Posted on 12/18/2017 8:14:13 AM PST by Kaslin
Yes you need to look up the damage Sanctions have had on the Western bank accounts of Putin’s crony oligarchs and the anger of average Russians over their stagnating economy to understand why Putin is being extra nice.
Also worth nothing Russia’s upcoming “elections” (in quotation marks for a reason) are in March!
You should also note: that cynicism in Russia is so high right now over their lack of political options - when the terrorist attack happened in St. Petersburg last April, Russians thought it could have been timed by Putin himself following a string of protest movements a few weeks before...that it was Putin’s way of keeping them in line with fear. “You need me, or else.”
This is how some view several attacks that happened in the early 2000s in apartment buildings in Moscow and elsewhere...some of them were never fully explained.
Are these conpsiracies the equivalent to crazy 9/11 truthers? Perhaps. And even 9/11 trutherism has sway among many Russians as well.
How nice that every Russian thinks and feels exactly the same way. That all of their experiences and aspirations align so well.
Russians, like Americans, are not monolithic. It is exactly this broad-brushing that makes national cooperation so difficult.
Hugh, I speak as someone who lived there. I am not saying that EVERY Russian is the same person, but there is a collectivized commitment to the State and to nation that you will NOT see here...what with all our kneeling football players and things.
One can view this as “patriotism” — as a strength! It becomes a problem when people start getting fed up and have no way to address their grievances save for coup or revolution...and look at Russian history even at a cursory glance and you will see what I mean.
Its the system that is different.
It isn’t my intention to diminish your experience. I am not completely naïve to the character of the Russian people myself.
I do feel though, that conflating the Russian ethnicity with the Russian government may be going a bit far. You are welcome to disagree.
I’ve personally met (Soviet) Russian soldiers who would, as a matter of course, betray the Kremlin in small ways, but would never once think of betraying Russia.
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