In another thread we have discussed extensively the Original comments if "THE RUSSIAN BRIDE IS DEAD" made by the now proponents and supporters of the new dating/socialising sites "Love Planet Match".

Having been around these boards for many years, while searching for my wife and also after my marriage, I can now see clearly that the original furore of many men joining this adventure and the few Dating discussion boards has nearly dissapeared.

In the early days of my search and later I withnessed a huge number of new members joining (many names are tumbling down my memory lane) and asking questions, wrote their travelling reports and were debating many subjects but now it's apparent that extremely very few new members are joining these board and appears mostly old members continue posting.

So how one can explain the luck of new members?

Do you think it is down to the new financial circumstances or there is another reason?

I think for 2 big reasons

1) Less men travel
2) Less women want to leave

And minor:

3) Too much scam artists / agencies.

At one time maybe it appeared easy to go to the East and find a good woman and i guess it was almost fashionable to do so, Lets be honest its a bit more exciting, interesting and glamorous to have a wife from the RF than from say C-you-next-Tuesday , now there is freely available lots of info that might burst your bubble and puts many off, the reality is its very expensive to travel and especially Russia, so the economy will be having a large effect, country's such as Russia the visa system creates another hurdle and its not easy to bring a woman back to the UK with our laws on immigration getting tougher.

There are plenty of negative stories about failed romances and the hardships endured trying to create success, anybody who has succeeded will tell you that it requires tremendous determination to make it work, not to mention a huge amount of cash. Russian women ain't stupid and are not desperate to leave anymore, they will only go for a good man or in small cases i guess (a lot of )money. I guess maybe there is just as many success's as before but maybe a lot lesser dreamers and chancers giving it a go. What i'm saying is it ain't the easy option what many thought it was, but nothing good comes easily.

I have only been on the FSUW scene since late 2006 and in the last two years have not really been looking so I'm not sure how qualified I am to comment, but I'll add my comments to the thread:

1. I think for a long time economics was a driving force in the FSUW pursuit, in that the lady was leveraging her appearance and the WM used his position in an economically more successful country to attract women he had no chance of dating in his own country (upgrading). Now that the future seems to be more promising in the ladies home country, there is much less reason for her to find a foreign husband. BTW, no self respecting FSUW would ever admit that she married for anything but love, but talk to the friends of these women and you'll hear otherwise (yes, this is a generalization so in your case I'm sure it's not true, ).

2. There has been a lot of negative press about finding a foreign husband in the FSU and now that there is something of a history of FSUW who married westerners to look back on, I'm sure all the negative reports are magnified on the gossip circuit.

3. It's a new generation coming of age in the FSU. The older generation which was more dominant ten years back is the same generation that was more impacted by the implosion of the Soveit economy and therefore it was this generation that had their men spiral downward. The new generation (think of it as the 25 & under crowd that many men chase) has as many men as women and they probably don't have the same issues as the over 40 crowd had when it was shown that many things they believed in was a lie.

4. There is a lot of negative press (or gossip) about FSUW who marry western men. Of the instances I know locally, I have heard of far more divorces than long term success. Even on the FSUW forums, many of the men who are currently married had a previous FSUW marriage which ended in a divorce. The most telling was a UW who I dated locally and said she knew of a lot of FSUW who came here by way of marriage and when I asked what the success rate was, she mentioned none, but at least the women got a house and the man had an attractive wife for a number of years.

5. Prevelance of SCAM sites, mostly the pay-per-letter/chat models like Aweb or HRB (it seems like PLM is just another version of this). They probably attract the largest number of men due to their marketing, but most smart men after they spend time on these sites realize it's a dead end or too expensive, so it leads to a negative taste and their deciding in the local market.

6. As mentioned by others, this is an expensive pursuit and therefore many men might not have the means to make the trips and make it happen.

Now is any of this a bad thing? I say no because a women should not need to make a decision based on concerns about their economic future. When that is true, there is too much of a chance that they'll compromise and end up with a real idiot (trust me, I have seem a few up close). So now maybe it'll be more about relationships and meeting the normal way or should we say normal dating sties that are not geared to FSUW and WM as I was surprised by all the RW I was matched with when I was on the dating site eH and had my search radius set to the entire world (BTW, that is a site where the women have to pay and most of these women were pretty successful by FSU standards, but maybe a little older than what you would be able to attract on an agency site).

Never ever having been on the "Internet Dating" scene I cannot compare the past to the situation today (on the Internet).

I can though speak about the situation on Sakhalin Island and say that as far as I am aware there is not a single expat that wants a local girlfriend that does not have a local girlfriend or, has had a girlfriend and then converted her into a wife.

I will also state that one of my fiancée's good friends (at the moment boyfriend-less) has said to my fiancée that she would like a foreign boyfriend and that she speaks enough English to communicate.

When asked how much English she would need to speak her answer was "Three words", the words are Taxi, Restaurant, Sex.

On a different thread "Sex Tourism" has been discussed, how would this ladies three words fall into that discussion is a different subject.

Raffy,

Just a couple of things, you mentioned you were on Sakhalin island which explains a lot as it means you are living there (much different than some foreigner contacting someone on a dating site) and it's Sakhalin which I'm guessing will make places like PK look like a highly developed location (not to mention, unless you are based out of the far east, it's not the easiest place to get to).

PK ? I don't know what or where you are referring to but I will say that Sakhalin will make most places look reasonably developed.

As regards to my living on Sakhalin, I was (more or less) living there when I was working there and now I spend more time in Sakhalin than I do in Scotland (but I spend more time at work than in either places).

As regards to travelling to and from Sakhalin, I call Sakhalin Island the "Island at the end of the Universe" and I do so for a good reason.
It is probably easier to travel to the Horse Head Nebula than to travel to Sakhalin.

Hi

Last year there were some information from USA. Its from memory, and the analysis itself were a estimat. It said: The numbers of marriage between american and all SNG were in year 2000 about 10000. In 2009!? that number were down to 6000. However they could a larger decrease from Russia, about 60% so the others countries went up.

In Denmark for 10 years ago the Russian-ua marriage were about 280, for 5 years ago a new law made that number drop to about 180, but since then has been steady.
However in few months, close none due to a new immigration law.

BR Viking

Viking,

So if I'm reading what you wrote correctly, the new immigration law will not let in any new immigrants based on marriage for Denmark? That does sound a little drastic as I always thought the country had rather liberal immigration laws, but it would certainly kill any Danes quest to find love overseas. Is there a reason for the change?

Hi
Yes, a facist people. Its terrible too call me countrymen like that, but is close to teh truth. well, the short story, is that people are getting tired of moslems who dont behave so there is large support for a nationalist party, and without them, no conservative-liberal goverment. Sadly the likely new 'labour' goverment in the fall, seems not to change laws.

Its not a problem if you are EU citizen.

But in 2 months, a guurantee of 15000£ must be made to the government, just in case you need you a public welfare service. Then the money will be taken from there. If you don't you will get the money back, ½ when she pass a advanced Danish lesson (typical after 2 to 3 years) an the last after 7 years.
Beside that any newcomers, must pass a Simple Danish test (oral communication) in 3 months, self finance, estimated price: 5500 to 7000£.
A prolonging of her permit, cost 300£ for 2 years, a permanment stay cost 900£ after an test, there cost 90£ and you cant apply unless you passed ad advanced Danish lesson and has been in work full time 2½ year in a 3 year period.
Then she need to be qualified as well, so if you only has your native language and no work and no education. Sorry, no entry. So a RU-UA women need to either have work and a english at hi-school level with diploma or a university degree and language skills as well and be older than 24 or else, no entry.

So many Danes flee to Sweden, already almost 5000 now live across Oresound in the city Malmo next to Copenhagen, because of the rules.

Sorry, a little of the tougth laws in Denmark. Guess who support a common EU rules on immigration.

BR Viking