7 differences between Belarus and Russia. Minsk resident's opinion

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

He wrote about them in the LiveJournal "Minsk blogger": The territories of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine over the past two centuries were part of one state. I still consider our countries to be a single linguistic and socio-cultural space, the habits and mentality of people here are as identical as possible. Nevertheless, 30 years of political demarcation did their job, and the countries began to appear their own peculiarities, noticeable to the naked eye.

Political life

The most important difference between Belarus and Russia is that our political life is practically absent. There are no opposition leaders in Belarus, no opposition or pseudo opposition parties in parliament. All key figures are personally appointed by the President and are regularly shuffled by him like a deck of cards. The Belarusians have long understood that they have no influence on the political situation in the country, therefore, for the most part, they distance themselves from politics. Moreover, they distance themselves so much that many, without the help of Google or Yandex, are unlikely to remember the name and surname of the Prime Minister or Minister of Defense of the country.

There is only one well-known political figure in Belarus - President Lukashenko, while the attitude of the majority of the population towards him is also maximally neutral. During his 25 years of presidency, "but father", unlike Putin, did not have time to be noted for outstanding feats, as well as outstanding atrocities that could split public opinion, so there are very few fierce fans and fierce haters of the president in society.

Television and show business

There is no television and show business in Belarus either, as well as politics. There are 4 TV channels broadcasting in the country: Belarus 1, Belarus 2, Belarus 3 and SUDDENLY Belarus 5. No one knows where Belarus 4 has gone, because no one watches the first three (in fact, Belarus 4 is a channel with a single broadcasting network, a platform for all regions and comes out in each of them with the indication of this region: "Belarus 4. Mogilev", "Belarus 4. Gomel", etc.).

Television in Belarus has not outgrown the format of school amateur performances; in terms of the quality of its content, it resembles Russian TV as much as possible from the very beginning of the 1990s. The same applies to show business: not a single Belarusian actor or performer has outgrown the scale of the country.

The only exception is Lyapis Trubetskoy, but he did not live long either. But many natives of Belarus have become people, having left for Russia - these are Shura and Leva from Bi-2, who started in Bobruisk, Alena Sviridova, TV presenter Dmitry Shepelev.

Corruption and crime

Many Russians who come to our country note the almost complete absence of everyday corruption - no one wants to take bribes from them. In sanatoriums, many maids refuse to tip, questions with traffic cops or doctors cannot be resolved "amicably". In fact, there is, of course, corruption, but there is indeed much less of it.

It will be impossible to give a bribe practically anywhere, in the country the notorious KGK - the State Control Committee, which brutally catches small bribe-takers and corrupt officials - is raging. As for organized crime, it does not exist in the country. Generally. The authorities liquidated all the authorities back in the 1990s, and, as they say, in a rather harsh way.

Infrastructure

For some unknown reason, against the background of other CIS countries, the social infrastructure in Belarus is incredibly well developed. The guests of the country note the quality of the roads, the well-groomed fields and the cleanliness of the streets. The roads are really high in comparison with Russia and even more so compared with Ukraine. Although federal highways in the European part of the Russian Federation in recent years have also become very worthy. Russian devastation with broken roads and rotten barracks in Belarus is also noticeably less. Almost all small towns I have been to look neat and well-groomed.

Migrants

Another feature that strikes the eye of a Russian who comes to Belarus is the national homogeneity of the population. In Belarus, there are practically no comers from the Central Asian republics and African countries, the Muslim community is extremely small - the first and only small mosque was opened in Minsk just two years ago. But what surprises Russians most of all, in Belarus in general and in Minsk in particular, almost all builders, cleaners and sweepers are local. Belarusians keep order in their country themselves.

Currency

The Belarusian currency has every chance to compete with the Zimbabwean currency in terms of the rate of decline. In the period from 1991 to 2016, it depreciated 100 million times (for comparison, the Russian ruble depreciated 35 thousand times over this period). Taught by constant collapses and devaluations, Belarusians keep all their savings in dollars and all prices that differ from the household minimum are also converted into dollars to make it clearer.

If a Belarusian is told the price of a car or an apartment in Belarusian rubles, he will not understand how much it is and will ask to translate it into dollars or euros: Also, Belarusians very quickly navigate during sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate and in the very first hours they run to sweep jewelry and household appliances from the shelves. prices for which large chains have not yet had time to index.

Thus, during the collapse of the Russian ruble in 2014, Belarusians were the first in queues in all household appliances stores in the Russian border area. When the Russians realized what was happening, the shelves of Eldorado and Technosila were already empty.

Communal and public transport

Prices for utilities in Belarus are still very low, we do not have an intricate system of owners, there is no such unprincipled corruption and money-grubbing among petty officials, so the average amount of payment in Minsk ranges from $ 15 to $ 30 in equivalent. And for the amount that Muscovites pay for utilities, in Minsk it is quite possible to rent a one-room apartment on the outskirts of the city. The same applies to public transport - travel remains relatively cheap - 15-17 Russian rubles in equivalent, and the cost is practically the same in Minsk and regional centers.

The public transport network has not been destroyed, so the dominance of the route mafia is not observed, people always have a choice - to get there faster, but more expensive by minibus, or slower, but cheaper, by bus, trolleybus or tram. The rolling stock, by the way, is almost 100% equipped with locally made cars - buses, trolleybuses, trams and even newfangled electric buses are produced by Belarus itself.