On Russia and Ukraine

The main reason why you shouldn't bother with Russia and Ukraine is not only crime rate - which is constantly rising - and minority problems.

The main reason why I am ashamed of being Ukrainian with Russian ancestors is mentality of *our* people. There's even a joke that says sth like: 'If you toss Americans, Jews and Russians into a deep muddy pit, one American would crawl over heads of other Americans and wouldn't bother helping others; if at least one Jew would get out, he would help other Jews out; and if one Russian would get out over heads of other Russians, he would make sure none would get out after him'. Sadly, it is too true regarding most of population of Russia and Ukraine.

People here do not give a damn about each other, even friends and often relatives. The only thing that concerns people here is making money(for rich)/surviving(for poor) even if it means walking the bones.

Thus never-ending political and social instability: rich too busy squeezing money from poor no matter the cost; poor too busy making money on other poor people to survive.
People care less than shit about anything that doesn't concern them directly.

Examples? Well...
When I was a schoolgirl my friends and I saw a middle-aged normally dressed man collapse in the street near the entrance to underground station - a very busy place. But people kept walking by, some were cursing 'damn drunkards', some were making fun of slumped figure. When I started to move towards the man to see if he's ok my friends tried to stop me saying 'why do you bother? you wanna get involved in it?', but I went anyway. When I squatted near the man to feel his pulse and see what's wrong some woman started yelling that I was trying to rob a man and that I was a 'young whore'. I tried to tell them that a man here had a stroke or something and that they should help, but people started yelling at me to get hand off him. That yelling attracted attention to me and a policeman appeared from somewhere in two or three minutes (from the underground station most likely).
He first asked me what I was doing and if I was the man's relative. After I said he just collapsed and no I wasn't, he told me to go away if I don't wanna spend the whole day filling in blanks and that he will call the ambulance. Nobody bothered until then.
That's something about how people treat strangers here.

And another example...
When my mother collapsed and was dying at her workplace (you might have read my journals earlier this year) everyone - colleagues, administration - waited for more that 10 minutes to call the ambulance. Why? Because if they call an ambulance to a enterprise it is a reason for future inspection and inspection means spending money. They felt her pulse getting weaker, but did nothing as administration hoped situation would solve itself. Some of the people that were present there worked with my mother for 20 years - and yet they didn't bother calling ambulance from their mobile phones, because administration told them 'no ambulance'. And only when her heart stopped, they understood they would have to call for help and started calling ambulance. It took them 15 minutes. Of course when ambulance arrived it was too late.
And when we tried to address police telling them that it was failure to render assistance situation they told us 'not to bother, because you wouldn't be able to prove nothing'. No one would be a witness that there really was a command 'no ambulance', because that would mean losing a job.
My acquaintance's mother died while private ambulance team was waiting for his father to fetch money to pay them; they didn't bother moving a finger watching a woman bleed out until they got their money. And again you can prove nothing.

Bottom line: you shouldn't bother with these countries and their population, because no good would come of it.