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[stringbeanpc]

Canada is a safe place to live and visit.

Xander, that is what is marketed to the world for immigration & tourism, but IMO it seems that you have NOT experienced the "Real Canada".

In my opinion Canada & the USA are heading toward what the Soviet Union represented. Meaning a police state and "show me your papers".

And I believe there are major differences between the Soviet Union & modern Russia.

I have the utmost respect for Russians after what they have been through. A friend of mine had a neighbor who was a Moscow police officer. After moving to Canada he was alarmed at the high rate of cancer in Canada/USA.

I have never been to Russia or Eastern Europe, but about a year ago I found this video blog about life in Russia.

http://www.youtube.com/user/realrussiablog/videos?view=0

They started in Ufa, but recently moved to Moscow.

Perhaps, someone who lives in Russia or Eastern Europe can confirm this ?

[Bayes]

According to this list of freedom indices, Russia doesn't seem to be as free as I thought it was.

not free   mostly unfree  difficult situation  authoritarian regime

[iggiv]

Russia has its big problems. But it is far away from what Xander thinks about it. It is not entirely free, but it is not totalitarian either. There is some sort of authoritarianism there, but not really totalitarism. I mean there is some opposition and many people openly  curse the government, but it does not have such a form as in the West, where opposition has more access to media. So it's something in between. And one of the biggest problems there is corruption. I think corruption is a reason for minor problems at hotels and stuff like this.

but all this should not cover the big picture. Overall despite its problems  Russia is closer to Western countries than  countries like North Korea or Cuba.

[Xander]

The opening ceremony was beautiful!  Amazing!