* Posts by general_bear

1 publicly visible post • joined 9 Apr 2022

Finnish govt websites knocked down as Ukraine President addresses MPs

general_bear

Seems like I stumbled onto Reddit somehow.

So many comments from clever stupid people. Not one single post has any actual, direct, modern day knowledge of the the situation in Russia and Ukraine. Lots of incorrect histories here and there.

Just to attempt to qualify my following opinion for transparency :

I am British...married to a Russian. I was a Remainer and still miss being in the EU. I am most certainly not a Russian troll. We have spent the past decade living between both countries. My Other Half has Russian and Ukrainian family...a lot. Some in Lviv, Kyiv and Donbass. We have been following this crap since before 2014.

You go through Russia until recently and all you would hear would be the brotherhood between Russia and Ukraine. A lot of Russians are deeply deeply affected by this war. There have been a raft of legislation in Russia making life exceptionally difficult for people to speak out. The custodial sentences are already being dished out. My wife has seen a regression to the silent fear of Soviet times. People just do not dare to discuss the situation. We in the West just cannot...cannot...understand the pressures of their culture. They want the war to stop. They are scared to lose Putin. They know 100% what he is but..

and this is the rub...there are far worse people that he keeps in check. My wife tells me awful stories of 90's Russia, food shortages, armed conflicts in the streets between gangs (some of whom are now oligarchs). Putin came to power, crushed the mafia and all opposition. He brought internal peace and stability...at a price. He put down the trouble in the south of the country and held a lot of nasty people in line. If he goes it could well be a Russia in civil war...a country with a huge nuclear arsenal.

Now to Ukraine. Our family and friends there are suffering. Some have not been heard from in almost a week. A big worry. What is also concerning the others is Zalensky and his slow but steady grip on power. He is a dodgy oligarch, mentioned in the Panama Papers. He has overseen some shitty things...blocking water to Crimea, removing 95% of drinkable water ; intensifying military action against those in the east of the country. He has most certainly been poking the Russian bear. He needs to keep the nationalists happy. In recent weeks he has introduced legislation removing all other political parties, removing all but one television news outlet, restricted media and so forth. He is literally the only power in Ukraine. No checks and balances anywhere. Our Ukrainian side are very concerned that he is using this war partly as a means to set himself up as a kind of dictator. They see Putin as wanting to turn Ukraine into a European Syria...a sinkhole for EU and Nato money and weapons, while putting pressure on surrounding countries with a refugee crisis (3.5m have already left). While this war continues Zalensky remains in power. This scares them.

There is so much propaganda coming out of the UK, EU, US, Russia and Ukraine it is actually terrifying. We watch Russian, Ukrainian and Western news every day and I can say that most of the comments on here are so incorrect and founded on such dire journalism that most here should be embarrassed by their lack of critical thinking. As the food prices rise in Russia, the people just adjust accordingly. They are such hardy and resilient people. The sanctions are such a true waste of time.

When I ask my wife's family about how Russia should be approached, they all agree that opening the door and pushing for inclusion would have worked amazingly. The hunger for Western culture has always been there...historically. iPhone, Steam games, Western fashion and values were always there, always in demand. Now the West has run away and left a vacuum because of sanctions (which is bullshit, it was because companies did not want to pay higher costs in SWIFT alternatives). The West invited Putin to do tit-for-tat actions and increase his power. You listen...actually listen to his speeches and there is some very sad truth among the lies and hyperbole : The US goes back on its deals ; NATO has a very aggressive history ; NATO wants to surround Russia ; nobody took any notice of the ethnic cleansing in East Ukraine etc etc. These truths make the propaganda palatable and acceptable.