Do you think these people voted for Putin? This is the equivalent of pretending random Americans deserve high gas prices because they voted for 1 of 2 parties who gave Israel unlimited support.
Which like they do, but because we built a country around cars instead of people, and export oil that could be used domesticly because it benefits oil companies at the expense of Americans, not because we have a political system that doesn’t give us a meaningful choice.
Do you think these people voted for Putin? This is the equivalent of pretending random Americans deserve high gas prices because they voted for 1 of 2 parties who gave Israel unlimited support.
People will say that Putin didn’t win an election, then say that his citizens also madly agree with him on everything. It’s impossible for both. If the man rigs elections, he’s not popular. If the citizens love him, he doesn’t need to rig them.
Really weird that people have such conflicting ideas about such a vile monster.
People will say that Putin didn’t win an election, then say that his citizens also madly agree with him on everything. It’s impossible for both. If the man rigs elections, he’s not popular. If the citizens love him, he doesn’t need to rig them.
I’m really surprised to see this take from you. Have you considered that perhaps he was unpopular until he wanted to help Russians in Donetsk and Crimea, and the war boosted his popularity?
Really weird that people have such conflicting ideas about such a vile monster.
I mean, he’s a liberal now, and yet he’s still scapegoated for Western failures. Why do you consider him “a vile monster?” Is he as vile as Western leaders?
Genuinely, visit Russia. Spend a bit of time in bith the Potemkim cities (Moscow, St Pete) and the 3rd world beyond them (every other Russian city.)
The level of unhinged, blind faith in whatever bullahit is fed to them is off the charts. As far as they are concerned the west has always wanted to destroy Russia and they have always been at war, physically and culturally.
It requires no doublethink or conflicting viewpoint whatsoever to think Russian elections are neither free nor fair, but that the majority of the Russian people are solidly behind what Putin does anyway.
Russia doesn’t like queers so I am probably not gonna be able to go there anytime soon, despite me wanting to visit historical places and cool cities.
As far as they are concerned the west has always wanted to destroy Russia and they have always been at war, physically and culturally.
This is true, since the uprising against the Romanovs.
It requires no doublethink or conflicting viewpoint whatsoever to think Russian elections are neither free nor fair,
Yes it does.
the Russian people are solidly behind what Putin does anyway.
They are now.
Which is so sad because since they basically put themselves into that state. Fear is the biggest political motivator. Fear of the west has been keeping them going, when I doubt anyone would care what they do at all. It’s all being fed to them
Indeed. I was in Kirov once, visiting a (then) friend, and ended up in conversation with the sterotypical Russian street drunk - it was all friendly enough, and he was quite excited never having met someone who spoke English before, so we had a perfectly civil conversation between my poor Russian and my friend translating. Then at the end he asked one thing I didn’t really understand, and my friend didn’t want to translate. Eventually I pushed her into it - it turned out his final question, quite seriously, after a perfectly civil conversation, was “why are you an enemy of the Russian people?”
Said former friend is former because later I was in Kharkhiv when the Russians invaded in 2014. At that time there were plenty of little green men causing trouble (some wanted to lynch me as a NATO spy,) so when my friend contacted me to tell me I had to get out to stay safe I thought this was admirably world-wise for a Russian. I explained that it was OK, we used VK and Facebook to know where the Russians were causing trouble and I was taking care… And she was “no, no, the Ukrainian government is taking Russian speakers and putting them in concentration camps.” (Bear in mind that at this time I’d literally never met anyone in (as it was universally known then) Kharkhov who could speak a word of Ukrainian, so that would have meant rounding up the entire population, but anyway…)
I explained that I was literally standing there, and could swear nothing of the sort was happening… But she wouldn’t have it. It was more comfortable for her to believe the lies on Russian TV than a friend of several years.
Honestly, the Russian people are a lost cause.
Same with me. I had lived 2 months in Ukraine in 2015 when I hitchhiked several thousand kilometres in the Russia. And every driver I talked anything about Ukraine was telling me how the roads are full of bandits now and how I was lucky to make it out of Ukraine alive. And then all these same stories about Russian-speakers being in danger there. I told them that I ws living together with a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, that in the capital 70 % of people speak Russian as their main everyday language, that almost all of my friends in Ukraine speak Russian as their mother tongue, and that none of my friends had never encountered what I was now being told about.
And their reaction: “They only showed you in Ukraine what they wanted you to see”. No amount of “hey, I’ve been walking the streets completely alone, going to various parts of the city. Plus, my girlfriend would have no reason to lie to me about something like this.”
The reply was always some form of “still, they clearly did not show you everything.” And then to my “How did they manage to hide that stuff from me?” they said “I don’t know.”Again, zero percent of drivers I talked with said anything deviating from the above. I soon learned to avoid talking about Ukraine, and instead made haste to get the hell out of the Russia, as there was nothing I could do to help those people, and speaking up agitated them in a manner that did not feel very safe as a hitchhiker. Kazakhstan was much better.
Yeah, I can totally believe it. Genuinely heartbreaking - for a while Russia felt like it was slowly heading in the right direction as well, and I’m glad in that brief window I got to visit and experience the place, but after 2014 it all just fell apart and they lurched into reverse.
Never been to Kazakhstan (hope to), but I believe you - I found people in Kyrgyzstan to be by contrast some of the friendliest and kindest in the world. Never felt uncomfortable hitching or travelling by marshrutka there, and had one of the most memorable meals of my life (beshbarmak, served to the honoured guest as a full, boiled sheep’s head with the top cut off…) with a family there.
Looking at the world today, and the barriers that fell during my lifetime being put back up just because three limp-dicked octogenarians think the whole planet should be carved up between them… It’s devastating.
Which makes me sad, I find their culture really interesting, and I would love to visit, meet them and have a drink, but because of exactly that I’m very hesitant to do so.
Most of Russian culture is “borrowed” from other cultures. If you visit Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan, you’ll catch all that you fear you might be missing by not visiting the authoritarian hellhole.
Yes. 90% of Russians approve of Putin. I don’t doubt they all voted for him.
All those famously free elections in Russia.
Why would you believe polling out of Russia? Seems folks have a lot of incentive to lie. I’m sure he has plenty of brain dead supporters, but we know how that goes.
They made some very clever polls about this in 2023. What they did was first interview a large number of people with four claims such as “homosexuality is an abomination.” The only thing the people had to tell was the number of claims they agree with. They could answer “0”, “1”, “2”, “3” or “4”. Nothing else.
Then they took a large number of other people, and did the same again, but this time with a fifth question: “I support the war in Ukraine”. They did not know about there having been that other poll with one question less. And again, the only kind of answer they could give was a number between zero and five.
By comparing the results of the two polls, they found out that 70 % of the people had chosen the “I support the war in Ukraine”, even though nobody answered anything else than one single digit. At the same time, Levada had made a more traditional type of poll, resulting in 80 % saying they support the war. So, for Levada 20 out of 100 people told truthfully that they are against the war, 10 out of 100 lied that they support it, and the remaining 70 out of 100 told truthfully that they support the war.
…and then, I’ve met those anti-war Russians and asked the question “if that would end the war, should the Russia completely leave all parts of Ukraine, including Crimea”, and they basically exclusively say that it should not. So, they are anti-war, but with the condition that the war should end in a Russian victory of at least some sort. If there wouldn’t be any victory at all, then the war should not be ended. My experience is that less than one out of twenty “anti-war” Russians think that the Russia should end the war even without gaining any sort of victory.
None of the ones I’ve met liked him, but I’ve only met ones who fled Russia.
Why do you suppose Russians might support him in 2026? In the 2000s/2010s, its understandable given how bad the 90s were, but now living standards are getting worse again.
Because I’ve been close friends with Russians who left Russia as adults and they absolutely love Putin for “standing up” to the west. Whatever that means.
And polls repeatedly show 90% of Russians support him. For “standing up” to the west.
Why would I doubt polls and the evidence of my own eyes and the sincerely held beliefs of people I’ve talked to?
they absolutely love Putin for “standing up” to the west. Whatever that means.
Before Putin took power, the west’s guy, Yeltsin, was in power, selling the copper from the walls. People remember conditions going from slightly behind the west to a third world country being ravaged by famine, alcoholism overnight as soviet industry was eviscerated by Russia’s new national bourgeois, working with the west.
While Putin was one of those oligarchs, people saw him slow the bleeding by stopping the very worst excesses; standing up to the west.
But that was 25 years ago.
I met a Russian in China. Said his opinion: Ukraine should be part of Russia. Strong, fit, young lad.
He’s still in China enjoying the good life.
Yes, people tend to support fucked up regimes in their home countries if they don’t have to suffer the consequences.
And yet, the regime has stronger support in the Russia than it has abroad. As absurd as that is.
Just ask any Russian who lives outside the Russia and have visited their relatives in the Russia since 2022.
Urumqi? I met quite a few Russians there.
That last guy is clearly Italian
🤌
Now this is straight злорадство.
OP does no homework to check if they voted for this or approved it.This is like blaming Iranians for protesting, and getting genocided.
Year 2022 got me very disappointed. I live in Finland, but can still do something less than 2% of people here can do: I can speak passable Russian. And I’ve had to change my view on people from that country because of that.
Just go and ask her: “If that would end the war, should the Russia leave all of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea?”
Her answer will be either “No, it should not” or “It’s complicated”. The “It’s complicated” then turns out in further conversation to be a form of “No.”Even those who are “against” the war demand that the Russia must be allowed to have at least some sort of victory. If the Russia returns back where it came from, then these 12 years of war would have been in vain. And the people there do not want for it to have been in vain.
I have met Russian citizens who really are against the war. But those people now also absolutely refuse to speak Russian. No matter how bad their Finnish, or even just English, they will refuse to speak a word of Russian. Because, by their experience, their country is so thoroughly seeped in propaganda, and has been that way for centuries, that they cannot find a way to be against the war and still feel like Russians.
Those Russians who are really against the war are extremely rare, and they would not complain the way this person does. They would be fully aware of why all this is happening.
The person in the video was too young to vote when a vote could have made a change, but she is absolutely in support of the war continuing until the Russia gainst victory of some sort.
Before year 2022 I would have been againt this kind of view that I am expressing here, but I have had conversations with so many tens of Russians since then that the case is absolutely clear. There are people who have grown as Russians who are not genocidal, but their number is extremely low. And they consider it insulting calling them Russians. It’s something akin to calling someone with their deadname if you do.The person in the video is in support of genociding Ukrainians. And she is in support of abducting Ukrainian children. Putin has incredibly thoroughly destroyed the nation in his country with the propaganda he started around 2003 or 2004 or so.
She wanted this shit, and she still wants it. She would just not want to have all the bad sides it comes with. She is against how the Russia is invading Ukraine, not against the Russia invading Ukraine. And does not want the Russia to retreat from there, so in the end the how is within limits of acceptable to her as well.
You’re associating the experiences of a few to the three people in the OP’s video who we have not been told the actual unredacted opinions on whether they should have their internet and banking access cut and if a physical war with Ukraine and Crimea is worth this.
A lot of folks do not make those connections are related, but you and I do. You and I are not the three people in video, and definitively not the sadistic OP.Hence why I am calling OP on es cruelty.
I’m talking about the experiences of a couple hundred people I’ve talked about this war in the last 12 years. I’m a fucking talkative person :)
Like you say, those three do not make the connections. And that does tell a lot! And even if they now do, and even if they now are against the war, they were not against the war just a month ago. If they had been, they would not see any sense in complaining about this. Instead, they’d be loooong gone from the Russia.
At least from 2014 to February 2026, these three people have been supporting the war against Ukraine. They’ve wanted their nation to FA, now they are FO.
I am aware of your experiences. I am not discounting them. I am discounting OP’s harmlaugh without having done basic research.
If you will associate those experiences with these three, then I am afraid I have some Finish associations to make.🙃
It is absolutely clear form the demeanor of these three that those experiences should be associated with these three. If they weren’t, these three would be speaking of some completely different subjects altogether. Plus, they would not be in the Russia.
There are non-genocidal Russians, but these three have still been pro-genocide at least a month ago. Let’s hope they’ve changed their position recently, but that doesn’t really excuse their earlier evils.
I guess Finnish people can afford the luxuries living anywhere anytime full of contradictions all the time.
Enjoy Chat Control 3.0🙃
u H X.
Perhaps somebody should teach them how to use txt, mms and email lists to keep in touch with friends and family.
