Judging by the videos on line they all seem to be wearing new/newish western clothes and using western phones with a few western franchises strategically placed in the back ground. No one seems to be pleading poverty.....What is it like in Russia? Are most people there in support of the war? Are the sanctions having an affect of day to day life?
I quite like borscht occasionally.Let them eat borscht.
I was only thinking about the ordinary Russian who just wants to get on with their lives and are not even allowed to have an opinion on the invasion of a sovereign country. I hope that some time in the not too distant future they may be able to have freedom of speech and a proper democracy.Compared to Ukrainian cities being reduced to rubble, civilians being tortured and indiscriminately killed, children being stolen and moved to Russia and tens of thousands of Russian conscripts being sent to die for Putin, the financial hardships of some Russians in St Petersburg are so trivial they’re not worth mentioning.
Whilst Putin’s approval rating hovers at around 80% in Russia, it would appear that the vast majority of “ordinary” Russians don’t have a problem with his actions in Ukraine. If they are going through any hardship as a result then as far as I’m concerned it’s tough shit and they’re getting just a fraction of what they deserve for supporting a tyrant.I was only thinking about the ordinary Russian who just wants to get on with their lives and are not even allowed to have an opinion on the invasion of a sovereign country. I hope that some time in the not too distant future they may be able to have freedom of speech and a proper democracy.
What Putin and his Russian population should consider and address is that Russia is a country facing a demographic crisis of falling lifespan expectancy (10 years less than Britain) and also a declining population. There is also lower than average fertility in males. While the world needs a large fall off in overall population to save it, Putin needs to address these demographics and make Russia a modern democracy that is in tune with global concerns and solutions instead of focusing on international aggro.Whilst Putin’s approval rating hovers at around 80% in Russia, it would appear that the vast majority of “ordinary” Russians don’t have a problem with his actions in Ukraine. If they are going through any hardship as a result then as far as I’m concerned it’s tough shit and they’re getting just a fraction of what they deserve for supporting a tyrant.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
What Putin and his Russian population should consider and address is that Russia is a country facing a demographic crisis of falling lifespan expectancy (10 years less than Britain) and also a declining population. There is also lower than average fertility in males. While the world needs a large fall off in overall population to save it, Putin needs to address these demographics and make Russia a modern democracy that is in tune with global concerns and solutions instead of focusing on international aggro.
I'm endlessly fascinated by how unhinged parts of the Russian public debate are, and how pundits keep changing their tune about what the facts on the ground are, what Russia's objectives are, and how they should be achieved.
Threats of nuclear war now seem to have gone out of fashion along with daydreams about how western Europeans will freeze and go broke without Russian gas. Now they're advocating for the systematic destruction of civilian Ukrainian infrastructure so that children and the elderly will freeze and starve to death, and they hallucinate that this will cause an uprising against Zelensky and force him to capitulate. And they don't seem particularly bothered that they're admitting Russian war crimes either. Bonkers.
I’m in no way attempting to give Russians any credit, but where does 80% approval come from/who reports that? I mean, Russia also reported that the recent annexation of invaded Ukraine was approved by over 90% of the invaded population…which might be a bit of a stretch of the truth.Whilst Putin’s approval rating hovers at around 80% in Russia, it would appear that the vast majority of “ordinary” Russians don’t have a problem with his actions in Ukraine. If they are going through any hardship as a result then as far as I’m concerned it’s tough shit and they’re getting just a fraction of what they deserve for supporting a tyrant.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
I suppose in the UK we don't believe anything our politicians say whereas in Russia they say nothing but are told what they would be advised to believe everything.Do these people believe what they are saying or is it all an act?
Whilst it is difficult to establish exact details of the source of the statistics without paying a subscription to Statista, the fact that the statistics are published by an multinational organisation based in Germany would suggest that the figures are more reliable than those published by the Russian government about opinions in occupied Crimea.I’m in no way attempting to give Russians any credit, but where does 80% approval come from/who reports that? I mean, Russia also reported that the recent annexation of invaded Ukraine was approved by over 90% of the invaded population…which might be a bit of a stretch of the truth.