Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	MONEY TRANSFER FROM UKRAINE TO USA	Before Sergey opened his account here and had his debit card, I used to send $300 per month by Moneygram for $9.99. If I am not mistaken (and maybe it changed) you could send up to $500 for that amount. I never paid $31. WU charges in the neighborhood of 10% and that is just crazy. $8-10 is the price at WallMart, but maybe the price FROM Ukraine is different?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-04 19:49:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	MONEY TRANSFER FROM UKRAINE TO USA	I will start using Moneygram. It cost me 50 USD to send 500 USD a few days ago via W.U. vs. 31 USD for the same amount if I were using Moneygram. Thanks. You are welcome You can see this is a much discussed issue in RUB.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-04 14:00:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	MONEY TRANSFER FROM UKRAINE TO USA	We use Moneygram for transfers to Ukraine as well. I have never tried to send money from Ukraine. The best method is a money belt, when you come back Probably no help.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-03 18:11:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Mother-in-law	I keep reading on VJ (and have been told by some one with personal experience) that getting the MIL a Schengen visa, or helping her travel to the Euro Zone before applying for a visa to the US is helpful.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-26 08:27:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	, always check the official source to be right...	Another member was saying that in case petitioner needs a co-sponsor, he can ask a church he goes to - to be a co-sponsor How do u like ths one... Church a co-sponsor... Correct me but I think ths is totally out of space... There is a large Bosnian community here, and those who immigrated (refugees by and large), were primarily due to two churches that were responsible for finding their sponsors. The churches were not the sponsors, but the appeal came from the churches.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-14 14:38:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	One more RUB member added!	What was this topic about? Oh yeah, LL celebrating the birth of his child. He recently thanked every one for the good wishes and graciously ignored most of the other stuff. Despite several warnings and interventions, the thread has continued to move off subject. .....AAAaaannnd...... that's a wrap! Topic closed.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-14 23:02:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	One more RUB member added!	Congrats!!!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-06 07:19:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	DS-156 form question # 31	Milushka - you may want to include an explanation (on a separate sheet) if you answer yes to having been refused a visa. It may help speed things along. In the situation you described, I am not sure the clerk reviewing your application will be able to find the incomplete one you cite. Any confusion may cause a delay.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-24 11:03:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Tsar Putin spreads his tentacles	The thing is, I don't know what would replace Putin. There are no clear leaders otherwise. And Russia also is a country that suffers from the "resource curse." Whoever controls the national resources controls the country. In the 90s, that was the oligarchs and despite better freedom of press, etc. economically it was a disaster. Quality of living has improved a lot even just in the 5 years I've been here, nevermind what it must have been like 10, 15 years ago. I can see why people would be reluctant to take a chance and change course. Plus there is an overwhelming belief that politics are meaningless and political participation is a joke, not just in Russia, but everywhere. Nobody believes me when I say that, for instance, Republicans and Democrats are different, or that voting actually means something in the US. I keep hearing that eekee, but I think the fact that there are no clear leaders is kind of a which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg debate. Are there no leaders, so Putin fills the void and just crowds out the weaker contenders, or does Putin actively eliminate his competition before they have the power base to really challenge him. To me the more interesting question is why do people in Eastern Europe seem to lean so far towards the strongest appearing candidate, regardless of his/her position on issues? In Ukrain for example, people are well aware that the socialist/communist model was a failure, but they voted back in a President that was known to be crooked, known to be affiliated with the Kremlin, and was a clear reversion to the old way of doing things. I am told it was because the old administration was divided and weak (at least in part). Could it be that people there have had so much hardship, they just want stability, and will support the strongest (and therefore most likely to promote stability) leader? German influence imo had a small impact if any. Sure ethnic German rulers such as Catherine had an impact, but only after her Russian husband was deemed weak. A lot of Germans were moved to Russia for their skills...but anyone who compares German culture to Russian culture knows that they have about zero in common. One trip to Germany and then to Russia solves that question. Mongol rule was alive for 300+ years in Russia and it's impact was significant enough to where it changed an entire people in regards to politics...and more. Russia has St. Petersburg which is meant to look like a European city, but past that they don't have a lot in common with Europeans other than a border they share with European country's. Russia imo resembles it's Asiatic and Turk neighbors much more than it's European ones. I am of the opinion that many Eastern Europeans look like westerners, but think like asians. That thinking manifests to me in the closeness of family and social groups. Maybe one of the reasons Marx and Lenin played so well there.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-09 09:21:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Tsar Putin spreads his tentacles	And if people don't want to join the united front, there is always the alternative - taking a beating from the associated youth organization, then a short stint in detention.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-08 14:00:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interesting Article on Scams in FSU	Some of the things I have seen with other guys make me wonder how someone can throw so much money at a woman who wants nothing but what she can get from a guy and not know they are being used. Right. Sometimes the amount of money sent regularly just blows my mind. Seems typical of people that say they are married to Ukrainian women but are really just phonies. I was thinking of guys (or girls) who get so intoxicated by the attention when they find some one who starts talking the talk, that they just seem to loose their minds. As far as Gary's comment that when RW go bad they really go bad, the one I remember most was one young guy who was quite active about the same time AK Diver was here. I won't say who it was since this was told to me in confidence. It's been years and I don't think the story itself will hurt anything. One member brought a gal from S.P. on a K-1 and came back early from work one day. She had been doing naked web cam with about 20 different guys. ALMOST funny. I suppose there were flags all over the place before that happened, and they were ignored? Yes, and there was no real internet back in the early post Soviet downfall to facilitate wholesale scamming. The internet has blessed and cursed we intrepid men in search of our own Aphrodite. The tours can lead to scamming too but it's harder when they have to look you in the eye. The first time I visited Ukraine, I ran across a group of British guys who were sure they were being scammed. One of them told me a story about going to the bus station and watching his intended get off the bus. At the time I didn't think to ask him how he got to the bus station in Odessa, or how he knew when she would be there. He says she got off the bus and took a taxi to Deribasovskaya (I think) to meet him. He says she promptly told him she needed $200 for the taxi from Nikoliev, and $200 for the ride back, and she needed to leave right after dinner because she had a test the next day. He said he gave her $200 to get home and left. So even eye-to-eye, he gave up the cash. I read lots of posts here about people who spend weeks with a non-USC, and proceed to send thousands over time, for relationships that don't pan out. I really believe that some people cannot be helped. Same thing happens with USC couples too. When Tanya and I were in the Syping, texting and emailing stage she had a situation come up with her son and his university. The amount was trivial to me but she would not take any money from me because we hadn't met yet. She wouldn't even discuss it. A sure sign of a good one. Vika wouldn't even discuss money before she got here, let alone ask me to help her. I sent money for stuff like train tickets (to Lviv) or vacation packages (Turkey), before I came for vacation - but that was it. I sent some flowers too. Edited by Brad and Vika, 14 May 2011 - 01:51 PM.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-14 13:50:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interesting Article on Scams in FSU	Looking back, I truly believe MCat was purely a phoney. At first I think all of us "fell for it" and really tried to offer the guy good advice and then, one by one, everyone started to realize it was like a B movie script. "Invasion of the Hot Ukrainian Strippers" or something that would be on late night cable TV. Maybe he thought this was one of those write your own story forums or Penthouse kept rejecting his submissions or something. Or he was just pulling our chain. But yes, there have been a couple I spoke with also that I just wanted to "shake" so to speak, they were sending bundles of money for the most unimaginable things. I have yet to see one of those situations turn out well. The trouble I had with all of it was that mcat would post up that crazy story for all the newbies to read, then mash the report button to have all the advice removed if he was insulted. The guy is/was very thin skinned, but very skilled at getting mods to regulate the negatives he read. Ultimately he usually asked for threads to be removed - so the ugly story was remembered, but the constructive advice was all lost.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-09 08:56:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interesting Article on Scams in FSU	In court they call what you say as hearsay. There are stories and story tellers...some of immense talent in spinning yarns. None of us knows the truth here. We only hear stories. Many true, some pure Bull. Everyone here should take everything said with a big grain of salt. Scam capitals? Simferopol was so scam laden that several online darting services flagged all girls from that city. I was making reference to a pretty well known member of yore Looking back at my post (or looking looking), it wasn't very clear what I was saying though. I also talk to vjers pretty often, and I am surprised how many times I talk to some one who sends lots of money but never met their SO, or was kept away from family or friends of the SO. Both are signs of POSSIBLE problems, at least where Ukraine is concerned. The mcat saga is the most disturbing I can recall from vj.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-08 13:48:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interesting Article on Scams in FSU	I feel bad for those guys getting scammed...but then again if someone has internet they have access to "google" and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to read up on what to look out for. I have been truly amazed at the members here who will post about, or talk about, sending hundreds of dollars per month to some one they just met online recently. Even if they never met personally, and any member who trys to describe the situation in terms of danger signals or red flags just gets blown off.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-08 07:20:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interesting Article on Scams in FSU	We had a member with a fiance' from YO too. Looked looked he was taken in pretty well. Then her ex found him on vj, and all kinds of stalking and other fun ensued.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-07 19:53:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interesting Article on Scams in FSU	Scam article in YO Thoughts?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-07 09:03:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Is your RUB wife slapping you around ?	...and has lived in the US ever since. It could be that she is just another artist using the platform of her celebrity to send a goofy message wrapped in a video. Wouldn't be the first time. I would go with that	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-07 18:00:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Is your RUB wife slapping you around ?	This reminds me of Rihanna. You remember, the girl who got slapped around backstage at the Grammys and then released a song called, "S&M" a few months later. Perfect example of American feminism. Except Rihanna is from Barbados	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-03 20:41:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	My K - 1 Interview at Moscow embassy	My wife told me a while back that the hospital she works at checks FB for employee's on there. I have a feeling these social network sites are going to eventually die out for reasons stated on this thread. Lots of companies are checking the social networking sites now. State checking visa applicants was a new one to me.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-07 20:28:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	My K - 1 Interview at Moscow embassy	Congrats! Interesting information about the social networking check too.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-07 18:21:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Hotels in Kiev	We used kievrent. I don't remember the per night price, but it was way under $100. Right near Kreshatyk Sorry - to qualify the above, I remember that kievrent had english speaking staff and drivers, sight seeing tours, and interpreters if you needed. It was also two-plus years ago, so the information might be stale. Check on line.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-26 10:57:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Hotels in Kiev	We used kievrent. I don't remember the per night price, but it was way under $100. Right near Kreshatyk	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-25 22:26:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	DS 157 - question 17	I have no doubt you are right. I don't remember where honestly, but I do remember the huge pain she had listing the dates and institutions. Thanks for the catch Just an aside Gary, but how many hours a day on average are you on vj? You have a load of knowledge about the process, but sheesh! Given what you tell us about how full your life is, when do you sleep?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-26 19:02:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	DS 157 - question 17	Vika went all the way back to grade school. We had no problems or questions in the process.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-26 18:41:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Arrived!!!	Congratulations. I see your priorities are straight	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-26 11:00:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	NOA2 approved June 6!	I am late to the party, but congratulations any way.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-27 16:54:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Ukraine Passport Photo	Thanks Brad, as I mentioned, I'll call the UA Consulate for clarification. Sticky wicket. No trouble. Not sure I was any help, but I know Vika and her friends talk about this a bit.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-26 19:04:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Ukraine Passport Photo	All of the people from Ukraine require an internal passport. Her international passport will not expire soon. I think I read here that the international passport can be renewed at an embassy, but the internal one cannot. I also seem to recall that the internal takes 30 days or so. I mention it because she seems to be out of time. Maybe there is some way to expedite. Sounds from the commentary that some members believe so.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-06-26 18:45:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Customs Declaration when Leaveing Ukraine	I wouldn't declare anything - especially jewelery. You don't want to put yourself in a position where the value of any personal property is in dispute, because you may be asked to pay something. Vika wears her jewelery through the airport and has never had questions if there is more in her purse. Have a great trip!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-04 08:14:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Checking in	Thanks for the comments. My friend just wrote me to say that he gave his SO the PIN, and she called. The russian speaking staffer was able to find their case, and the appointment (along with scheduled vacation time for him and plane tickets) are squared away. Vika flew in today, and is already skyping her mother. She is happy to be back, and of course I an thrilled to have her home again.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-18 13:28:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Checking in	Just checking back in. Vika is due back from Ukraine Monday, and I have faithfully kept the plants watered I also am having the house cleaned professionally (she wasn't happy), and buying a big flower arrangement (she will be very happy). I bought both of us new laptops while I had the time, because I was tired of our endless discussion about spending the money. She was initially unhappy, but after a few skype conversations on my new rig, she is excited to check hers out. Hers has a faster processor, that is supposed to make TV and movies run easier. She connected her parents to the web and left her Ukrainian laptop there. My question is this - I have a buddy in the Southeast that is at the visa interview part of the program. He got the notice from NVC over a month ago, called, got the KEV#. The embassy still doesn't have the file listed. I seem to recall a week or ten days of this, but a five weeks sounds long. The embassy says they are swamped. Have any of you heard why?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-16 11:02:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	let the fun begin	Congratulations are definitely in order	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-18 20:30:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	5 Days Post-POE - GREAT!	Be ready that 80% of Macy's stuff will be rejected. & 99% of JP. It didn't work out that way here. The thing is, JP clothes on sale are usually (apparently, as I wouldn't know first hand ) less expensive. There seems to be a trade-off, although she will hit the mall with her BFF if there is a big sale on. She is frugal enough that I don't sweat it - usually.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-18 13:33:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	5 Days Post-POE - GREAT!	Just sayin' that her first impression of clothes in the big box and those that women were wearing on the street were "not modern". You know, we know that RUB women dress well with or without food on the table. Gotta take her to Macy's and DSW pretty soon. The different sense of style caused us to have several funny conversations. I found that "not modern" translated into conservative or boring. Good luck with the Macy's thing That is a sure cure for the it-is-almost-free thought process. Vika loves JCPennys. Half the pain	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-17 09:36:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	The wife wants to return to Russia	meh...Iv'e told this story on here before, and it's not one of my prouder moments...but by far not my worse. Here's the short version. Me and the wife and one of her friends went up to Vitebsk to meet her former college friends and party. It comes up in a convo that Smolensk has a new night club that's supposed to be hot. So after god only knows how much booze...were heading to Smolensk...which by train is close to 8 hours or more...drinking the entire way there. We get to the club and there's a line of peeps waiting to get in. Hot chicks, English language and a few bucks and presto we are standing in side the entrance waiting to check in the bags, coats, etc.. and pay cover charge and then get stamped. In front of us is an Arab dude with what appeared to be a hooker...not sure, but anyways they were speaking English...hers better than his. She was showing him how many Rubles to pay for the cover charge..helping him count his money...and all I said was "It looks like we are all speaking English tonight eh"...and that's when everything went wrong. She turned around and said something sh*tty in Russian to the then fiance and her friends, they said something back and then it got real loud, and he said something towards me and I picked up the words American, assh*le...and then I popped him one. Big mistake...like really big. If I owned a club and had to choose bouncers...it would be from that club. Of course I don't go down easy and without a fight. Hey it's all about representing Alaska ! To make a long story short, cops show up after Iv'e been maced and I'm still zip tied, I get mouthy with them, Kira tells me to stfu and get all the money I have out of my wallet if I want to get back to Belarus. I guess I paid for a police escort seeing how they followed our taxi to the train station.. If your an American in Belarus you need what's called a "Transit Visa" to leave Belarus and come back to Belarus. We knew this, but we also knew nobody cares about that visa...unless your a dirty fck*ng Russian cop who knows about that visa. That was just one of many adventures with the wifey. There's the time I ended up on stage at Westworld club and she went ape sh*t and had me drug off stage ...even when everyone was cool about it..but her. Now that I think about it...she threw my bags out twice during my visits, and tried to have my trip back home changed and then found out only the purchaser can do that, so she told me to get a hotel room until it was time for me to go back...and then retracted that when she remembered the hotels in Minsk are full of hookers...etc, etc.. I really can't speak to the transit visa issue, because I always had a multi-entry business visa. Also, I normally visited EU countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany), so getting out of the country I visited was never an issue. My question is why didn't you just get a visa? Can't you buy one at the border? I never tried to visit Russia, so I am curious. If I am understanding the story, you didn't get into it over lack of a visa. You found trouble because you made poor decisions while drunk. In that condition, trouble will find you anywhere - including the US. Ask the poster "Brad" of "Brad & Vika" about the time he got the bums rush out of a Minsk casino when the house was fleecing a group of Russians on a roulette table and Brad was guilty of winning too much money...or at least how they saw it. 'Rus'...lmao...I could write a book about those people. I'm not going to get into details of how they were selling their wives, gf's, sisters, whoever at night in the camps knowing we had a pot full of money and nowhere to spend it, or the few times their home brews came up bad and made the entire crew sick as dogs. Or even when they were stealing the camp blind including the basic necessities of the their camp...the one we built for them, or when we used to get an armed guard escort driving from point "A" to point "B". Or better yet when my flight was cancelled in Magadan but the ticket counter chick offered a room at her place as long as I was willing to pay...extra for extra privileges of course. That casino story is absolutely true, but in my (I admit brief) visits to Belarus, I never saw or heard of anybody trying to sell a relative Because the penalties for breaking the law can be high, I felt like I was able to walk around many districts of Minsk safely, and I never saw a cop in Belarus ask for a bribe. Maybe my experience wasn't typical though. Completely true that prostitution was everywhere too, both organized and freelance. Can't say I was ever pressured about that, although some of the businessmen I worked with thought my abstention was completely crazy. How one meets one's spouse has no bearing wehatever on the legitimacy of the relationship. The theory here is "She didn;t want to get married but met me and couldn't help herself because I am siuch a prize" Yeah sure. On the other hand one may say that a woman advertising on a marriage site is at least of the same mindset as the men looking there. We have all taken our share of bullshite for marrying foreign women, we do not need to give it to each other. Who am I to say that marrying a Ukrainian woman you met by chance is OK but marrying a Russian you met online is wrong? I have tried to pass on my experiences to others in the process and I never ask how they met, what color they are, how old are they or what religion they are, I wish them all the best of luck. While I have been known to be opinionated, you have never seen me judge a person's personal relationship. I agree with most of this (maybe not the part about Gary being non-judgmental ). I think that lots of the relationship problems we see here are caused by a lack of familiarity and communication - sometimes caused by most contact being long distance. How many people have we read trumpeting about their wonderful, gorgeous, fabulous, etc. fince', and watched them flame out in a short period - stating some version of: We really were close, after emailing, texting, and talking on skype for (fill in the blank). I mean, I really knew everything about him/her, and we were so much in love. We met for five days last year, and it was awesome. I sent him/her (fill in the blank) dollars for (fill in the blank years/months). Now he/she isn't sure about leaving, didn't make the interview, didn't get on the plane, etc. Imo in some of those cases the problem could have been resolved by actually seeing more of each other. I know that sometimes that just isn't possible, but if you were marrying some one here that you had only seen up close once or twice, wouldn't that be weird? I saw a post earlier in this topic that bears out what I have always heard about Americans. We are known to be trusting, and yes, gullible. Again, just my opinion, but the decision to marry and immigrate is just too important to roll the dice on based only on long distance contact. Iv'e met some super nice RUB's...Kira's family is as good as it gets, and mine looks like a bunch of animals in comparison. Some great people there, but the culture sucks the big one imo when it comes to dirty cops, pay offs, and the brainwashing... That Magadan thing cost me some $$$ and almost my job. I ended up staying there close to two weeks after I went on a binge and was screwing my brains out and had to bs my way back into a job. Again Kip, as I said above	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-16 16:00:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	The wife wants to return to Russia	We kept or flat there and intend to live at least part time there after I retire, though Alla seems to be getting more away from that (believe it or not, Ukraine is losing its "luster" the longer she stays here) I have the same experience. Vika has a grand time in Ukraine but doesn't seem to want to live there any more. You'd be surprised at how many people in cities with large expat communities, Moscow especially, don't speak Russian. It's quite hard, I think, especially if you're older, to get integrated into Russian social groups. It worked out for me because I'm still quite young, but I've never seen an older-ish man kicking it with his Russian buddies, unless they're the type who just really love hanging out with foreigners. If you go to St. Petersburg, Moscow, etc. I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem integrating yourself into the expat communities there, which are sizeable. If you go to your wife's hometown, you may get to know the people who she went to school with and so on, but you may be happier with other expats. (I find most of them tiresome myself, but to each their own.) If you want to learn Russian a) well and b) fast before you go, you may want to consider doing a summer at Middlebury College. They run what is basically a Russian boot camp. It's never appealed to me (don't want to spend the summer in Vermont--sorry, Gary ), but it's very intensive and effective and everyone I know who has gone has come out with excellent Russian. You can always tell someone who went to Middlebury by their lack of gramma mistakes and proper constructions. That is interesting. Thanks for posting it eekee. You need to get Brad or Charles make you an organizer. Then you can edit your posts whenever you want. No timeout. charles or brad (or any other mod for that matter) doesn't "make" anyone an organizer. Yes, we truly have no power **sigh** Edited much later to say no power with regard to creating organizers Edited by Brad and Vika, 04 July 2011 - 08:40 AM.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-07-04 08:27:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	One year married to the most amazing woman!	Good for you both! Congrats and happy anniversary!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-08-06 12:08:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Ready, Set, Go !!!!	Thank you everyone... Its been nerve wrecking but I am cool and collective now =) Just need to figure out what to do for the next month =) It will pass before you know it.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-08-06 18:30:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Tsar Putin supports merger of Russia and Belarus	Or he continues to rule with an increasingly iron fist. If I were a bettin' man... Brad, I imagine it would become the Belarusian Republic like the other various republics in Russia. Right, meaning Luka retires. It seems he has zero inclination to do that so far. Maybe it is an American prejudice, but I cannot imagine any country giving up its sovereignity. Free gas and oil can't mean that much.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-08-09 20:47:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Tsar Putin supports merger of Russia and Belarus	Nobody ever wants to give up their power. Nobody! I was told that Lukashenko thought that a reunification right after Yeltsin was put out would allow him to have a shot at the whole country. He actually thought he might get to run Russia. What a laugh. That was around when Putin offered to annex Belarus or something. I doubt Luka has raised the issue since then.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-08-09 08:23:00