All Comments on 'Sex in the New Russia'

Thanks for the well written and informative article. It collaborates other documents I have read on this topic.

Your essay points out that Russian women have a long way to go--more so than women from Western countries. Thanks for filling us in on the sexual aspects of the lives of Russia's female population.

I enjoyed reading this piece, but I do wonder about the conclusion that education will change the state of things. It seems to me this conclusion falls back on the idea that greater understanding inevitably leads to better decision making. To prove the fallacy of this just think about one's own life, I know that many times I have made bad choices despite being informed of the consequences or likely consequences of my actions.

Also I'm sad to say this, but Russian men might not see the current state of affairs as terrible. I'm not even sure a huge increase in STDs in general and AIDS in particular will change the current environment short of a real epidemic.

It strikes me that the real difference in women from G-7 countries and Russia is that in the G-7 countries women are seen as a resource. Until there are more Russian women in the boardrooms and in the seats of the Duma, I doubt that there will be any great betterment in their life.

I don't have a recipe for how this could happen but I do have a thought. The woman's suffrage movement started in the US and England with a handful of well educated daughters of the wealthier classes. It strikes me that a few well off Russian women are going to have to haul themselves and their sex out of the cultural muck that is sucking them down.

How any but the Russians themselves can help this I haven't a clue beyond not putting my faith in the word education.

If you have a comment on my thoughts, please email me at

Allen

Thanks for a thought provoking essay. I was very interested in this article which bears resemblance to the problems of Albanian and Former Yugoslav woman refugees and trafficking victims which I came across working with Local Authorities in the UK.

Whether education, which is undoubtedly the key, will be allowed to flourish however is I think the biggest challenge the ex Communist bloc countries have to face. This is not just so in this facet but also economics sciences and industry. The status quo in respect of the masses is just too profitable to shift at the moment both for rapine business magnates and crime warlords.

The pendulum swings and at this point it is gradually swinging away from the "rights" culture of the 1960's to the 1990's even in the Western sphere.

To my mind it is almost as if there is a backlash towards woman for the perceived (correctly or incorrectly I know not) notion that woman's equality rights were forced upon Soviet Bloc society and its work place and that these had been abused to the detriment of males.

The violence perpetrated on woman by gangs from Belarus, Albania, Lithuania as well as the CIS was staggering, its ferocity and cruelty, shocked the local gangs who were not cuddly kittens by any means.

Having travelled fairly extensively as part of my employment I have heard from many co workers that most of the ladies of pleasure are now run by the Russian Mafia and there seems to be an overwhelming wave of Eastern Block and Central Asian Republic's girls plying their wares. This is especially so in Africa and the Middle East. I can not comment on South America however.

Regards

S

well written essay - super eye opening - thank you for sharing!!!

Why the amers are such dumbers?!

Here in India in New Delhi , Goa & Mumbai as the Indian male's fascination for white skin puts a high price on white prostitute's market value !?! These girls are controlled by their Russian " whorelords" or they may be free-lancin' with Indian Madams or agents : but in the end they are all exploited because unless they have a prudent intelligent head on pretty shoulders : when they grow old they are shipped back to a lonely middle or old age many times poverty stricken too !?!