I am an occasional fan of the YouTuber from New York City who goes by the nom de guerre Sabbatical.
Like me, Sabbatical is an enthusiast of foreign languages. Unlike me, Sabbatical is also an enthusiast of travel. (I have never been a fan of the logistics of travel. I like my comforts, and this includes having my own space, and sleeping in my own bed at night.)
Sabbatical recently had a severe misadventure in Russia, when he was locked in prison for a few weeks in a provincial Russian town. I recommend that you watch his video if you are interested in Russia in particular, or foreign travel in general.
Because of the war in Ukraine, almost all of the information one sees on social media about Russia nowadays is heavily biased toward a specific political agenda. On one hand, there is Jake Broe, an American YouTuber who has basically become a Ukrainian propagandist. (Yes, Ukrainian propaganda is a thing, too, right along with Russian propaganda.) On the other hand, there is Sasha Jost (aka Sasha Meets Russia), whose gushing videos about her idyllic life in Moscow veer to the other extreme.
Sabbatical is not a propagandist. He doesn’t have a dog in most political fights, and he strikes me as honest.
After venturing too close to the Chinese border while traveling in provincial Russia, Sabbatical fell into the hands of some local officials, who apparently wanted to make an example of him. Watch his video for the rest of the story.
Did Sabbatical make any obvious mistakes? Perhaps.
First of all, one can genuinely ask if travel to Russia as an American is a wise idea at all right now. As I type these words, our Ukrainian proxies are firing American-made ATACMS missiles into Russian territory. One does not have to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (I do not, for the record) in order to acknowledge that we have effectively declared war on Russia, a country that did not attack us, and did not seek war with us.
As a result, there will likely be some Russians who aren’t in a friendly mood toward Americans at present. Especially in military and law enforcement circles.
Secondly, Sabbatical journeyed to the Russian hinterlands. He should have remained in Russia’s big, cosmopolitan cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, if he was going to visit Russia at all.
Finally, the process of making YouTube videos in public necessarily means drawing attention to oneself. That is generally fine, within reasonable limits, in a friendly country like Canada or Japan. Not such a good idea in Russia.
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Certainly there are some social media influencers who are overrated and massively overhyped. (The legions of young women who do nothing but simper and cavort in scanty attire on TikTok come immediately to mind.) But the best travel bloggers work hard to earn whatever money they are making through platforms like YouTube.
I am glad that Sabbatical made it safely out of Russia in the end. His is one Internet space in which I have no desire to compete.
-ET