A Russian Bride Guide

In our last issue we gave some ideas for communicating with Russian Women. Today is the 7th of March and the day before what is possibly the most important holiday for Russian Women all year. The 8th of March (Восьмое марта – pronounced Vosmoye Marta) for the entire world this day is known as International Womens Day but Russian Women see this as a special celebration. March 8th is a day when men all over Russia will shower the women in their lives with gifts, flowers and special wishes on this special day for them. Be sure to wish your Russian Woman a happy Vosmoye Marta on Monday and if possible be sure to send a gift of beautiful flowers to let her know how much you care. The equivalent of this holiday in the west would be St. Valentines Day so if you think of it in those terms I think you can get the idea. Happy Vosmoye Marta!!!

Communicating with Russian Women

While searching for a Russian Woman to begin communications with online you have several choices for making that communication possible. Perhaps you will try to communicate in English at first. Many women have a good understanding of English. This will have it’s limits however and you may need a way to communicate in Russian. Skype currently offers a single country plan for $5.95/mo. and a world unlimited plan for $12.95/mo. which include calls to St. Petersburg and Moscow. For all other calls to Russia the charge is $.048/min. which is quite reasonable. A 30 minute phone call will cost about $1.50. Skype also now offers mobile apps for certain smart phones so you can make international calls on your mobile phone. Vonage also offers similar services for $25-$35/mo. they have a package that will include most areas of Russia in the unlimited plan.

Русский Язык- Russian Language

Several services are available that will translate your emails to Russian and vice versa. While the many dating sites offer these services and some are built entirely around the concept of you paying for this service I would recommend finding an independent service outside of the dating website you found your Russian Woman on. This will eliminate any conflict of interest and can lessen the chances for being caught in a scam. There are also several services which offer to conduct a three way call with you and your Russian Woman which gives an added feature of having an outside opinion of your woman’s sincerety. I don’t have any particular such services to recommend but the translation of email should cost around $5-$8. Three way phone/translation services can run from $20-$35 per half hour depending on whether the cost of the call is included or not. Ususally you must have Skype in order to facilitate the call and get the lowest possible rates.

Eventually you will want to learn the native language of your Russian Woman. After all, you should be planning a trip to Russia eventually and you will at least want to have an idea how to read the language and know some basic phrases before you go. Who better to practice with than with your Russian sweetheart? For starters you will need to learn the cyrillic alphabet. It is a bit awkward at first but the Russian alphabet is not so different from ours once you get to know it. There are only about 4 or 5 characters that I would consider difficult. This site: Intro to Russian Alphabet offers a very good introduction to the alphabet and will help you pick up a few words in the process. You should definitely consider learning the alphabet before anything else. Once you have mastered the alphabet (which can take a few weeks) you can finally learn some words and phrases on other language sites and by writing to your Russian woman. There are several ways that you can get Russian characters on your computer. In Windows the following steps should get you there:

First: go to start menu->control panel->clock, language and region->change keyboards or other input methods

See the screenshot below and click on change keyboards button:

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This is our first issue of Free Russian Women Advice, a bi-monthly post offering a short bit of free advice when it comes to Russian Brides, Russian culture and how-to’ s having to do with dating Russian Women.

Russian Customs and Traditions:

Giving Flowers:

Gift giving is a very major custom in Russia. People will judge you not based on the value of your gift (although some may) but rather on whether you have the courtesy to give a gift at all. When it comes to flowers you should seriously consider giving flowers to your Russian Woman as well as to other adult ladies of her household such as mother, grandmother etc. When giving or sending flowers it is important to know that you always give an odd number of flowers as opposed to the common half-dozen or dozen roses given in the West. The reason for this is because even numbers of flowers are given at funerals. Definitely not the first impression that you want to make!

Kissing on the Cheek…

Since our last tradition finished with the topic of funerals, we will start from there. Never kiss someone on the forehead as this form of kiss is reserved for kissing the dead on the forehead at their funeral. Try to avoid this! It is Russian tradition to kiss three times alternating cheeks when greeting friends and relatives. This is not necessarily expected of strangers of course or those whom we just met but once you get to know someone in a familiar relationship it is acceptable.
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Russian Dating Agencies?

I will be dealing with this topic for the next few posts because unless you plan to just fly to Russia on your own and meet women on the street you are going to need to work with some sort of an agency or dating site to make contact with women in Russia.  At first glance the idea of choosing which agency to go with or what approach to take in beginning your search for a Russian Wife can be overwhelming. There are well over 300 websites claiming to offer services ranging from simple contact information to full fledged “romance tours”. Your investment in this search can range anywhere from a couple thousand dollars up to $50,000 or more. Finding the right mate in your own town can be difficult but taking your search overseas adds a possible language barrier, an ocean, new customs and different culture. These factors which make seeking a Russian Bride seem more challenging are also part of the allure. Armed with the right information and the right attitude a man can successfully complete his search without breaking the bank.
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Dating Russian Women: The Crazy Thing OR A Wonderful Opportunity?
By Elena Petrova, Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.
My site is on the top of many search engines for the search query “Russian brides”, and as the result I receive lots of requests for interviews from journalists all over the world, and the question they invariably ask is: “Why western men look for Russian women?”

So let me once and forever explain you the reason why thousands western men flock to Russia in search for their love partner.

The answer is benevolently straightforward: they can meet in Russia a partner of better quality than is available for them at home! 

They are NOT looking for a Russian woman – they are looking for a better quality woman!

But why it is possible?

I know what you think: you think it is because Russian women are desperate to escape from Russia. 

Well, such thinking is pure ignorance.

Check the websites of American expatriates living in Russia (yes, there is a huge community of Americans permanently living in Russia, with their own newspapers and websites!) and you will confirm what I am saying: women who seek partners abroad do it because they want to meet a suitable partner that they have failed to meet at home. They are not looking to immigrate. They are looking to find their love!

Hard to believe?
Read on, I will explain.

The fundamental reason for that lies in Russian demographics. 

You know that men to women ratios differ dramatically between the countries.

For example, the latest figures from The Economist show that in United Arab Emirates there are 186 males for 100 females. It’s clear the competition for eligible females should be stiff there. If you are a single male, The Emirates will be the last place in the world to look for an available woman (unless you live there, of course .

Now, what is the best place for a single male to score?
Let’s look at the world statistics again.

The lowest men to women ratios are in Eastern Europe!

Countries like Russia and Ukraine are on the top of the list, with only 88 males to 100 females.
The latest Russian census provided astounding figures of 10 million more women than men. 
There the situation is exactly the opposite way around: eligible bachelors are more precious than gold.

So if you were a single male, exploring your dating options in Russia would make the perfect sense!

One wise man said: “Craziness is to do the same thing expecting a different result.”

If you ever grow tired of your local dating market, or would like to expand your opportunities, check Russia: you will be stunned what kind of women can be available for you there!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The author of this
article, Elena Petrova, is the creator of Russian
Brides Cyber Guide, the first website about Russian women seeking
foreign men for marriage, designed by a Russian woman.

Who is to blame for scams?

One topic that receives much attention on discussion boards and anti-scam sites is about dating scams. Especially agency scams but also individual people -Russian women that is. True, you have to use a good measure of caution when dealing with agencies and women. The reality is that on the issue of scams the blame is split 30/30/30 between agencies, women and men. A 50-something Western guy marries his dream girl -a 24 year old Russian beauty. A few years later we hear a sob story about how she had his child, brought her parents to the U.S. and proceeded to divorce him.
 
All I can say is…..what did you expect! Guys, you have to be realistic. Turn the situation around and imagine yourself 23, are you really going to have an interest in a woman twice your age? Maybe one out of a million people in this situation is going to be truly in love, even then it would take alot of effort to make it work. As you age this large difference becomes even larger. Her: age 35  You: age 62  ….get the picture? The moral of this story is follow the wise advice of keeping the age difference to around 10 years or less, you will have more in common this way.
 
So, about those scams? Visit Jim’s Lists and get yourself an education on how to spot them and how to avoid them. I will post once in a while about scams but for now I will leave the investigating to the experts in that area. Be careful about the many Jim’s List impostors out there as they are plenty.
 
Scams pretty much fit into these categories:
 

Agency scam:

Agency lists multiple profiles that are fake, no longer available or no longer active. You pay for full access. They (the agency) sends phony emails from those bad profiles thus charging you for communications that are not genuine. The more they email you with phony profiles, the more money they get from your wallet. Seems like the fewer real marriages they create, the more money they make.

Russian Girls scam:

The girls may be pro-daters (meaning they never intend to marry you, just have a good time on your dime), they may be professional letter writers and players who work for the agencies taking a cut of revenue they generate, or they may simply be looking for someone to roll ie. get to U.S., have a child, take half of your stuff and get child support. This last one I must say is very often the accusation but in my opinion is very, very seldom a premeditated event in reality. If a woman  to conduct this last scam she can do it almost as easily in Russia or Ukraine without having to uproot her whole life and move to another country. Generally, the girl scammers are encouraged and enabled by the bad agencies that are overwhelmingly patronized by gullible Western men.

Western men scam:

Yes! They scam too. Mainly by leading women on by simply playing their fantasy out online with letters, chats and sending gifts with never intending to commit to a cross-cultural marriage. It is like a game to these men. There are also the men who only want to go on some sort of a sex tour. Yes, an exciting jaunt half way across the globe to taste the fruit of Eastern lands. There are even tour operators that more than willingly accommodate such men’s desires.