So, Turkey is accepting those "tourists" from Moskova who don't like the weather near the Kremlin. Now when they say "weather", they really mean the occupants of the Kremlin. They don't like Mad Vlad and his oligarky insider murderers. So, they end up owning an apartment condo overlooking the sea. It's calming. But, the shopping is easier here than the streets around Red Square.
The Turks in and around the large resort city of Antalya on Turkey's southern coast have mixed feelings about the arrival of so many Russyans who have money(rubles) to exchange for lira. These former vacationers now are staying for the duration. No more return flights "home" to Mad Vlad's wartime scenario; no more listening to "fake news" via RT radio and tv. No more listening to the puppet voice of Sergey Peskov or former president Medvedev. These Russyan expats want peace and quiet which are unavailable west of the Ural Mountains(the European Russya border). Here they walk the beaches in the greyscape of winter, shaking the rabble rocks underfoot, gazing across a calm Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus east or Crete to the west.
Obvious signs of local change can be found in the price of real estate: prices have gone up, up, and fast. Locals sell at unimaginable figures to new arrivals who are loaded down with the rubles they received when they sold their homes in St. Petersburg or Moskova. They sipped a few shots of state produced vodka, swore they would never return to this god-forsaken country, and fled to Turkey. This story can be retold all over the world as it seems people are in motion on every continent, trying to flee oppressive regimes, violent rebels, and state actors funded by oligarchs and dictators. And then there's North America.
But for now, Turks must accept the northerners with money: the Turkish government under Erdogan needs foreign exchange: desperately. Inflation is rampant, and Erdogan wants to turn the clock back. Hmmmmm. Sounds familiar to all the Russyans walking around Antalya.
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