Putin may be all those things. But it surely looks like people are not afraid to walk alone. There is virtually no graffiti. Lots of couples, kids, water fountains, parks. And there does not seem to be the type of homelessness we have everywhere here. By the way, he considers himself not a liberal, as he talks about liberals as they and them, not we and us. He keeps politics away from his streaming. He is not polished but is authentic (IMHO)
If only our own politicians had their finger on American’s pulse like these Russian information operations.
Sure, we know their history of corruption and communism and brutality and all that, but it’s sure nice to know there is SOMEONE out there who understands our angst!
Out of curiosity, what is the mean income for the bottom 50% in Russia?
200-300$
The last 3 years has made the fact that Russia is named and USA is not in the Bible an understandable forthcoming reality.
Nice to see the Russians have food choice and aplenty. Remember the grim images of desolate people in queue for a few sausages.
I’ll take my chances here – at least not dodging UKR drones as I walk down the street– what is not discussed is whether RUS govt subsidizes or controls food prices
They’ve had a number of these supermarket videos. There are also good ones of beautiful Gorky Park, St. Petersburg “White Nights” summer celebrations, and others.
Ania K did a Christmas season video tour of the Galeria, an upscale shopping mall along the lines of South Coast Plaza in Newport Beach, CA. Alex Christoforou just did some roving monologues from Moscow and St. Pete. He took a shot of the Lakhta Center, the tallest building in Europe, 1516 feet. (Moscow has Europe’s 2nd tallest building, 1226 ft.). Things appear to be bustling.
Russia’s Mercedes plant is shuttered. I guess Russians will have to buy China-manufactured Benzes, BMW’s, and Audis for awhile.
Some comments talk of Putin being a false choice, but you miss the point in a knee-jerk “Putin Bad” unthinking reaction, like a zapped slave collar that keeps you obedient to a dogma.
It’s the Russian economic policy and the fruits of that policy that deserves consideration, and you can have the benefits without the so-called tyranny of Putin.
Did tyranny EVER make for cheap groceries for everyday people? Wake up. This and housing is where the cost of living rubber meets the road, enabling household savings, or not.
Putin doesn’t answer to Davos or London or Wall Street, and you see the bottom line here, of all places, in a Russian grocery store, lol.
Western-oriented oligarchs hate Putin because he pushed them out from leaching off the Russian people. We need a Presidency to do the same here.
We are drowning in wealth extraction, speculation, and a lack of defense of the real economy and labor from global syndicate charlatans.
Western oligarchs are not pleased that Russia provides us with a reality-check comparison of prices for groceries, no less than how folks behind the Iron Curtain were stunned by western abundance during the Cold War. Wow, what a role reversal! Let’s call it Russian Reversal for fun.
US GDP: $25462 billion (World Bank, 2022)
Russia GDP: $2240 billion (World Bank, 2022)
Propagandize some place else wanker.
What is (and how does one measure) “lack of defense”? Your precision is remarkable!
Amazon is assisting me in understanding just how much everything is costing more. They give you the date you ordered and what it cost you. A year later when I’m stocking up, I’m astounded at the price jumps. Enough that I’ve pared down our budget. I’m buying locally . I’m buying from a really good consignment store. And me and the General (Dollar General) have become good buddies. O and I changed banks after a decade. They have just been bought out by a French/Canadian consortium. I said Nope, no thanks. Grabbed my $$ and headed down to.my local teachers credit union.
Sad to say, the low prices mean nothing until we know what the average working Joe Russian makes a year. I think it is 1/3 what we make here. Any thoughts on this?? I think we will soon be getting to the place, though, that the Russians have it better than us economically. Their leadership thinks Man Made climate change and a lot of other things being forced fed to us are BS. Hear that sucking sound of us going down the drain? Hard to believe we might sometime be emigrating to Russia. A large U.S. presence in South/Central America is not an impossibility. Oh well, there is still hope. With God, all things are possible.
I watch this sweet family in Russia and he tells all about life there;