Look, they didn't invade Ukraine. They came to America to GET AWAY from Russia, because they WANTED to live in America. They are not advising Comrade Putin on invading Ukraine.
Come on, man! What do you think your boycott is going to accomplish? Do you really believe that your local waitress is funneling her tips to Comrade Putin so that he can buy more MIG jet aircraft?
Good Lord, are we becoming a nation of racists, looking for an excuse to hate people because of where they were born?? This makes no sense. None whatsoever. People who left Russia to come to America are the most Anti-Putin, Anti-Communist people on earth. They are the most willing to send their sons and daughters to fight in our Armed Forces and defend our freedoms. There could not be anybody more American than people who have suffered under authoritarian rule elsewhere and come to America.
Even in Russia, Putin is much less popular than most of you believe. He controls the media, jails people he doesn't like, so of course he wins elections with monster majorities and opinion polls always favor him. People are afraid to tell the truth. That's not the same as liking him. Every day, the police haul off thousands of protestors and throw them in jail. That's not the same as supporting the war or unifying the country. It is hard to prove, but my guess is that even in Russia the majority of Russians know Putin is a liar, oppose his war and want him out or dead.
Hence, even in Russia, not all Russian people are on Putin's side. In America, the overwhelming majority support America over Putin, of this we can be certain.
Okay, so let's go to a Russian restaurant, shall we?
First of all, I'm addicted to Russian rye bread. Not everyone likes it because it is much harder than the American version, so Americans might think the Russian version is almost stale. But I greatly prefer it. You have to put butter on it, and caviar is a usual option. Or you might try it with cheese or hard sausage. Also, everybody tries Ukrainian-Russian borscht. It's beet soup, which doesn't sound tasty, but it is. Very sweet and loaded with vitamin C. A bowl of borscht and you know you're getting something healthy. Olivier salad is kind of like American potato salad but has peas, carrots, boiled eggs, diced meats and so that it is much more perky than potato salad. Awesome. In Cleveland, where I am from which is practically a Polish colony, pierogi is a standard staple. The Russian version is pirozhki, which is kind of like a cross between a shepherd's pie and a pierogi. It has a more bready texture but like a pierogi can be filled with either meat, vegetable or potatoes. Beef stroganoff is a well-known go-to favorite, Kamchatka crab, if you like seafood. Most of the meat dishes seem to have meat as one ingredient among many, like a casserole, rather than a huge cut of meat like a steak or prime rib like in America. So although many dishes have meat in them, it is hard to go into an outright meat coma like in America. Try medovik (honey cake) for desert.
I might recommend to you Russian restaurant owners, as a practical matter, that the sign in front of the restaurant needs to be changed to Ukrainian-Russian restaurant, and you need to add Chicken Kyiv and a few other choice dishes to the menu (spelled with the Ukrainian transliteration). Yellow and blue on the menu will help your business also in this emotionally-charged time.
All Americans ought to consider supporting restaurants and other these businesses, dropping the foolish notion that restaurant owners are collaborating with Putin to invade Ukraine.
