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Hello! I live in Russia. I am ready to answer all your questions and at the same time to correct my English. Can talk on any topics about Russia, and I think that some of it will be interesting. Ask questions :
Have you spent much time in the USA? What are the differences in terms of your freedom and responsiveness to Gov. for your needs and problems? Russia, rightly or wrongly has a reputation for
forced compliance with little regard for the rights and needs of it's Citizens. Please give examples.
Why not to go further - to 11th century - to Kievan Rus.
"The modern nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor,[d] with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east,[15][16] uniting the East Slavic tribes.[10]" - Wiki
Why 11th? The fragmentation of Rus' came in the 12th century. And in the 12th century, Novgorodians said "to go to Rus'" in the sense of going to Kyiv (source: birch bark letters). Rus' as the cultural essence of Eastern Europe was formed after the 11th century, despite the fact that feudal fragmentation existed there (the war of the princes of the single family of Rurikovich).
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Originally Posted by Straight Arrow
Now, imagine that Ukraine will decide to call their country "Kievan Rus".
No, they want to be Ukrainians.
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Originally Posted by Straight Arrow
And "unite" with Belarus and Russia?
Why not - they themselves claim Kievan Rus as their cultural ancestor.
Nothing new. They already did it before. Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian and Zhmud, where more than half of the population was Rus. Russian historians sometimes call it "another Rus".
The balance was already lost when the Soviet Union capitulated. China is now the number 2 power not Russia. And why would Russia launch a missile attack on a (NATO) airport? NATO countries can do whatever they want on their borders, just like Russia can do whatever they want within their borders. Also isn't Russia a nuclear power, why would NATO ever attack Russia? Just look at North Korea they are armed to the teeth and are not being attacked, nor does North Korea need to attack South Korea to protect themselves.
Because Ukraine does not have the infrastructure to base the F-16. And even if NATO tries to create this infrastructure in a short time, Russia will launch missile attacks, and a Patriot's will not save from a massive volley. Video from Kyiv (fireworks for a couple of hundred million dollars, btw, and at the end Kinzhal arrives):
Of course, F-16 can refuel in Ukraine, but this is not a base. Attacks on Russia will be delivered from the territory of Poland or Romania. And what will happen if Russia shoots down a NATO jet over the territory of these countries?
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Originally Posted by grega94
I do not deny that there are certain Ukrainians who have become radicalized in the last few decades to make a pure Ukraine, but I don't think trying a secessionist movement was the right call. They should've remained in the country and pushed back in the political arena, and the "civil war" wouldn't even have happened if Russia didn't orchestrate the "civil war". Also, they were overreacting anyway since people were and still are speaking Russian in Ukraine. And if the issue was that horrible, they could just move across the border to Russia, just like many ethnic Russians ended up doing after the war started in 2014. My main point is that Russia chose to escalate the conflict and it could've been avoided and handled in a less confrontational manner. Ireland and Britain also had a contentious relationship during the "troubles" over the status of Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998, 3,532 people died during that conflict plus another 50,000 were injured, yet neither country escalated to a full on war. However, Russia decided to put it's foot down and now hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians are dead and that blood lies on Russia's hand for mishandling the situation and allowing so much hate to brew up between these "brotherly" nations.
The coup destroyed the political arena. And who was the first to use heavy artillery and airstrikes in the conflict in 2014? Russia? No, I, like millions of Russians, remember very well the dying woman in a red sweater with her legs torn off after the Ukrainian air raid on Luhansk. Therefore, for me is no need for a fairy tale that the blood is on the hands of Russians.
Have you spent much time in the USA? What are the differences in terms of your freedom and responsiveness to Gov. for your needs and problems? Russia, rightly or wrongly has a reputation for
forced compliance with little regard for the rights and needs of it's Citizens. Please give examples.
I can try to field this one. Some of it will be second-hand accounts of people I know in Russia, some will be first-hand experience (I was born in Russia, moved to the U.S. in 1996, but have been back about half a dozen times since 2010, including to sell a piece of real estate, which came with its own bureaucratic challenges, as you may imagine).
Freedom - YMWV. It also depends on what value you ascribe to the concept, so it would be helpful to know what specifically you're referring to. Generally speaking, Russia isn't known as being the most liberal country in the world for a good reason. As an example, all aspects of LGBTQ+ are nearly criminalized there. Freedom of speech is nonexistent. Will this affect the majority of the population? No. Will anything that doesn't fall under the "boogeyman du jour" umbrella be strictly enforced? Ehhh...it depends. Russia has a saying, something along the lines of "the ridiculousness of our laws is compensated by the lack of necessity to follow them". Russia also has another saying: "find me a man and I'll find an article in the law that will send him to jail". In the past 18 months these screws have been tightened, but prior to that people had kind of learned to exist alongside with, but outside the scope of, most authorities.
Government responsiveness depends, once again, on the task at hand. A lot of "consumer-facing" government programs (think things like filling potholes and fixing burned out street lights) are actually pretty good - with the caveat being that they're pretty good in major cities. The periphery and rural areas are generally still in a pretty disastrous state. You're talking about a country a quarter of whose citizens doesn't have access to indoor plumbing.
Forced compliance - yes, a lot of Russian bureaucratic processes seem to exist just for the sake of existing. Over 28 years of living in the U.S. I've found that while we, too, have our share of these, most of them at least have a semblance of purpose. Russia's bureaucracy often does not.
It would probably be more helpful if you gave examples of things you're curious about. Writing an open-ended multi-paragraph essay on the state of affairs of any country, much less one waging war on both its geographical neighbor and its citizens is going to be a pretty onerous task for anyone.
And who was the first to use heavy artillery and airstrikes in the conflict in 2014? Russia? No, I, like millions of Russians, remember very well the dying woman in a red sweater with her legs torn off after the Ukrainian air raid on Luhansk. Therefore, for me is no need for a fairy tale that the blood is on the hands of Russians.
Oh, good, I was beginning to be concerned about the "where have you been for eight years" crowd being under-represented on C-D. Let me guess, you saw the woman in the red sweater on Channel 1 news?
Also, your video's title is false. No Patriot complexes have been destroyed in Russia's strikes, no matter how much Russia would like to convince itself otherwise. One was damaged and has already been repaired.
.......still somehow Putin has something like an over 70% approval rate, something a western leader would salivate after and the Russians actually never had it so good economically
Any kind of statistics derived from social surveys in Russia are completely worthless and have been for literally decades now. They're either paid for by the state or the responders are so intimidated by the wrong answer being a precursor to arrests and fines that it's quite surprising the number is 70% and not 146% (those who know, know).
Any kind of statistics derived from social surveys in Russia are completely worthless and have been for literally decades now. They're either paid for by the state or the responders are so intimidated by the wrong answer being a precursor to arrests and fines that it's quite surprising the number is 70% and not 146% (those who know, know).
Interestingly, most of the young people responding to a roving opinion-gatherer who video-ed his subjects and posted results online, responded honestly, and made comments along the lines of "normally" there should be a change in leadership periodically, in accordance with the electoral process. I wonder what has happened to those people now, a year later. A couple of them said the sanctions hadn't made much of a difference in their lives. Others said, sanctions meant pinching pennies at home.
People who reached adulthood before 1990 weren't comfortable responding on film, and said they're not political experts, so they had nothing to contribute. A couple of these informal "polls" were posted on these Uke war threads here.
Interestingly, most of the young people responding to a roving opinion-gatherer who video-ed his subjects and posted results online, responded honestly, and made comments along the lines of "normally" there should be a change in leadership periodically, in accordance with the electoral process. I wonder what has happened to those people now, a year later.
I may have missed the video for the sheer length of this thread. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?
Ultimately, nothing may have happened to them. But the fear inspired by the very well-publicized repressions may have made them change their minds in terms of answering the surveys at all or couching their responses.
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A couple of them said the sanctions hadn't made much of a difference in their lives. Others said, sanctions meant pinching pennies at home.
Sanctions hurt the middle class which in Russia is a very small percentage of the overall population. Those with lower income may never notice them and, in fact, may implicitly (or even explicitly) support Russia ceasing to do business with Western companies.
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People who reached adulthood before 1990 weren't comfortable responding on film, and said they're not political experts, so they had nothing to contribute. A couple of these informal "polls" were posted on these Uke war threads here.
Right. And young kids may not know any better.
Not sure how Ukrainians feel about the highlighted word, btw.
Not sure how Ukrainians feel about the highlighted word, btw.
It's just shorthand, like "Russ" instead of "Russian". Doesn't have any bad meaning.
I'll see if I can find one of those videos for you. This may take some time, so please be patient.
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