President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman informed Russians this week that the “special military operation” that Putin launched in Ukraine in February 2022 was set to go on much longer because it is now “a war against the collective West.”
That’s right: a war.
It was remarkable to hear that word from Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Journalists were explicitly banned from using it as the invasion began and thousands of Russians have been detained, fined and imprisoned for telling the truth about a war which has now been raging for almost two years.
“Moscow deputy Aleksey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison for saying ‘war,’” Sergey Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support group, told The Daily Beast. He said over 20,000 Russians have now been detained and punished for protesting against the war. “That includes 131 Russians who have been sentenced to long prison terms in punishment for peaceful or for more radical anti-war actions,” he said. “I don’t think punishments against the war will now be milder after the Kremlin openly says ‘war.’ Putin will be next to declare it.”
I would imagine it’s at gunpoint, figuratively or literally.
There are a lot of people there that haven’t experienced oppression personally and genuinely believe that “strong ruler” that “keeps people in line” is what’s needed for their country to be “strong”.
Also one of the key points of Russian propaganda that has been hammered into them for decades is that “democracy is a sham” and that any alternative to Putin’s regime would be just as oppressive and simply less “competent” (and therefore lead to Russia’s ruin).
Putin supporters do not believe that democracy can work and they don’t want democracy, as simple as that.
There’s a reason why Russians do not believe democracy can work. It is the fact that the only brief time there was democracy in Russia in the past few hundred years was a time of unmitigated chaos. The transition away from communism was un utter disaster. The west didn’t help either. All the west did was try take a piece of the pie.
What’s to stop someone from leaving? Are they North Korea like that?
Emigration is really hard, both emotionally and financially, regardless of where you live.
That’s a really good point I hadn’t considered in passing, moving to a whole new country, and as a Russian? Probably pretty tough
Most end up in Georgia, because it’s just across the border, culturally and linguistically close.
And Georgia has it really bad rn as well. Basically no one is talking about how Russia has Georgia completely under its thumb. It’s really bad in Tbilisi. I wish it got more coverage.
No, but there are many obstacles. Besides usual ones common to migration in general, due to sanctions people who want to emigrate won’t be able to easily access their money left in Russia. Also if they speak up against Putin everything they left in Russia will be confiscated and returning back (for any reason including possible deportation) will be dangerous (Russia is smart enough to not charge dissenters living abroad so that they won’t be able to claim asylum, but when they return they can be arrested. This strategy was used since USSR times). This makes emigration a risky proposition unless you already have a high-paying job lined up for you, and can receive foreign citizenship in a short time.
They don’t let valuable people live. Also they don’t let people convert roubles to western currency. The current exchange rate for roubles is a complete sham as it’s not a free market
Pretty sure many people in the world aren’t doing business with Russian currency for obvious reasons.
That only changed recently, it wasn’t always like that. “Free markets” don’t need to be fully free for the same reason that the tolerant need not tolerate the intolerant.
Based in the news I’ve read, the Russian government, and also the ones of many neighboring countries
Open windows I suspect
Huh?
Defenestration joke.
I can’t believe there’s an actual word for this
It’s a long and proud tradition that has existed for as long as there have been windows at higher than ground level. Entire wars were started over this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague
I am however convinced that in Putin’s Russia, defenestrations aren’t always the actual cause of death. It’s a far too convenient method for covering up torture.
You have to have a country to go to. The hard part of emigrating is often immigrating. Countries don’t generally just let people in.