The West has consistently insisted that the invasion of Ukraine was instigated by Vladimir Putin alone, without the consent of the Russian people. It seems that the people didn’t need any public debate about the morality or necessity of invading a non-threatening, neighbouring states. Putin expected that Russians would accept the “special military operation” because they wholeheartedly welcomed previous Russian incursions into foreign countries.
The Russians’ previous affirmations of his foreign offensives simply emboldened him once again. During the war with Georgia in 2008, when Putin was prime minister, his popularity soared to 88%. They applauded Putin’s recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, and the assault against Ukraine in 2014.
His approval rating remained high up until 2019, when the retirement age was raised. Amendments to the Russian constitution in 2020, which guaranteed Putin’s grip on power gained 78% endorsement. The rise in Putin’s popularity coincided with the massive deployment of military alongside Ukraine’s border last year.
(Pikemalt saab lugeda Eesti Elu 8. aprilli 2022 paber- ja PDF/digilehest)
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To Reader11 Apr 2022 12:38
That's what I thought in the beginning, that it's Putin's war. But his favourable poll numbers are just too consistently high. The minimal protesting in the streets, which is at great cost, is just to little.
How do you then explain the centuries of "liberating" of other peoples by Russians. You can go back to Ivan the Terrible, and even further back to Ivan the Great -- a history that Russians revere with pride.
There seems to be a colonialization mentality throughout that other peoples are not able or worthy to be left alone to live their lives, that greatness needs to be even greater through other people living in the service of said great people. The real reason is that coveted lands need to be expropriated, because that is what "great" people do, without impunity.
This mentality needs to change from within in Russia if there is to be peace in Europe and the world.
Reader10 Apr 2022 21:56
This is a disturbing piece, and not for the reasons the author might have us think. All the claims, and many of them are empirical, are entirely unsourced and undocumented.
More insidiously, it pays no heed to fundamental tenets of responsible language use. These were expressed recently in an Op Ed by historian J. Veidlinger, based on his book “In the Midst of Civilized Europe”. The book is on the short list for the 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize, presented by the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and Foreign Policy Magazine. He observes: “The evidence of atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine are shocking and disturbing. They are also familiar. Newly discovered mass graves remind us of the horrors Ukraine endured during the Holocaust and the Holodomor, the famine of 1932-33. But the brutality we are seeing now is even more reminiscent of the civil war that followed the collapse of the tsarist empire and the Bolshevik Revolution… We must ensure that the violence of today does not fester into more bloodshed tomorrow”.
To that end his principles should give pause. “[Entire] nations must not be demonized for crimes committed in their name... The imposition of collective punishment must not become a pretext for the next conflict. . . . Finally, the truth of what happened must be established through rigorous investigation and impartial analysis.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.co...?10 Apr 2022 19:56
On what evidence are these claims based?
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