My Kind of Community: Russians

Dubai - More than 40,000 of them live here, lured by the sea, sunshine and the good life

One great thing about Russians - they hate small talk. A 'hi' is not followed by a 'how are you?' That's intrusive and viewed suspiciously. As is grinning too much. An explanation offered by one expat was, "You don't go around asking personal questions unless you don't want a meaningful answer." If a Russian is asked, "How are you?", he might reply, "I'm okay" (but may not ask, "And you?"). There's none of the, shall we say, American enthusiasm for overstating - no "I'm great!" or "I'm fantastic!" An expat from Dagestan, who's lived in Dubai for over a decade, says, "We don't use strong emotive words like amazing and awesome for regular, everyday things. We just say normal, good, bad, okay."
More than 40,000 Russians currently live in the UAE, the Consulate General of Russian Federation in Dubai told Khaleej Times. This doesn't include expats from countries of the former Soviet bloc. The Russian-speaking population is larger: Tajiks, Uzbekis, Kazakhs, etc. In Dubai, most Russians live around the water.  ("Three months of Dubai summer is much better than nine months of Moscow winter," one beach-loving expat said). Most of them live around JBR and Dubai Marina, with the more well-to-do ones opting for Palm Jumeirah. Often, you'll find restaurants in Dubai with menus printed also in Russian as testimony to the fact that there is a significant number of them here. Main areas of employment, the consulate said, are "tourism, real estate, sales and marketing, oil and gas".
Ekaterina Kazakova, owner of Vanila Wedding Boutique in JLT, who's been in Dubai for five years, says Russians and Russian-speakers are all over. "It's a huge community. We're everywhere: in the bridal business, sales, wedding planning, and retail. Hotels hires a lot of Russians, and there are many of us in event management companies."
Before the rouble crashed, Russian tourists would come to Dubai to buy electronics and fur; fur was huge. An entire building in Deira reportedly had businessmen retailing fur out of every floor. Russian-speaking staff had been hired for the convenience of tourists who would head there, splurge in dollars, and get great deals.
There may have been less tourism lately, but socialising hasn't slumped. While the arts and theatre scene here is perceived to be lacking, Dubai Opera has recently made up for that big time. Several Russians like to mingle with their own, with fellow Russian speakers. Quite a few also said that they're not a part of any Russian community here, not even the Rassianka (Russian women's group, affiliated to the consulate).
There are mums' groups that meet once a week in parks with their kids. Thursday evenings at one of the city's parks is a regular date for some families. There's music, food, laughter.
How come there isn't too much smiling generally, though? Not smiling and maintaining a serious demeanour is a distinguishing characteristic of Russians. The Dagestan-native said, "Every time I go back to Russia and see serious faces, I feel the difference - people not laughing, people not looking happy. Maybe not smiling is from the USSR days. but we are soft from inside." And when Russians live away from the homeland, he says, "We change. We smile more."
- nivriti@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Dubai