Reply to The future of Russia. Any foreign policy experts want to weigh in?

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "The future of Russia. Any foreign policy experts want to weigh in? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am Russian but have lived in the US for over a decade 
I still have family there so I visit regularly and have been going even after the invasion (it’s become much more expensive and cumbersome fyi)
My guess is that Russia will be Iran on steroids. A geriatric regime, extremely conservative and on the brink of dictatorship (but not to the extent of North Korea). The economy will be militarized (the so called mobilization economy), people won’t starve and will be able to move freely (finances permitting). However there will be no innovation and not much vibrancy if you know what I mean. However there is a rich legacy of kitchen cultural life from the soviet times, as well as post soviet cultural renaissance, so it not going to be all doom and gloom.
Yes there will be brain drain but also there will be a sufficient number of technically talented people who are believers and can keep the austere military economy afloat. And there is a certain taste for overcoming difficulties in the “genes” of the population. 
As for the war, it will be a slow churn, one step forward and two steps back. I feel bad for the annexed regions and their population. They will suffer no matter the outcome. 
Some parts of Russia might be under shelling too (some already are but I mean cities and not just Belgorod). 
Basically, there will be life but no one without ties to Russia will want to live a life like that. [/quote]

Interesting! Does your family have access to information or are they also blinded by the Russian propaganda machine? Do you enlighten them?
Also, do you think that the "overcoming difficulties" gene is still strong, especially after Western exposure and luxuries? Even with the youth? I'd think it'd be waning. [/quote]

Family: it depends. None of them is totally blinded by the propaganda but they all think that Ukraine went too far in trying to be with the West and rejecting Russia, the Russian language, etc.
They don’t phrase it like that but that’s the essence. 
None of them can face the fact that the war, the power struggle was a huge mistake. They think there is “something” to it. Even those who think Putin and his cronies are criminals etc
I tried to share my POV but while they are all respectful they clearly think I have been brainwashed 
The “overcoming difficulties” gene is still there in a lot of people. One of the things that surprised me in connection with this war is how few people have actually been exposed to Western values and luxury beyond Burger King and such. And Chinese phones are preferred over Apple by and large[/quote]

They don't understand and accept that Ukraine moving to the West and rejecting Russia is a direct result of Russia's continual meddling and corrupting of Ukraine, their invasion in 2014?  
They don't understand that it is Russia's own belligerent behavior that is also pushing Finland and Sweden into NATO?[/quote]
Why did Russia invade in 2014?[/quote]

In 2014, Ukraine wanted to join the EU.  But Putin didn't want this, so he had his corrupt, criminal puppet Yanukovich betray and derail them.  Students began protesting, Yanukovich sent Berkut to violently beat them down, this violence made a lot of people upset causing the protests to escalate, ultimately resulting in Yanukovich's ouster.  Putin invaded out of revenge for Yanukovich's ouster.  [/quote]

DP. I want $1K and will never get it. These were the chances that Ukraine would join EU any time soon. This is a very superficial explanation of why Russia invaded and what Ukrainian Maidan leaders wanted.[/quote]

Superficial?  I'd suggest some superficiality on your part to casually ignore that the Verkhovna Rada voted on the Ukraine-EU agreement and it passed with a solid majority, before Yanukovich unilaterally scuttled the deal and announced that Ukraine would instead pursue closer ties with Russia.[/quote]

The EU would not have signed it without significant changes and it was heavily conditioned on a number of things
Honestly I am surprised Russia seemed so upset by it. Europe was trying to lure Ukraine in but it wasn’t going to make it easy 
But of course Ukraine shouldn’t have angered the bear without any real chances of getting anything 
I don’t believe they didn’t know it was all illusion and they had a long way ahead of them 
There must have been something else. Like maybe politicians just using some popular gimmicks to stay in power 
[/quote]

Well, that's quite a take. I certainly don't think everyone that was pro-Maidan was as pure as the driven snow, but I also don't think it's a real stretch to believe that the relatively young population of Ukraine wanted something different than to be a Putin puppet state. If anyone overplayed their hand here, it's Putin, time and again.[/quote]

It's also quite a stretch to think that millions of Ukrainians were brainwashed by the CIA.  Was Nuland gifted a magic CIA brainwashing wand, made by the Hogwarts Goblins of Langley, she just waves it around and says some pseudo-latin thing like "Cerebri Lavatio" and millions of previously Putin-loving Ukrainians all woke up zombified, chanting "ALL HAIL THE EUROPEAN UNION!  REJECT THE SATAN THAT IS RUSSIA!"
[/quote]
What’s Nuland focused on lately?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics