given I've been in a digital-mind-reading-stalker concentration camp - I dislike my career and find continuation of it impossible without jeopardizing any future employer
`I don't see how neighboring countries are "suffering along"` - in Latvia, national banks got smashed, sugar factory closed, steel factory closed, bus factory closed, state forced to take billions in debt from IMF just to stay afloat and avoid default, forced to follow way too often stupid, profit hindering and barely relevant EU regulations (e.g. lawn cutting length), take into account USA sanctions, comply with multiplying foreign auditors while trying to compete in markets with participants hundred times bigger in size. my whole life I've been an observer of "recovery of economy" that never arrives. for a teacher - it takes 75 years of work to afford a modest house. currently - I have no income and can afford only food for couple more months (with 15 years of software development experience across dozens of programming languages, tools, projects, business domains, companies and organizational structures) while marked as schizophrenic dissident, actively stalked and isolated from society. it's slightly harder than figuring out what brand of car your daughter wants as a gift for her sweet sixteen
...and what has Russia to do with it?
The Baltics wanted to be independent, they became independent and started getting rid of their industries in order to focus on service economy and EU integration.
All the propaganda I've heard tells me that they are prosperous rich countries now.../s
it's a neighboring country that is suffering along. apart from that - ethnic Russians are a huge minority here. economically - a majority. western world is incapable to tell the difference and sees everything Russian corrupted. it's a similar story in Ukraine but sharper cause of language similarities and much higher stakes (did you know that UA produced most if not all the helicopter engines for Russia?). Russian propaganda also compares their law enforcement mild compared to harsh one Belarus has. because there's like 30 different separatist groups in Russia.
those neighbouring countries had the opportunity to develop themselves. they all wanted independence and sometimes started great efforts to promote russophobia in order to emancipate themselves (the baltics are champions in this regard). but as soon as everything went north they immediately started to blame the russians for their own inept politicians and choices.
and yes, I know that there were good business relationships between rf and ua. so well indeed that even gas, stolen in transit to europe, was subsidised by russia ;)
