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 ...
If it feels right, go for it. Life is short.
My friend's cousin married just such a bride and treated her shabbily, criminally really, he was abusive, just like something out of the news. Luckily some of their relatives, and me, 'intervened' and she is getting the help she needs to stay and work here legally, and divorce herself from him.
My grandmother was a "mail order bride" when she married my grandfather. Her first husband was gunned down by her brother, who was angry that her husband had been named executor of their father's estate.
She spent her portion of the family fortune on Pinkerton detectives to hunt her brother down. Never found him. Think he died in Peru as a mining engineer.
Don't ever remember hearing her call him (grandfather) by his first name, only Mr. and the last name.
Didn't mean to come across like I was generalizing. My last gf was russian and she's told me a lot of what goes on with this business. It can be pretty ugly. No, she was never a mail order bride so she wasn't talking from personal experience, but she lived in the Brighton Beach area for 2 years before moving to Seattle. We visited NYC last summer, and she took me down there. Shady, shady, shady.....
I'm sure there is some legitimate businesses that are involved in the match making business in russia, but there is a whole lot of shady activity involved.
As I said, buyer beware.
I've dated two Russian women and found the same thing. Plus, there's nothing demure about Russian and Ukrainian women's personalities. I think that if an American man wants a more old-fashioned woman he is better off looking in Church, the "deep South" (or what's left of it) or perhaps South America, where they treat women like chattel.
Rusian business in general plays by rules that would be considered highly unethical here.
Brighton Beach is almost entirely mob run :) (How else do you think they can sell cds from American artists for like 6$ :) )
My wife is Russian. Her next door neighbor an English guy through an agency and is happily married.I know a fair amount of what girls go through on the other end, agencies are always encouraging them to meet old met they have no interest in. The agency always puts a high end number into what ages they're looking for so a girl can say she's looking for a max of 35 years old and the agency will put 35 to 50. The guys have no clue the woman has zero interest to meet them, and the agency is just trying to keep their business.
LOL
I disagree, Former Soviet Women are extremely old fashioned and family oriented women. What they are not is subservient, or afraid to say what's on ther mind.
Her grammar skills are better than most of the DU trolls we see 'round here.
Well, that much is true.
Sounds like an episode of "Dallas."
You really think that's funny, don't you. Bastard.
Hear about the new Tempura Shelter for slighly battered women?
My grandmother and her side of the family were unique. She stayed alive long enough to see me come home from Viet Nam in 1968, but died a week later.
We were never sure how old she really was, but came west to the New Mexico Territory in a covered wagon. One of her brothers died in Roosevelt's "rough rideres" before they sailed for Cuba, and Teddy sent her father a personal letter regarding him.
Of course...
That's not very nice. I was referring to the shipping container that contained the mail order bride.
Oh ... gee..that's different.
This sounds a bit like my friend's ex, as well. He would disappear for days at a time, often in the middle of the night. Turns out he had a lot of extracurricular activities, including a couple of girlfriends and another child. While there were certain red flags my friend should not have overlooked (his 'suspended' driver's license, for instance, was masking an open arrest warrant in another state), many of these oddities only popped up after their courship and wedding, because she was supposed to be his 'legit' cover.
Wow. You have a cool family. We Cottrauxs have been boring old regular folks, despite the weird name.
I suppose every now and then a couple finds love this way, but with such crass cross purposes, it has got to be damned rare.
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