Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Battered mail-order brides seek rights
CNN ^ | November 7, 2005 | Reuters

Posted on 11/07/2005 10:00:36 AM PST by HOTTIEBOY

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- It took Natasha a day trip to Moscow to find the American husband she had dreamed of. It took the next six years to get out of the nightmare that followed. A music teacher from central Russia, she was one of 200 Russian women who patiently lined up at a Moscow restaurant to meet 10 American men at a gathering hosted by a mail-order bride agency. She spoke no English but immediately caught the eye of one of the men, 16 years her senior. He was handsome and said he wanted the same things she did: a loving family and children. They went to museums and the theater with an interpreter, and he started the paperwork to bring her to the United States as his wife. The fairy tale ended eight months later. Natasha, who would only be identified using a pseudonym, had barely set foot in the United States when her new husband began to abuse her sexually, disappeared for weeks at a stretch, threatened anyone who tried to befriend her and forced her to sign a post-nuptial agreement. Thrown out of their house after two years of abuse, Natasha was left to fend for herself in an unfamiliar country with minimal English skills and no legal documents to work. 'Expensive toy' "He told me I was the most expensive toy he ever bought," said Natasha,

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mail; mailorderbride; women
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-120 next last
To: Owl_Eagle
Except maybe for that guy I worked with who took $40k in his 401k money and invested it all in Beanie Babies. That guy was pretty stupid too.

It's all in the timing. The investor who bought the Beanie Baby rights from the original designer/marketer for something similar to what your friend invested, way back before anybody had heard of them, made millions. The guy sensed that these silly things would catch on big if marketed properly, and he was right.

21 posted on 11/07/2005 10:14:51 AM PST by GovernmentShrinker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: x5452
Last year I saw a show on one of the independent channels that followed two Iowa farm bachelor brothers signed for a bride finder service in St. Petersburg.

Turned out well for one, the other struck out.

22 posted on 11/07/2005 10:15:09 AM PST by Semper Paratus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: HOTTIEBOY

I've known my share of "mail order brides" and studied the scene for a while. There is no difference in "abuse" or anything else between mail order marriages and domestic marriages. Anecdotes to prove any opinion can be found.

I've seen plenty of "abused" brides who were able to take responsibility for their own actions, including the action of disappearing or going to a "help" agency or whatever.

I've also seen victims who wallowed in their victimhood and did not want to take personal responsibility for their past, current or future actions.


23 posted on 11/07/2005 10:16:21 AM PST by spintreebob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Semper Paratus

Wasn't there a thread last week about an internet dating site for farmers?


24 posted on 11/07/2005 10:16:29 AM PST by ken5050 (Ann Coulter needs to have children ASAP to pass on her gene pool....any volunteers?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Owl_Eagle

I really want to make a battered versus plain crack here, but I'd probably get slammed for it.


25 posted on 11/07/2005 10:16:31 AM PST by Fierce Allegiance (Want to be on my Civil Engineers ping list? Just say so!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Semper Paratus

Hardly all of these are symbolic marriages, many legitimate couples meet this way. (Though statistically it's not many, something like 9% of K-1 Visa holders return to their home country after a year).


26 posted on 11/07/2005 10:16:35 AM PST by x5452
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Semper Paratus

That's actually better than average odds...


27 posted on 11/07/2005 10:17:35 AM PST by x5452
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Owl_Eagle
Reminds me of The Sand Pebbles and the chief who married the Russian expat who ran off with his retirement pay and her "cousin" to parts unknown.

The crew ragged him mercilessly for months.

28 posted on 11/07/2005 10:19:54 AM PST by SquirrelKing (I'm not mean, you're just a sissy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: edcoil

"'She spoke no English but immediately caught the eye of one of the men, 16 years her senior. He was handsome and said he wanted the same things she did:' That must have been an interesting conversation."

Everyone speaks "Body English".


29 posted on 11/07/2005 10:19:59 AM PST by Vicomte13 (Et alors?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Semper Paratus
The woman is looking for ticket to the US and finds out she married a pig.

I'll wager that the guys aren't always pigs.It's just like divorce here in this country.It's now SOP for a woman in a divorce case to claim spousal and/or child abuse. Even if it's not true,she has an important leg up in the case.

Same with Russian women.They come here,they claim abuse, they get an immediate green card (under current Federal law) and before you know it,she's got a green card,a welfare check and she's hooked up with a guy named Vladimir from Brighton Beach.

30 posted on 11/07/2005 10:21:09 AM PST by Gay State Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: x5452
There are a lot of very sucessful American males who never were very good at social interactions with women.

And there are a lot of very sucessful American males who have had it up to their keisters with the demands and whining of many succesful American women.

31 posted on 11/07/2005 10:22:14 AM PST by Semper Paratus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Vicomte13

Agency translators will tell girls what they want to here to get cash out of the guy. (Usually the guy pays for gifts, translations, commisions on trips, and tickets, all of which they require the girl to go along with so they'll tell her a fairy tale, and how easy it will be for her to learn English, and often times she'll never know the guy has had 4 wives, is paying child support for 5 kids, and has served time for felonies.)


32 posted on 11/07/2005 10:22:59 AM PST by x5452
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: HOTTIEBOY

Hmmmmmm, Mail order brides . . . mail order brides.

Isn't that a Jeopardy! response under the category "Dumbest Things Women Do To Screw Up Their Lives"??


33 posted on 11/07/2005 10:23:21 AM PST by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tijeras_Slim

Hey, beanies are gonna make a comeback. They just HAVE to.

Sucker.  I told you Pokemon was the smart investment.

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

 it was probably sarcasm)

34 posted on 11/07/2005 10:23:25 AM PST by End Times Sentinel (In Memory of my Dear Friend Henry Lee II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Semper Paratus

In general, especially with agencies, it really depends on what both are bringing to the table.


35 posted on 11/07/2005 10:24:13 AM PST by x5452
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Owl_Eagle

It's hereditary... my old man lost his shirt on Weebles.


36 posted on 11/07/2005 10:25:20 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim (Now that taglines are cool, I refuse to have one.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: HOTTIEBOY
oh...I thought it said "Buttered mail-order brides seek rights...

sorry....

37 posted on 11/07/2005 10:27:12 AM PST by martin gibson (I know not what course others may take, but as for myself, give me Ralph Stanley or give me death!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: old and tired

while I'm sure there are cases like this, a big percentage of russian mail order bride industry is run by the russian mob and many of the women are brought into the country so they can obtain greencards and work as prostitutes and strippers in the north east.
Some of these women are innocent and were just looking for a way out of the country, but easily fall into a trap by the Russian mob and married off to total scumbags or go to foreign countries beliving they are there for work, and end up forced into prostitution. But many are russian prostitutes without the american men even knowing to being with. THey were told they were school teachers or art students, etc...
Many of these men meet beautiful charming sweet russian women thinking they are getting wife and mother material.
They end up paying thousands of dollars to the "matchmaking services" which are just fronts run by the mob.
Soon after they arrive, the women start making the mans life a living hell and have no desire to act like wife and have children, and as soon as the time has past that they can qualify for citizenship without being married, they invent stories of abuse to be able to win as much money as possible in the divorce settlement to help pay off the debt/deals they have with the russian mob.

As the saying goes, buyer beware.


38 posted on 11/07/2005 10:27:27 AM PST by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Fierce Allegiance
battered versus plain crack joke

There, now you can do it.

39 posted on 11/07/2005 10:27:36 AM PST by johniegrad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: pcottraux
"The idea of a "mail-order bride" just does not sound like a good one."

If you follow this link Women looking for men you can see how a lot of lonely guys could easily fall for these women.

40 posted on 11/07/2005 10:30:18 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading since 2004)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-120 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson