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.
How anyone over there still sucks this dude off is beyond me lmao
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.
Emigration is really hard, both emotionally and financially, regardless of where you live.
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
Do you have a few minutes to talk about our lord and savior donald trump?
Oh its really simple and I’m kind of angry how many people keep making your statement.
Fact: about 1/3 of the world enjoys the suffering of others and wants a visible, high profile enemy to rail against. They are cultist regressives dreaming for a past that never existed, in Russia’s case the fantasy of the old USSR at its peak.
They are angry at being poor and powerless and gladly accept any justification that allows them to hate someone else.
The same motivations behind trumpty dumpty’s cult. Do you honestly think this is a coincidence?
Unfortunately I know nothing I type here will matter to you and the next time a thread exposing putin’s brutality you will just likely post the same statement.
It’s understandable to be confused by it, I’m not sure why it makes you angry.
Even if you’re familiar with the idea that some portion of the population is hierarchy/authoritarian prone, it makes you ask why. Then the answer just takes you one step deeper - that they like to see others suffer. Why? Because it makes them feel like they have it better than someone else, and that feels good. Well why does that make them feel good? Etc.
When you drill down enough you always get to “that’s just the way it is”, which isn’t satisfying.
I don’t think there is any benefit in trying to justify bigotry as there are almost as many reasons as there are bigots.
Did they have bad family lives? Probably, most of us have nowadays, but I know plenty of people that have gone through some harrowing shit and it doesn’t make them want to erase trans people.
I mean, you can go ahead and spend as much mental energy as you want reviewing every possible thing that led them down the path of enjoying the suffering of others, but I don’t see in any way how that is practical in curbing the damage they are doing to the fabric of our society.
People who dream of violence against innocents are monsters and I have no ethical or moral responsibility to consider the cause of the week they claim is behind their antisocial behavior.
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.
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.
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?”
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.
