I don’t know if this is the correct place to write this, but a few months ago I sent a card to a Russian postcrosser. She lives on the southern coast of Crimea. Postcrossing considers this as Ukrainian territory. This user insists that she lives in Russia, so she selected the town of Temryuk as her hometown on the map, because Temryuk is the closest “Russian-proper” (for lack of a politically neutral term) city to Ukraine. She writes on her profile: “By the way, the mailbox location on the map here is wrong. Actually, I live in Crimea - the nearest city on the map is Sevastopol. I live in Russia, not in Ukraine :)”.
In other words, she used an incorrect position on the map to state Crimea is Russia. I disagree with that statement, well, that can happen, but I also think this is a rather pedantic way to make a stance. Political opinions aside, what is the policy of Postcrossing on misusing locations for the sake of geopolitical issues?
I wonder could it also be because Crimea’s postal service is currently provided by Russia? In that case I can see why the Postcrosser said that since if she uses Ukraine as her country, she can’t even receive mail
(P.s. I am against the Russian government’s annexation of Ukraine)
I have seen the same situation from a Ukrainian Postcrosser in Yalta, Crimea, so very close to this Russian Postcrosser. That Ukrainian Postcrosser wrote the following on their account:
“IMPORTANT! As you maybe know, the Crimean Peninsula is unilaterally annexed by Russia in 2014. So according to an Order of Russian Government from March 27, 2014, Crimean postal offices are not eligible to deliver mailings, if at address line “Ukraine” is stated. Therefore, if you want your postcard been delivered, please write “Russia” instead of “Ukraine” at the country line.”
So that’s a different way to deal with it.
I think it has to deal with the fact that Crimea has a lot of ethnic Russians. A Russian lady once told me that Crimea was “gifted” to Ukraine by the Soviet Union and that it is therefore not traditionally Ukrainian. I don’t know how much sense that makes, but during the 1991 referendum for an independent Ukraine, “only” 55 percent of the Crimeans voted for independence. So what we deal with here might be an ethnic Russian who thinks that Russia didn’t steal Crimea, but that Crimea was never Ukrainian to begin with.
I had an address that was Republic of Crimea, RUSSIA but the postcrosser is Ukrainian. They have no profile. It must all be down to infrastructure and politics. Sad situation. Let’s hope they all find peace.
I’d say the main problem is that some of us can only send post to one of the two locations. What happens if a user gets the Russian address in Ukraine but can’t send to it because their postal system doesn’t send post to Russia?
I thought that the location doesn’t change the address.
You can choose a different location (some said they choose a nearest big city for privacy reasons), but the address still is what it is.
I want to advise those who send mail to Crimea to follow the news. Maybe there will be changes in the near future. And there is a possibility that the mail going there may not reach it. Just follow the news.
It’s not only that as @elanlei trying to point out. If Russian post is the postal operator there then the restrictions on where one can send depends on country. For example, if person chooses Ukraine as country of residence and system gives Australian or Finnish address, person resided in Crimea will not be able to send.
You send card to an address, not the location.
Address and location are 2 different things in Postcrossing. They are not related. I changed my location twice for no reasons.
Many people also deliberately picked the wrong flag in this forum. Would that be okay for you?
When Postcrossing gives you an address, you send the postcard ASAP, not waiting for the news. If we have to follow the news then nobody will send the card because the world is in uncertainty condition right now.
That’s right. If the user specified the correct location, his address would be given out to users of those countries that can send mail to Ukraine, but cannot to Russia. And the person would never have received that postcard.
I don’t always send my cards out immediately for a variety of reasons
Circumstances such as earthquakes, tornados, forest fires, hurricanes, coups etc may render mail undeliverable. The news can inform people when mail service has returned to normal
It sounds like the member might be a Russian who lives in Crimea According to the 2014 census, about 1,492,000 are ethnic Russians. I, too, received a card from a member in the “Republic of Crimea” with a definite pro-Russian tilt in the message. Sent a thank you, registered the card and that was that. No interest at all in these political squabbles.
As @yudi noted, people adjust things for their own reasons. In the larger world, people regularly practice dishonesty when it comes to their place of residence.
Not always true! For those of us who live in or near small cities or rural villages, choosing our real town isn’t even an option if we wanted to. I was given a choice between several regional cities, all over an hour away by car, and most of which I’ve never even been to.
I chose one that, while not the very closest, was at least in the same state I really live in.
Well first of all I don’t make the rules here on having a different flag, so I’d follow what the rules do. But in my opinion your flag should provide your nationality or country of residence
Right, it actually makes perfect sense for Crimean postcrossers to register with a Russian address, because many postal services currently don’t deliver to Russia. But as a postcrosser from Sevastopol is considered to be in Ukraine by the Postcrossing system, people for instance here in Poland would get his or her address - but they wouldn’t be able to actually send them a card!
If they address it to Sevastopol/Ukraine - the Ukrainian postal service will not be able to deliver it.
But if they address it to Sevastopol/Russia - the Polish postal service will not deliver it.