A few years ago a lot of men thought Russian mail order brides were a thing of the past, but the civil war in Ukraine and the crackdown on civil liberties under Vladimir Putin in recent years are re-igniting the industry. This is great news for men who are attracted to beautiful, highly educated, and generally extremely fit women. If you don’t you probably are on the wrong website.
The modern mail order bride business began in the states of the former Soviet Union just after the fall of the communist state in 1991. It exploded from a small niche industry focused almost exclusively Asian ladies, nearly all from Thailand or the Philippines, in the 1980s into a worldwide phenomenon.
Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s Russia and the other states of the Former Soviet Union were the white hot epicenter of international dating. It was the Wild Wild East. The industry grew like fire roaring across the Russian steppe and many of the most egregious stories of scams and abuse still cited by critics of international dating occurred during this period.
Most of the myths about mail order brides are from this period. They were never really true, but today they are barely even myths – mostly just attacks from feminist extremist.
In the 1990s Russia was seen as a poor backwards country without much of a future. It was a hard place to live and raise a family. For many smart, talented, and beautiful young women marrying a foreigner was a great way out of the rubble of Lenin’s failed dream. Tens of thousands signed up for international dating agencies, but then after about 2004 things began to change.
Russian Economic Boom
Russia is a land of vast opportunity. It has incredible resources and the Russian nationalists constantly stress this. They are right that Russia should be a land flowing with milk and honey.
In the early 2000s the Russian economy boomed. From 1999 through 2004 the economy expanded at the white hot pace of 6.8% a year. There was an orgy of luxury consumption among Russia’s new rich.
Many Russian women decided they could live just as happy and successful lives in Moscow or St. Petersburg as in London or Los Angeles. Emigration to the West fell off and lots of the most beautiful Russian women quit signing up with the international dating agencies. The Russian mail order bride industry cooled. It never died out, but it certainly cooled.
The idea seemed to be – Russia is hot, Russia is booming, so why would I want to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime? It was completely logical.
Like women everywhere Russian girls want to have fun. Take a look at this video of three Russian girls in a car. They are having a blast!
And that video is a good analogy for Russian women in general between about 2001 and 2012. They were having fun, enjoying life, and doing well. There was not nearly as many reasons for them to sign up with mail order bride agencies.
Yes, there were still incredibly hot girls coming out of Russia, but now they were not likely to be coming from Moscow or St. Petersburg. They still came from the provincial towns and Siberia, but the really stunning, well educated, ambitious city girls were opting generally opting to stay at home.
Vladimir Putin and the Russian nationalists who are his core supporters are not big fans of the mail order bride industry. That’s a fact that should give a lot of the feminists who hate the concept of international dating some pause. Putin and lots of Russian nationalists hate it because it allows beautiful young Russian women to escape from their all-powerful control.
The people around Putin who believe in the Great Mother Russia know that if all of the hot Russian women leave the country then Great Mother Russia will not be so great. They have made a huge effort in the last decade to keep the young and the talented at home.
They did not pass many laws, but in the media they portrayed leaving Russia as unpatriotic to the country and disloyal to your family. The Duma actually did pass a law to restrict adoptions of Russian babies by Americans in 2012, but it did not go after the mail order bride industry. There are just too many dating agencies and it is very important to the tourism industry.
The focus of international dating expanded to include Latin American nations such as Columbia, Costa Rica, and Brazil, and new nations in Asia such as Vietnam. We have a whole article on the History of Mail Order Brides, you can read it if you want to, but the important thing to know is that the pendulum is swinging back.
Russian Mail Order Brides Are Looking For Love and Freedom
Starting about 2010 things began to change. Putin slowly crushed out political opposition and cultural dissent. This caused nervousness among the newly rich. Putin seized the assets of several prominent businessmen. Others began buying homes and apartments in Hawaii, London, and Los Angeles in droves. The flow of cash was so great in Manhattan that it ignited a huge boom in luxury condos.
Wealthy Russian’s bought ultra-luxury condos by the score, often in cash, not so much as a place to live, as a place to protect part of their wealth from the reaches of Putin and his minions. The New York Times article on that phenomenon is amazing. Even if that doesn’t seem like your thing the article is worth a read.
Over 1.25 million Russians, generally wealthy and well educated, left the country between 2011 and 2013. According to an article in the LA Times the pace is increasing. Apparently, people lost hope in Putin and grew sick of the incredible level of corruption, but in 2014 things REALLY changed.
Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The Russian mail order bride industry got a huge boost when Russia invaded Crimea in November 2014 and then got entangled in the civil war in the Eastern Ukraine.
There were stiff international sanctions and then in 2015 world oil prices fell. The Russian economy collapsed. It became very difficult for average people in Moscow and St. Petersburg and suddenly a lot of younger women how had grown up in a relatively free and prosperous Russia suddenly began to re-think their options.
And that means that Russia may be coming back as THE hot international dating destination. There are some real reasons to consider it. Mostly, it seems like the women really see dating and marriage to foreign guys as an honest good move for themselves.
Part of it is definitely cultural. They have seen a lot of Western movies and they can barely believe that it is almost unheard of for an American man to drink a fifth of vodka a week and that domestic violence laws are actually enforced and sexual harassment is punished.
These potential foreign brides have aunts, cousins, and friends who have been living in the West since the 1990s and every Russian girl has heard the stories of how great life can be in Bakersfield, Provo, Omaha, Cleveland, and the other exciting cities in the United States, Canada, and other Western countries.
So, seeing that Putin is back and the only ones gaining power are his richest supporters and realizing that the police and courts are owned by the oligarchs many of the smartest and most beautiful girls are deciding to take a flyer on a new life in the West.
Russian Girls – Get ‘Em While They’re Hot
So, if you are a Western guy thinking about pursing international dating don’t rule out Russian girls as too expensive and too demanding. Russia was never a BAD international dating destination, but it could well be returning to its glory days.
For you personally that might really be a good thing. But on some level it is truly sad.
I wish so many beautiful Russian women didn’t have to leave Russia to find a husband who didn’t drink like a fish and die young. Russian men still die far younger than men anywhere else in Europe and leave lots of young widows.
It would be also be great if Russia had real domestic violence laws. In 2017 the State Duma voted 380-3 to drastically reduced punishment for certain types of violence against women and decriminalize other things. The overwhelmingly male lawmakers seemed to believe that a man still has the ancient right to discipline his wife or girlfriend.
Of course, domestic violence immediately spiked. By 2018 reported cases were up 300% compared to 2015. This should not happen.
But it has and the beautiful women in Russia deserve a chance to make a better life for themselves in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other Western countries.
And you, you should just consider yourself very, very lucky that history has dealt you the chance to help a sweet, beautiful, young woman be happy and live her dreams – even in Bakersfield.
Good Luck!
If you want more information on why Eastern European women are attracted to the opportunity to become mail order brides be sure to see our article:
Do Mail Order Brides Just Want Me For My Money.
