You know, I normally tend to see the best in people, or I at least try to, understanding that we are all nuanced beings who are susceptible to propaganda, with many of us subject to authoritarian tendencies (see: the Milgram experiment), but there's a lot of talk about how we should view Russia in all of this mess. And honestly, I think there needs to be some levels of nuance here. That said, I think we should talk about how we should view Russia in all of this.
Vladimir Putin and the Russian Government
I'm just going to say flat out, we should view the Russian government negatively. And I tend to view Putin at this point as like Stalin or Hitler. I never did have a high opinion of Putin. He always did come off as like a Russian Dr. Evil to me, and it seems clear he sabotaged Russia's fledgling democracy and turned it into a dictatorship over his tenure. And the more I learn about the guy, the less I like. He arose to power by bombing his own citizens. He then broke his own country's democracy by abolishing term limits and killing off his critics and political opponents. His elections are blatantly rigged and involve poll workers stuffing ballot boxes. And he has basically bullied and invaded his neighbors regularly over the course of his term in office, invading Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine twice, once in 2014 and once this year. This last one is the worst yet, with the Russians pulling out all the stops to be as destructive as possible and target civilians and infrastructure.
I have no sympathy for Putin. I think he's a monster. There's a reason I come down so hard on this guy and it's because he literally reminds me of Hitler and Stalin here. F Vladimir Putin. I won't go so far to say anything beyond that as I don't want to potentially violate TOS here, but yeah, I very rarely see things in terms of pure good or pure evil, but his behavior both in Russia and abroad is very close to the pure evil side of that scale.
As far as "the government" goes...well..the government is made up of puppets for Putin. So, most members of the government are just Putin's little tools. The higher ups are cronies, and while I may not hate your typical civil servant that much, the core power structure exists purely under Putin's authority.
The Russian Military
Now, once we get away from the Russian government, the Russian military is a bit more nuanced for me. I'm under the impression that a lot of Russian soldiers don't want to be there. I mean, they're 18 year old draftees, they are basically told they're going on training exercises or lied to and told that the Ukrainians would welcome them with open arms, and many of them are forced to fight, and threatened with jail or execution if they don't. Many Russian soldiers surrendered in the early days of the war, and some are still trickling in. And you know what? I applaud the Ukrainians for showing them mercy. Many people who surrender do so willingly, they turn over valuable equipment like tanks to the Ukrainian military, and they're basically being rewarded and given a new life in the west for it. So, i clearly have a soft spot for at least SOME members of the Russian military. Clearly some of them are just dumb kids who don't want to be there.
However, as time goes on, my sympathy for the Russian military as a whole has declined. While yes, some don't want to be there and surrendered, others have, quite frankly, committed war crimes. They've killed Ukrainian civilians. I'm hearing reports in recent days online of things like looting and rape happening in some of the more besieged areas. And I've seen intercepted phone calls where some of these guys have a callous attitude toward civilians and intentionally target them. Some are told to by their superior officers. And you know what? The older and higher ranked you get, the less respect I have for members of the Russian military. Because there are some seasoned guys there who are "true believers" and essentially represent the same embodiment of pure evil that Putin does for me. And even a lot of the front line troops are basically not just innocent bystanders in a tough situation at this point. Some are zealously committing war crimes too. Taking jewelry and other things off of Ukrainian civilians they kill. Telling their wives at home that they'll be giving them stuff taken from dead civilians. It's sickening.
So, mad respect to the Russians who do lay down their arms and surrender, but F any member of the military that commits war crimes, and F the chain of command. I might have sympathy for individual conscripts, but the Russian military as a whole, I don't have respect for.
The Russian people
So, this is where I really want to delve into this, because this is where things get even more nuanced. And I'm seeing a lot of legitimately anti Russian sentiment here toward the civilians of Russia. A lot of this is on the basis that they support the war and like Putin. I mean, okay, yeah. I think around 70% of Russians support Putin. And a lot of people think something is wrong with Russia itself to express that view. Eh...I'm going to disagree here.
The fact is, Russia is an autocracy. It's a 1984 esque society where anything BUT undying support for Putin is met with repression. There were anti war protests in the opening days of the war in Russian cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg. They were arrested. heck, they arrested anyone who expressed any opinion at all. And while Russia might have a lot of supporters of the regime there, it's not like citizens are given any other choice.
Also, propaganda is a thing. 70% of people support Putin. Yeah, well, 40-50% typically supported Trump, and STILL support Trump. And Russians are who are pro war are just expressing similar types of sentiments of American conservatives. I saw people online post pictures of pro war rallies lately, and to me, it just reminded me of your average sunday during football season here in the US. People waving flags, showing pro war sentiment. it's weird, when people in other countries do that we go "look at how brainwashed they are". but then we basically say our pledge of allegiance every morning in school, and sing the national anthem during football games. And scream over that one black guy (Kapernick) who refused to do it. And how blah blah blah support the troops. You don't think these same jingoistic attitudes exist in the US? I remember the war in Iraq and how the citizens were misled on that one. Don't get me going about how suddenly Russian people are bad when they end up being subjected to insane levels of pro Russia and pro war propaganda, and they tend to believe it.
The difference between the US and Russia is Russia is effectively a one party state with Putin at the top, and 70% of the people supporting him, and the US is a 2 party state with 40-50% supporting each party. Again, I've watched RT before. I've compared it to CNN. because that's basically what it is. Russian CNN. The Russian people are deeply brainwashed by an authoritarian regime and the consent is manufactured to achieve the regime's goals. Don't think we're any better. We're not. We just give people two options instead of one and more quietly suppress dissenting opinions. Rather than jailing critics, the media just doesn't cover them and pretends they don't exist, and people are none the wiser.
Huge reason I'm so hard on media come election time and why I believe candidates I like such as Bernie or yang don't get fair treatment. because they don't and the media manufactures consent.
You know, before this war started, i would sometimes surf a subreddit called r/anormaldayinrussia. It was a sub with Russians doing weird and crazy things in it. but you know what. Deep down, we're all just people. We might be indoctrinated into our own systems of government, with most Russians uncritically supporting Putin and most Americans uncritically supporting the democratic and republican parties, but all in all, we're the same. And if we were raised in Russia, we would be part of that 70% of pro Putin people. And we wouldn't know any better.
So should we hate the Russian people? Eh, I would say no. Even if they support the war. Because in supporting their war, they're just making the same mistakes we made post 9/11 with Iraq. I do think that our government and military acted far more ethically in Iraq than Russia is in Ukraine (we don't actively try to commit war crimes, for example), but honestly? I see Russian people waving their flags and sporting the Z insignia on everything and I don't see how it's fundamentally so different than our conservatives in their jingoistic "support our troops or you HATE AMERICA" type sentiments. It's the same kind mentality.
Again, there's been an uptick in interest in psychology since World War 2. In the post war world, we wondered what happened with Germany and why they were able to support Hitler and such a heinous regime. But as we started to test people, we found out that the same traits are universal, and that the same thing could easily happen here.
Conclusion
So, my opinion on this? Hate Putin. Hate the government. Hell, even hate the military. But, eh, hatred toward average Russian people seems extreme. I mean, I hate to whip out Jesus here as a nonchristian, but this is what he was talking about when saying before you criticize the speck in someone else's eye, make sure you rip the plank out of yours first. As in, before you criticize other peoples' faults, make sure you address your own first.
The Russian people, as I see it, are victims of the Russian regime. It tells them what to think, and they think it. And the ones that don't think it tend to have a bad time because the government doesn't like that. So, can I really blame Russians for being as they are? Not really. As long as their support remains abstract and they're not the ones actively ordering or perpetrating violence, I'm not going to hold their abstract support for the regime against them. My actual hatred is more directed toward those at the top pulling the strings, and those who are actually committing acts of violence. hence why I separated this article as I did. The government I hate. I think Putin is more or less 21st century Hitler/Stalin. The military I have mixed and nuanced views on. I hate those who do bad things in it, I dont blame those who are forced to participate against their will. And as far as the average people, well, they're just people, and we like to think we're so morally superior in the west, but trust me, we're just as susceptible to brainwashing push comes to shove and I don't believe we're in any position to judge the citizens of another country as long so many people support authoritarian idiots like Trump. And even democrats tend to be unquestioningly tribalistic in supporting their brand too, hence my disdain for blue no matter who rhetoric. So yeah. That's my views on Russia, it's government, it's military, and it's citizenry.
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