this one could be dangerous, so please asses the risk for yourself.
soooo, lets talk about russian social media and some other parts of the russian web
i don't feel comfortable advising people to use them. the reason is - it's all mostly spyware, often even more of a spyware, then meta/google stuff. and the information they get out of your activity could land real people INTO A REAL JAIL. if you aren't in russia right now you can STILL land OTHER people in jail because you don't know how to behave safely in the russian web. I can try to teach you, but it's a very, very, very big topic you can't just learn from a tumblr post.
again: yes, people very in russia very often go to jail for posts, messeges, comments, and likes online. and communication with foreigners is often a reason to prosecute the person EVEN WORSE.
we're talking about ANYTHING queer (and sometimes even queerphobic, just because it mentions queerness), ANYTHING even REMOTELY criticizing the war, the government, the president, the country, also a lot of other various stuff like feminism, just photos of city landscapes (you guess fucking why in comments), discussions of actual terrorism WITHOUT condemning it, and even some pro-war arguments, and I'm sure, many many more random stuff.
you might be safe as a person living outside of russia right now. but people you would be talking to and interacting with on the russian social media ARE often in a big danger.
PLEASE BE FUCKING RESPONSIBLE. ALSO: ALWAYS BE BETTER SAFE THAN FUCKING SORRY.
the social media and other stuff you can try using:
vk / вк: a facebook-like social media. it had it golden days some years ago, but some people still use it. when i used to use it I really liked the fandom communities and following various artists
mail.ru - you can make an email address emding on @mail.ru, also there are some other services like mail.ru answers, where users ask questions and other people answer them
одноклассники - a social media almost exclusively for elderly! but you can still find some unexpected little corners there
telegram - i already talked about it! a very very nice messenger, imho it's better than whatsup and discord. also its less spyware-ish
аватария - i hope its still active! something like gachal life, maybe roblox a little bit, ect
шарарам - also similar to that, but it's Смешарики themed. Смешарики is a fucking PHENOMENALLY GOOD children's show. you should TOTALLY watch it
Пикабу - similar to reddit but with russian specifics
двач - similar to 4chan but with russian specifics
Фикбук - the biggest website for fanfiction in russian
фанфикус - more indy website for fanfiction mostly in russian
rutube - they tried to be an alternative to youtube but failed.ight be fun to check out either way
max - don't even go there. just plain spyware for the secret police. also the government is trying to force everyone to use it, they even wrote this app INTO THE FUCKING LAW. ew
also there are 100% many others but that's what i remembered right now
