In their defence it’s a heavily controlled state where speaking out can literally land you in the gulag. Doesn’t mean things are peachy, and I’m sure a fair few people are just drinking the coolaid, but it’s something to consider.
When USSR ended, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus were in very similar situation, politically and economically. Belarus got Lukashenko from the very beginning, he immediately bought off police and squashed all dissent. Ukraine had a wannabe dictator Yanukovich, bur kicked him out.
Russia got a big window of opportunity between Yeltsin and Putin, they could totally do their own Maidan, plus storming Kremlin is a historical Russian tradition.
No one cared.
They got a taste of Europe and civilized world, the young people got tech jobs with lots of money. Instead of fixing their own government, they mostly emigrated, and now formed a diaspora instead of learning the language and blabbering about mysterious Russian soul and wanking on WW2 photos.
One of Putin’s fears is that Ukraine showed a clear scenario how to depose a dictator.
Heavily controlled state that kills or imprisons political opponents, and disappears or imprisons protesters even for holding a blank white paper on the streets. Russia has the same issue USA does. It’s a gigantic country with spread out cities, with most money going to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It’s extremely difficult to organize effective protests. Especially now that their internet is more walled off than the Great Firewall of China. It’s one thing to have centralized, effective protests in smaller countries where driving to the capital is a couple of hours.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them are young and spent their teenage years fearing their inevitable turn in the meat-grinder. I also wouldn’t be surprised if those most on-board with the war already had their turn to fight and didn’t make it back home.
Though the page does say it was a “phone poll,” and if the youth in Russia are as averse to strange phone calls as many in the rest of the world, I’ll stand corrected.
Also, the ones making the decisions to fight these wars are not the ones fighting.
It would help if those who start a war are required to spend a portion of their time at the front lines. See how fast these boomers walk back their armies.
It would help if those who start a war are required to spend a portion of their time at the front lines. See how fast these boomers walk back their armies.
Not sure about that though. For a large portion of the (european) middle ages it was common and even expected from rulers to fight in battle. It’s not like that was an exceptionally peaceful time (nor was it exceptionally warlike though). Yet it should be mentioned that high ranking combatants like kings, knights and other nobles could expect to be captured and ransomed instead of being killed. But still, it was a risk and many a ruler were killed in battle.
Where were they 12 years ago? And 4 years ago? Ah, yes, they wanted a quick adventure — 20 mins in and out. Welp… Fuck them.
In their defence it’s a heavily controlled state where speaking out can literally land you in the gulag. Doesn’t mean things are peachy, and I’m sure a fair few people are just drinking the coolaid, but it’s something to consider.
When USSR ended, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus were in very similar situation, politically and economically. Belarus got Lukashenko from the very beginning, he immediately bought off police and squashed all dissent. Ukraine had a wannabe dictator Yanukovich, bur kicked him out.
Russia got a big window of opportunity between Yeltsin and Putin, they could totally do their own Maidan, plus storming Kremlin is a historical Russian tradition.
No one cared.
They got a taste of Europe and civilized world, the young people got tech jobs with lots of money. Instead of fixing their own government, they mostly emigrated, and now formed a diaspora instead of learning the language and blabbering about mysterious Russian soul and wanking on WW2 photos.
One of Putin’s fears is that Ukraine showed a clear scenario how to depose a dictator.
Heavily controlled state that kills or imprisons political opponents, and disappears or imprisons protesters even for holding a blank white paper on the streets. Russia has the same issue USA does. It’s a gigantic country with spread out cities, with most money going to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It’s extremely difficult to organize effective protests. Especially now that their internet is more walled off than the Great Firewall of China. It’s one thing to have centralized, effective protests in smaller countries where driving to the capital is a couple of hours.
When the war started, there where those in Russia that did protest the war. You could see them getting picked up and dragged away.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them are young and spent their teenage years fearing their inevitable turn in the meat-grinder. I also wouldn’t be surprised if those most on-board with the war already had their turn to fight and didn’t make it back home.
Though the page does say it was a “phone poll,” and if the youth in Russia are as averse to strange phone calls as many in the rest of the world, I’ll stand corrected.
Also, the ones making the decisions to fight these wars are not the ones fighting.
It would help if those who start a war are required to spend a portion of their time at the front lines. See how fast these boomers walk back their armies.
Not sure about that though. For a large portion of the (european) middle ages it was common and even expected from rulers to fight in battle. It’s not like that was an exceptionally peaceful time (nor was it exceptionally warlike though). Yet it should be mentioned that high ranking combatants like kings, knights and other nobles could expect to be captured and ransomed instead of being killed. But still, it was a risk and many a ruler were killed in battle.
Well, yeah, but those were different times altogether