A Russian's Honest Thoughts: Censorship, fear, and hoping for a better future

Sorry, I had to delete this post and write it again to change the tags.
Hey everyone, I hope this post doesn't break any rules, but I'd like to talk about politics in Russia since I've lived here my whole life.

I don't even know where to start...

Honestly, what worries me most is the blocking and censorship. I don't know how things are in other countries, but it feels like Russia is rapidly moving toward North Korea's policies. Even with a VPN, I can't access banned sites and services — at minimum YouTube, Instagram, X, Telegram, Discord. They're planning to ban Steam soon. And using social media gets harder every day.

About "politics." I've heard Russians called "spineless" — I can both agree and disagree. Nobody endures it, we're afraid. Cops harass people if you step out with a blank piece of paper on the main square of any city, slapping you with an "unsanctioned rally" charge.

And our state propaganda isn't designed to win people's trust — it's designed to make people lose hope. I don't believe in fair elections; they don't even bother hiding the falsifications. For example, there were elections recently from September 18-20. I don't know how, but United Russia's results changed from 9.29% to 57.27% in 8 minutes. Maybe I'm wrong and it's disinformation, but the main thing here is that everyone was ready to believe it was falsified — nobody's surprised anymore. Most citizens think they have no weight in elections and just don't show up, while their unused votes go to United Russia — and I haven't heard confirmation of this anywhere either, but everyone was eagerly ready to believe it.

And honestly, I don't see a future here. All I want is to live freely, work a job I enjoy. I don't want to be slandered with my girlfriend in this country, and I don't want to have children here. I believe stress in life is an important stage of growing up, especially overcoming it alone — but I don't want it to end in complete despair for my child, like what's happening to me now.

And finally, I'd like to talk about Russophobia. How are things in your countries? Because I'm just a poor young guy who's against the shit happening in the world, with no means to leave this damn country + borders are gradually closing.

And I'd really hate to face Russophobia just because I'm Russian (honestly, I'm mixed race — I have distant relatives from Germany and North Korea). I'm not proud of being born in Russia and I'm not proud of my country. I want to live a quiet life with my beloved.