You want to marry a Russian woman? Great, it can be very good for you, however you should understand and calculated with the facts that you will also get a father in law and a mother in law and maybe some other new members of your family over there. Since Russian ladies have closer ties to their family, I believe, than most American men have, you should be prepared to send them Christmas gifts (it costs more to send than to buy). When something bad is happening, illness and other dramatic problems, that will make your wife upset, and is it possible for you to sit and look without helping economical? She will need to make phone calls and there will also be situations when she will need to go back. These are facts you also should include into your calculation.

It's a great pleasure to get a good (Russian) wife, but you also get a lot of new obligations. I hope you are ready for that.

Haroshij

Where in Russia does your wife travel to?

How often do her relatives come to Norway?

What does 1000 Kroner buy in the richest country in the world?

What was the cost of the bone operation to you?

How percentage are your wifes earnings compared to Norwegian womans?

What are the costs of your wifes travel? Does she or you pay for this?

I'll try to tell as good as I can.

Q no. 1. In fact both my wife and I are better off now than earlier. She has a good income.

Q. no. 2 St.Petersburg

Q. no. 3. There are no regularity in this. These three years there have been more than one visit every year. Last year we had two visits. One from family and one from friends.

Q. no. 4 What you can buy for 1000 Nok? A cheap new car costs  a little less than 200 000. O good computer you can buy for 7000 Nok. A visit to the doctor costs 110. To fill the fuel tank costs about 500. Everything in Norwegian kroner (Nok). Most things are expensive in Norway.

Q.  no 5. We added something to the regular monthly payment over time (that is doubled it).

Q. no. 6. Her income is higher than the average in Norway both men and women taken into consideration.

Q. no. 7. I don't exactlay remember the costs for a travel to Russia. In summer we drove by car. This time she will go by plane. I will suggest about 1000 $, probably more. We don't talk about my money or her money. We talk about our money, so we both pay for that flight.

Satiesfied. Now I would like to ask you the some questions:

Why did you ask?
Do your wife work?
Who is in charge of your economy? How much do your wife decide?
Have you got visitors from your wifes family?

Have a nice evening. Is it raining over there? Heard there were some problem with too much water.

Haroshij

Domestic flights are unreasonable expensive i Norway. By plane  we need to go via Oslo, and remember Norway is big. There are vast distances here. That makes the whole difference.

I'm quite sure the prices are lower in GB than here. At least that is what we believe here. We pay only for doctors and medicine up to certain level. Above that it's free. All treatment in hospitals are free.

How long time have you been married with your Ukrainian lady?

I agree with you. Those money we send makes whole lot of difference for her family.

Well, we are getting more of that white "rain". I think we have enough now, in fact more than enough.

Haroshij

I've been married twice. My first wife was a Norwegian lady, and the next Russian. I can promise you that till the day Elena started to work, I could feel the new economical burden. When Elena came here, she came empty-handed. She hadn't saved up any rights to pensions here of course, and it worried me because she is 15 years younger. I will probably die many years before her, and I want her to have a secure future here. She had burned many bridges behind her, and she could not easily go back. Therefore I felt responsible for her in many ways, and I bought a privat pension for her (In Norway we have very good public pensions (folketrygd = people's security), but you need to be member some years to get full benefit from it).

She also needed a lot of new clothes, especially sporting clothes. She has family in Russia, and this winter her mother needed to go to the hopital. I've always believed that they had free medical care in Russia like in Norway. Well, it's free, but if you don't pay extra you don't get good quality of your treatment, not the best medicines, not the best materials when the need to strenghten the skeleton with screws and artificial shins. People get pension very early in Russia (at the age of 55), however what they get paid is so little that it's hard for them to live on it. Therefore most people who have a pension continue to work. So if for one reason or another they have to stop to work, they have a problem. Russian people are very afraid of being ill. In this situation we had to help them of course. I feel the same obligation as if it had been my own parents.

Elena has also sent home every month 1000 Norwegian kroner (143 US$) Now she is making money herself, that she didn't all the time.

She also wants to go home regularly. Usually she goes two times every year (I usually go with her on one the trips), and we have had her parents, brother and sister and friends for visits here. Not all of them paid the costs themselves.

This are only a few of the commitments you have to calculate with when you get a foreign bride. It's true you can withdraw the costs of some cheap taxfree vodka when she comes back from Russia :-).

Haroshij