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.”
In one week from today it will be 2 years into a “3 day special military operation”. At some point even the most delusional people have to face the music. We can only hope that it eats at his psychological health and he soon drops dead.
It just goes to show that his “special military operation” has basically failed if it lasted 727 days longer than usual
no you stupid russian cunt you are not at war with the west, you are at war with ukraine and they are making your mighty army look like fucking clowns.
If you would be at war with the west, you would be pretty much done by the end of the week and now for the love of god do us a favor and skip to the chapter where you put a fucking gun to your mouth and pull the trigger.
Honestly how have there not been any successful assassination attempts on this mf yet, seriously. Let’s get on with it, shall we. I’m over Putin already, since even before the war.
Unfortunately it won’t prevent another one taking his place. Especially with the 2020’s constitutional referendum that basically lets Russian war criminals get away unpunished. I think the whole country is fucked beyond repair at this point.
Probably. It’s quite uncomfortable having them this close to Europe, as a European.
Risky take, but I’m glad the US hasn’t done that. We have a terrible track record. It never seems to help, and this isn’t ultimately a Putin problem so much as a larger tendency of this regime and its economic systems.
I just don’t know if there’s a version of Russia that can coexist with the status quo we’ve been trying to protect. It might be terminal, and god help us if I’m right.
I guess it is inevitable that Russia will ultimately have to be destroyed by external force. Whether it happens sooner or later. One day the full West will be at war with them. Here’s me hoping it will be a couple of lifetimes away. I have young children. 😓
How anyone over there still sucks this dude off is beyond me lmao
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.
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.
Based in the news I’ve read, the Russian government, and also the ones of many neighboring countries
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.
What’s to stop someone from leaving?
Polonium.
😰
Do you have a few minutes to talk about our lord and savior donald trump?
The ones closest to him in his inner circle are very incentive to be loyal as many of them got rich, and their wealth depends, on Putin’s blessing. Those who don’t, like Prighozhin, get made an example of and have their private planes mysteriously fall from the sky.
do not underestimate Russian conservatives
Propaganda, fear and other things.
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Nice privilege you got here . . . Be a shame if anything were to happen to it, y’know. Like in russia.
I was aware of my own ignorance on the topic, and maybe my words weren’t clear or concise enough for your liking, but it was very much a comment intended to receive answers, opinions, and viewpoints so that I could educate myself
But your random slap on the wrist was super effective and was a crucial excercise. Good job.
They are not wrong, Russia is practically at war with the entire west. They are support Ukraine and pour weapons in there like no tomorrow.
If Russia can keep this up and “outlast” and then conquer East-Ukraine they get the valuable part of the country, the breadbasket and industry. And I doubt think the military will stop supporting Putin during this war.
It also weakens democracy Europe because of refugees, massive spending and increase of austerity. This is part of their geopolitcal strategy, the more fascism in Europe, the less unified the EU is.
And for US / NATO it creates an more streamlined front even with just West-Ukraine. Even if individual countries in the EU become more nationalist and leave the EU, they won’t leave NATO with Russia looming. You can also read appreciation for a more militaristic and hawkish attitudes in European countries.
So for the future wars to come with climate change this is an acceptable outcome for those in power. Only the people in Ukraine, Russia and the taxpayers loose.
the valuable part of the country, the breadbasket and industry
I do wonder how there could be anything of value remaining in areas that have been shelled or mined
Good question. Maybe it’s easier to rebuild industry even if partially destroyed. But I think it’s mostly about natural resources (search).
I think the original plan was to get all of Ukraine into the duty free zone of the EU which would have made trade mostly exclusive with EU instead of exclusive with Russia.
Huh, the feeling when in Stellaris, the united nations of earth have some massive wars before unification. Did the devs somehow see the future? Omg
We know that with food and certain areas becoming precarious due to climate change, wars and genocides are kind of inevitable. Syria was partially caused by an extremely rare drought causing people to move into the cities. You could argue that Ukraine was caused by Russia and the EU trying to lay their hands on the Ukrainian breadbasket. So it’s possible that this is the beginning of the “climate wars”. While that is speculation and it’s certainly not framed that way, it certainly does reinforce the sides for the future. Putin / Russia knows it too and they have a many borders with countries that will be in turmoil due to climate change.
Well at least things will be epic by the start of 2200.
This is just western version of propaganda I assume. Most Russians still overwhelmingly support the clown
Overwhelming “support” is not that surprising, to be honest, when the question is “Do you support Putin or do you want to fall out of a window?”
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There are genuine Putin supporters. Experts on Russia describe that the pro-putin supporters are at least as large a group as the anti-putin group (similar to the trump situation in the US), but both are dwarfed by the quiet de-politicized middle. Russian politics are heavily aimed at keeping the middle from engaging.
AFAIK the attitude of the Russian middle class is like “we don’t care about politics and even if we did, there’s nothing we could do about it anyway, so we’ll just go with the flow and fly under the radar as good as we can.”
This mindset has been formed by the Soviet times and is now becoming more important again.
Good idea! Make Europe militarise again. That has never gone wrong in the history of anything. Europeans are definitely weak and not full of frustration and a want to legitimise their nationality again. Surely European nations won’t make conscription mandatory and rev up their military supply lines again. Surely populism and fascism isn’t on the rise, and even if they are, surely they’ll side with Putin.
Surely. /s
I nominate Putin for the award “dumbest fucker of the 21st century” and Russians for “most performant slaves of 21st century”.
Do you even know what Europe is?
It’s some city or something. I unno
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe Try it. Even it is not the best resource, it can give you at least a gist about it. It is not a city, it will surprise you.
“Every time we hit the bottom harder and fall through it and now we are at war with the entire world, it seems. What else could be worse? Next will be nuclear, nobody doubts. What depresses me most is the helpless situation we have: the majority will still vote for Putin simply because they feel lost without him, despite tiny salaries, awful medical service, men dying on the front, despite the growing feeling of instability.”
Bloody Russians, at least they could not vote for fucking Putin.
I don’t think this would change anything about the election results. At most the real numbers, which are a closely guarded state secret, would inform Putin that there is growing discontent.
Yes but that must be taken into account when Putin makes decisions.
If he gets 5% of the vote he must be thinking “shit I need to do something different”
MORE GULAG!
Yep like double down on what’s already happening
I highly doubt they even count the real numbers
Voting in a Presidential election there actually does even less than it does in the US. It’s all just a fun show for the people that Putin puts on sometimes.
Remember, this is nothing but a sign that the Russian economy is booming!
There have been so many signs of the Russian economy booming the last 2-3 months it’s hard to keep up…
But rest assured, I’m here to help you remember the wise words of the great and courageous leader Vladimir Putin who is guarding the insides his pala…eh…I mean part of Russia from those pesky Nazis!
Russian something goes boom but it’s not their economy… unless that’s also what an implosion sounds like.
When will we expect a massive export of Russian brides? Uh, asking for a friend…🧐
