At least 359 people have been detained across Russia since Aleksei Navalny’s death, a rights group reported. Those who came to lay flowers found solace in the company of others.
If it were not the country of the people, putin and every other autocrat would not bother bending back over to supress the voice of people. It is his biggest fear that the people recognize their power and stand up. Many reports described how putin reacted visually shocked while seeing the pictures of Muammar Gaddafis body getting dragged through the streets during the revolution in Libya. He knows that he is on a constant edge of being toppled as a dictator and that the hounds are waiting behind the door.
Putin does in Ukraine what he does to his own people: Show endurance to imitate strength. Protest in Russia are cleared out after two days max. And that is a weak optic for the protests. Imagine people would come out with aggressive force and would show durability and destruction for days no matter how hard he tries to crack down and no matter how many people getting killed. The whole thing would slip away. We can not stop and give up in Ukraine, as that is what putin wants and how the citizens of russia are kept in check: double down.
I can imagine a world from 1917, where the russian people get back an idea of hope and their ability to take back control. A world, where they throw molotov cocktails at the Kremlin, do not bow down when they see their brothers blood in the streets and dragging putins useless corpse over the red square. That would be a horror-show for every authoritarian leader in the world. It’s possible, but russians (of course) are hesitant to fight for a country, that they themself see no future in as it was talked out of them over and over and over… Who would fight for a country when your hope and dreams were systematically eradicated for decades until nothing is left other then submission.
But still, it is their country. Their (in)action controls the outcome of their country. What was won letting the blood of 400.000+ run down the Dnieper in Ukraine, when the same blood could have run down the Moskva River at home, while the later would be a total change for every russian, their children and grandchildren: 400K men die for nothing vs. 400K die at home for something.
If it were not the country of the people, putin and every other autocrat would not bother bending back over to supress the voice of people. It is his biggest fear that the people recognize their power and stand up. Many reports described how putin reacted visually shocked while seeing the pictures of Muammar Gaddafis body getting dragged through the streets during the revolution in Libya. He knows that he is on a constant edge of being toppled as a dictator and that the hounds are waiting behind the door.
Putin does in Ukraine what he does to his own people: Show endurance to imitate strength. Protest in Russia are cleared out after two days max. And that is a weak optic for the protests. Imagine people would come out with aggressive force and would show durability and destruction for days no matter how hard he tries to crack down and no matter how many people getting killed. The whole thing would slip away. We can not stop and give up in Ukraine, as that is what putin wants and how the citizens of russia are kept in check: double down.
I can imagine a world from 1917, where the russian people get back an idea of hope and their ability to take back control. A world, where they throw molotov cocktails at the Kremlin, do not bow down when they see their brothers blood in the streets and dragging putins useless corpse over the red square. That would be a horror-show for every authoritarian leader in the world. It’s possible, but russians (of course) are hesitant to fight for a country, that they themself see no future in as it was talked out of them over and over and over… Who would fight for a country when your hope and dreams were systematically eradicated for decades until nothing is left other then submission.
But still, it is their country. Their (in)action controls the outcome of their country. What was won letting the blood of 400.000+ run down the Dnieper in Ukraine, when the same blood could have run down the Moskva River at home, while the later would be a total change for every russian, their children and grandchildren: 400K men die for nothing vs. 400K die at home for something.