Anonymous wrote:The masses of Russians do not "approve" Putin.
They don't have a choice. They didn't under the USSR and they didn't under the Czars.
When they had a chance for freedom, they took it, and then it was stolen by the Russian mafia, who are now in the process of stealing the USA as well.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
A victory over NATO? They can't beat a third rate army in the field. If they somehow manage to win, their prize is years of insurgency
Anonymous wrote:Q. Do you approve of Putin or are you likely to fall out of a window?
Russians: We approve of Putin.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Weird that they think they will somehow be victorious over NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They are fighting a much smaller, weaker neighbor. A collection of countries including some NATO nations have sent them their old, surplus military equipment but that's about it.
Weird that people think they aren't fighting NATO when NATO is funding the war, directing the strategy, providing the intelligence, providing the weapons, operating advanced weapon systems, and providing thousands of "mercenaries" to fight.
Either you are a Russian propagandist, or you are deeply bamboozled and deluded by Russian propaganda. Either way you're still a clown. NATO does not have front-line troops on the ground fighting under NATO command or on NATO's behalf etc. NATO is providing bits of information and advice but is not in any way "directing strategy" et cetera - this is and always has been Ukraine's war.
The only thing NATO doesn't have there are front line troops, and Macron may be rectifying that shortly.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Weird that they think they will somehow be victorious over NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They are fighting a much smaller, weaker neighbor. A collection of countries including some NATO nations have sent them their old, surplus military equipment but that's about it.
Weird that people think they aren't fighting NATO when NATO is funding the war, directing the strategy, providing the intelligence, providing the weapons, operating advanced weapon systems, and providing thousands of "mercenaries" to fight.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Weird that they think they will somehow be victorious over NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They are fighting a much smaller, weaker neighbor. A collection of countries including some NATO nations have sent them their old, surplus military equipment but that's about it.
Weird that people think they aren't fighting NATO when NATO is funding the war, directing the strategy, providing the intelligence, providing the weapons, operating advanced weapon systems, and providing thousands of "mercenaries" to fight.
Either you are a Russian propagandist, or you are deeply bamboozled and deluded by Russian propaganda. Either way you're still a clown. NATO does not have front-line troops on the ground fighting under NATO command or on NATO's behalf etc. NATO is providing bits of information and advice but is not in any way "directing strategy" et cetera - this is and always has been Ukraine's war.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Weird that they think they will somehow be victorious over NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They are fighting a much smaller, weaker neighbor. A collection of countries including some NATO nations have sent them their old, surplus military equipment but that's about it.
Weird that people think they aren't fighting NATO when NATO is funding the war, directing the strategy, providing the intelligence, providing the weapons, operating advanced weapon systems, and providing thousands of "mercenaries" to fight.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Weird that they think they will somehow be victorious over NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They are fighting a much smaller, weaker neighbor. A collection of countries including some NATO nations have sent them their old, surplus military equipment but that's about it.

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Weird that they think they will somehow be victorious over NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They are fighting a much smaller, weaker neighbor. A collection of countries including some NATO nations have sent them their old, surplus military equipment but that's about it.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why all the pro-Putin threads?
Booming economy, low unemployment, national unity, and soon a victory over NATO. America loves a winner.
Anonymous wrote:I am not Russian but I lived four years in Russia. I am not sharing Russian propaganda, merely how average, everyday, work-a-day “normie” Russians in mid-sized provincial cities generally approve of Putin.
To put it simply, it comes down to stability vs. chaos. Older Russians who have nostalgia for the Soviet Union are not necessarily ideologically communist, they just miss how stable and predictable things were. Others who are not old enough to remember the USSR in that way, but remember the 90s, generally support any type of government that would avoid that level of chaos. The 90s were horrible in Russia and all former USSR countries. And then some people only know the Putin era. So for most nonpolitical, non-ideological people, Putin is the devil you know.
The other thing to understand is that Western liberal democracy just doesn’t always sell that well. Most people have a strong distrust of civic institutions since during the 90s they were hijacked by kleptocrats. Being an activist is not so laudable.
There’s also the truth that people in Russia are just conservative. Many are religious, including an exponentially increasing number of Muslims, although even non religious people tend to be socially and culturally conservative. American and Western culture is appreciated in small doses and from my experience people didn’t have a problem with Americans. It was similar to how Americans typically view Chinese… yes they are economic and political adversaries but Americans use Chinese products, eat “Chinese” food etc and don’t typically have a problem with Chinese people. That’s how Russians were about Americans. Not everything is about politics…BUT they have THEIR culture and resent excessive efforts to impose Western culture on them.
Gender roles are accepted and feminism is not valued. People with views like Andrew Tate are pretty typical and it’s considered normal. You may not like it, coming from a Western perspective, but it’s just the way it is.
Those with dissenting views that are more liberal and western-oriented found their own communities in cities but your average everyday Russian doesn’t concern themselves with them, they just want to put food on the table, heat their homes with gas, keep their families close and collect their pensions. It just isn’t worth the risk to get too politically involved.
Anonymous wrote:I am not Russian but I lived four years in Russia. I am not sharing Russian propaganda, merely how average, everyday, work-a-day “normie” Russians in mid-sized provincial cities generally approve of Putin.
To put it simply, it comes down to stability vs. chaos. Older Russians who have nostalgia for the Soviet Union are not necessarily ideologically communist, they just miss how stable and predictable things were. Others who are not old enough to remember the USSR in that way, but remember the 90s, generally support any type of government that would avoid that level of chaos. The 90s were horrible in Russia and all former USSR countries. And then some people only know the Putin era. So for most nonpolitical, non-ideological people, Putin is the devil you know.
The other thing to understand is that Western liberal democracy just doesn’t always sell that well. Most people have a strong distrust of civic institutions since during the 90s they were hijacked by kleptocrats. Being an activist is not so laudable.
There’s also the truth that people in Russia are just conservative. Many are religious, including an exponentially increasing number of Muslims, although even non religious people tend to be socially and culturally conservative. American and Western culture is appreciated in small doses and from my experience people didn’t have a problem with Americans. It was similar to how Americans typically view Chinese… yes they are economic and political adversaries but Americans use Chinese products, eat “Chinese” food etc and don’t typically have a problem with Chinese people. That’s how Russians were about Americans. Not everything is about politics…BUT they have THEIR culture and resent excessive efforts to impose Western culture on them.
Gender roles are accepted and feminism is not valued. People with views like Andrew Tate are pretty typical and it’s considered normal. You may not like it, coming from a Western perspective, but it’s just the way it is.
Those with dissenting views that are more liberal and western-oriented found their own communities in cities but your average everyday Russian doesn’t concern themselves with them, they just want to put food on the table, heat their homes with gas, keep their families close and collect their pensions. It just isn’t worth the risk to get too politically involved.