🇷🇺 Putin has overseen a ruthless crackdown on dissidents and critics during his 24 years in power, and all his major domestic opponents are now dead, exiled or in prison.
https://www.barrons.com/news/putin-s-opposition-dead-jailed-or-exiled-d84ebac1
@rvps2001
OMG why haven't Russians rebelled against the war: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/03/11/why-havent-russians-rebelled-against-the-war-psychology-has-answers-a84364
Indeed, why? What could be the reason? Hm-m-m…🤔
This question sounds ridiculously disproportionate today, but it was a process - you might ask “why haven’t Russians rebelled…” in these contexts:
against 1999 Ryazan FSB bombing scandal
against 2001 state takeover of NTV and RTR
against nomination of governors replacing elections in 2004
against 2008 war in Georgia
…and it would make much more sense 🤷
@kravietz
> against 2008 war in Georgia
Remember certain EU report here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_for_the_Russo-Georgian_War#EU_Independent_Fact_Finding_Mission_Report
The report blamed Georgia for starting the war, stating that open hostilities started "... with a large-scale Georgian military operation against the town of Tskhinvali and the surrounding areas, launched in the night of 7 to 8 August 2008"
…and there was "... no way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone."
It's easy to pin it all on Russians in retrospect🤷
@rvps2001
@kravietz
I'm not attempting to shift the blame and paint Russians as innocent victims — but blaming Russians alone accomplishes nothing and explains nothing.
As for Russians — I think lack of democratic tradition was a major factor, this explains the remaining 3 of your points, don't forget that those who should've rebelled at the time are those who are in their 50-60ies now, most of that generation still doesn't understand what's going on.
@rvps2001
@kravietz
In 2011-2013 it was a different generation of Russians — they did better, but that hardly was enough, what culminated in Maidan in Ukraine, in Russia only became a turning point on the path to solidifying authoritarianism. I remember those events well and I wanted to recapture them and explain how we got where we are now the way I see it — it's a long post and I'm only halfway finished, will probably post it later this week.
@rvps2001
Remember certain EU report here
I know the report - I was reading it in great details specifically for such discussions :) The report was very carefully worded in a way that made it biased. Russians pounded Georgian positions with artillery for weeks specifically in order to provoke them to respond. Georgians responded. Russians had their casus belli and nobody cared about what happened before 🤷
As a reminder, Russia tried to do the same thing in Ukraine in February 2022 when it pounded Ukrainian positions with artillery for weeks - and that was reported by OSCE, day by day! Ukrainians kept silent, so Russia resorted to two rather miserable provocations - one with an “Ukrainian sabotage group that was destroyed near Russian border” (50 km into DNR-controlled territory).
@kravietz
Here are other reactions from the international community: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reaction_to_the_Russo-Georgian_War
"Most other countries called for peace, with some demanding respect of Georgia's territorial integrity while others supported Russian intervention."
"some demanding respect of Georgia's territorial integrity" — so were it Russians only or was it at least international community too who enabled Puting to carry on?
@rvps2001