Dmitriy Sergeevich
3 hours ago
Dear foreign friends! I have already communicated in the comments, and I consider it important to write separately, as a person living in Russia, what is happening here. I was engaged in the analysis of the situation, daily views of various sources, lecturers, polls and studies on the topic of the war, and therefore I consider my experience quite unbiased (although it is not easy even for me to write scientifically and without emotions from what is happening here in 1984). So, the majority of Russians living in Russia really say that Putin is doing well and doing everything right (about 90% of the population). But this cannot be interpreted one-sidedly. Firstly, most people do it out of inertia and unwillingness/impossibility to study politics, which is normal, because it is unusual for people to be interested in politics if it does not concern them. Most Russians believe that politics does not concern them, because incomes, as a rule, do not fall (sanctions really do not work for ordinary people, since most of the population does not travel abroad, does not use foreign services, does not study science and does not read foreign sources). Almost the entire country, however, believes that there really are no independent courts in Russia, that everything around is bought. Therefore, Russians rarely go to court, do not fight for any rights (even for their own), are afraid of conflicts over poor public transport, unreasonably high rents, and so on. But at the same time, they believe that officials and the city administration are to blame. But not Putin! This is truly terrible. Most Russians say that war is bad, but they say that we had no choice, and the US and Ukrainians hate us. In general, this is already pleasing, if only because people do not approve of murders as such. There is a huge generational gap in Putin's approval. The generation of 20-30 years old as a whole will say that Putin is well done, but they will not particularly answer further questions, since they admit that they do not understand the topic. But in the 40+ generation, something terrible begins. They perceive Putin as a religious figure, on the level of their parents, believing that he is never wrong. They are desperately trying to justify his actions with the most stupid arguments. This is due to the Stockholm syndrome experienced in the nineties. They believe that democracy does not work, and the United States and the West allegedly did not help us and wanted us to be poor. Almost all films in Russia showed the nineties as a time of poverty and devastation. They are afraid of freedom, because it was at the beginning of the 2000s that huge economic growth began under Putin due to the increase in oil sales (obviously, Putin did not contribute to this, but they believe that it was him). It can be seen that these people have a neurosis, and they really believe that everyone wants to kill them, because the president said so. The scariest thing is that most of the people 40+ really think that beating their people to death with batons is the right thing to do. What to plant and poison the opposition - that's right. That directing a nuclear bomb at the United States is right. And the older the generation, the crazier their speeches become, and the level of aggression reaches the desire to kill the whole world. But! Not everyone is like that, but only a large part of the population. And this majority really does not want any rights either for themselves or for others. Therefore, it is worth understanding that even the Russians themselves suffer from them, and not just the Ukrainians. And that, therefore, you should not generalize to all Russians, because, generalizing, you do exactly the same thing, considering all people to be bad because of the majority (moreover, the middle-aged majority, which probably won’t even go to your countries). Secondly, there are many people who understand that Putin is insane. But it is these people who have critical thinking, they read the opposition media. And, as a rule, it is they who can find a good job, know foreign languages and emigrate. Therefore, it is impossible to calculate the exact number of Russians who are against the war. There is not even open data and an unambiguous opportunity to interpret the number of people who left. Russians are generally not inclined to be interested in politics. Political videos on YouTube get very little views, and it's obvious that people really think they can't change anything. Russians don't like to read the opposition media, because they show all the bad things that are happening here. Their mood deteriorates, and they prefer to sit in the echo chamber, which says that everything is not so bad in Russia, that the West has its own propaganda, and we have our own. That not everything is so simple, and Ukraine also dressed up. All oppositionists are convinced that democracy will be brought on a silver platter. That the regime will weaken, the elites will want democracy, and this is where we will act (and they themselves do not know how they will act). Russians cannot unite in almost anything because of the totalitarian past and the authoritarian present. The opposition itself quarrels among themselves, and it is not clear how it can even come to power. So overall it's really bad. But if you consider all Russians as fascists, it will be even worse. Autocracy and the Soviet Union turns people into beasts, not vice versa. Therefore, fight for democracy in your countries, fight against right-wing populists who want to make the country great. What makes a country great is cooperation with others and respect for all people. Perhaps my generation (I'm 24) will also come to this if Putin's regime is replaced by something softer. But there is little hope for this, and hope is the only thing we have left among the zombie older generation who want to send us to the Middle Ages.
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