- cross-posted to:
- news@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- news@beehaw.org
On April 17, 2023, the Moscow City Court convicted Vladimir Kara-Murza on combined charges of treason, dissemination of “false information” about the conduct of the Russian Armed Forces, and involvement with an “undesirable organization”, and sentenced him to 25 years in maximum security prison with an additional fine of 400,000 rubles (approximately USD 5,000), restriction of freedom for 1.5 years, and a ban on journalistic activities for 7 years.
No one wants to defeat or have war with Russia (nor China or any country). That wouldn’t make sense. NATO could have entered the war in Ukraine at any time (with the “excuse” of Russia did “strike first” as you said), but it didn’t, because this war -like any war- doesn’t make sense.
Fair. But didn’t Finland recently and all other countries before join Nato voluntarily? Why so?
If we do what the people want -in Russia, Ukraine, and everywhere else- then we would “magically become democratic”. I argue that no soldier in the battlefields wants to be a soldier, and those who want the war are not in the battlefields. But in non-democratic societies, people don’t make the decisions (and, yes, no democracy is perfect, there’s is a lot do and the work may never end).
And it has. They are spending on this war as much as they did on Afghanistan. They are sending intel and commands directly to Ukrainian officials. And not just weapons and information; according to the recently leaked papers, there are NATO troops on the field too. They are fighting the war in all senses except legally, and, by extension, in the PR sense.
Every war makes sense. Countries start wars when that’s what benefits them the most. And countries carefully plan and set up future wars.
There are two sides in this global-scale hybrid war. Finland and other countries have joined what they believe to be the winning side, or at least the side whose victory would be more beneficial to their political interests. Other countries are siding with Russia and China. Countries joining an alliance voluntarily doesn’t mean the alliance isn’t a threat to the other side. NATO has gradually turned itself into an alliance with the power to defeat Russia.
No, nobody would. The US has just passed the RESTRICT Act, which imposes stronger restrictions than even China has. If you suggest that your country should just let the authoritarian guard down and allow every foreign psy-ops to have a meaningful effect on it, they’ll just laugh at you or you’ll be killed by thugs in an unfortunate and unrelated turn of events.
The only way to get what we want is to wait until the existing superpowers have fought each other into an unstable state, then seize power by violence. Anything else is just wishful thinking to feel better about something you don’t actually ever expect to change.
Man, China is not even siding with Russia. China is against the West, it’s just looking to gain as much as it can from the situation.
It’s as likely to annex Siberia as help.
I don’t think anyone is siding with anyone. People are just pragmatic. And we should be too! Anyway, I’m not really into politics atm, gotta take care of my mental health, but honest thanhs for engaging <3
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My point is simply pragmatic. I’m proposing a strategy that’s actually viable: doing whatever little we can to avoid the destruction of Russia so the world eventually fights into a multipolar, unstable state wherein we can actually bring about change by force. What you propose is destabilizing Russia, letting it fall, then somehow banishing curruption and authoritarianism from the all-encompassing, paranoid, armed-to-the-teeth, almost Orwellian US via a strategy comparable to resorting to the power of friendship.
@pancake <my 2 cents>In the current turn of events, the world has all the chances to experience a new confrontation, whether it’s in the shape of a new cold war, or a warmer one (hopefully not) - this time between China and the US.
There might be boots on the ground in Ukraine, there might be not. There might be less troops than mentioned in the leak or not. What it is for sure is that Russia is no longer in the big superpower league. At least you cannot be there when the other superpower has penetrated your entire military and intelligence structures as the same leaked documents show. And this goes to tell one imo that it is not democracy that makes a country weak, but rather corruption. When you have a well-functioning democracy with strong institutions taking each-other accountable, then what critics say is taken into account by the government and this is just beneficial for the country itself as a whole and for its interests. But when your state has weak and corrupt institutions overall, these are no longer working for your country’s interests, but only for the interests of a group of people which may or may not have your country’s best interest in mind. Add in a dictatorship of one man such as mr. Putler surrounding himself by yes-men and you’ve got what Russia is today: a country with virtually no army (only soldiers to use as cannon fodder) that is super-predictable in its actions, a pariah in the international scene and a power that can barely face a country a few dozen times smaller its size and armed with meager Western equipment (and likely forces). How can a country like that even think of winning against the entire armies of 31 independent states, all working together?
</my_2_cents>
Regarding the arest I really do not know what to think. I have mixed oppinions about the Russian opposition in general - on one side, people like Boris Nemtsov were supportive of the annexation of Crimea back in the '90s and Alexey Navalny was really having links with far-right groups - but there are also people like Garry Kasparov who openly support the return of Crimea to Ukraine and withdrawing all troops to the 1992 official border (Do check out this interview with him on Europa FM radio station in Romania, highly interesting). Call me a dreamer, a wishful thinker, whatever you want, but I am still hoping in a democratic Russia, one that abides to the international order and the rule of law. ☺
@0x815
I agree to your comment. A democratic country can easily be strong against enemies. But I’d like to point that the current confrontation (Cold War, if you wish) is in such a delicate state and happening on so many fronts that even a blink, a bad move, a seemingly innocent regime change in Russia has a good chance to bring about its defeat. And surely the US is trying to promote such change, under every possible pretext. The US is playing all cards at the same time, resorting to military means, monetary policy, espionage, propaganda, censorship, foreign coups… all widely confirmed. So whatever our view on Mr. Putin/Putler/…, we must let him do his thing for now, worry about him later. Just think that every country will be so weakened after this new Cold War that toppling them will be easy ;)
@pancake So, by principle, are you arguing against democracy in Russia or in the US?
No, democracy is good. But we’ll never get it if this situation resolves in a bad way.