In Russia, the population reacts to the attack completely differently than in Ukraine / Article

This is a translation of the article into Latvian.
You can find the original in Ukrainian here.
The author’s Russian version of the text can be read here.

Kujo, as a political scientist, confirmed that it was interesting for him to compare the behavior of the people in the Kursk region with the regions of Ukraine, in which Russian soldiers were living at the beginning of the full invasion.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, there were protests everywhere. We remember how many people took to the streets in the Kherson region, protesting against an attack -legal on Ukraine. It is obvious that the Russian people did not do that when the Ukrainian army came to the Russian territories,” said the political scientist.

He drew attention that Ukrainians immediately organized a partisan movement in the occupied territories, but this is not happening in Russia.

“Thirdly, in my opinion, the difference is that the Russian people no longer have the independent spirit, the public consciousness that the Ukrainians have.

In the thirty years of democracy, three revolutions have taken place in Ukraine – granite, orange and Euromaidan. Every Ukrainian believes that he has the ability to do something or change something. The Russian people have no such spirit, they just wait for orders. Therefore, the flight of representatives of power structures from the Kursk region will lead to anarchy – people do not know what to do,” said Kujo.

According to him, during the years of Vladimir Putin’s rule, there was a very deep stagnation in Russian society and society moved backwards. This and other differences, according to him, are the reasons why Ukraine, whose population is smaller than Russia, stands against the powerful enemy. On the other hand, due to the suffering of the Russian people, the professor cannot imagine that an internal revolution could happen in Russia.

“I even joke on social networks that Ukrainians have had three revolutions in the last 34 years, but the last revolution was in Russia in 1917. People and society completely different social in Russia. I think it’s the same thing. [pārmaiņu] the possibility in Russia is a putsch, which would be organized by representatives of the power structures or the leadership in Moscow,”

said the political scientist.

On the other hand, it is doubtful that the Russian opponent is capable of any changes. Kujo called the statements of Russian political prisoners released through the mass exchange very stupid and remote from the events in Russia.

He is more optimistic about the armed formations of Russian citizens who are fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The political scientist also assessed the Kremlin’s response to the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region:

“Like the so-called Prigozhin coup a year ago, we have seen again that Vladimir Putin is a rabbit hole.

He is evasive again and does not know what to answer – be it Prigozhin’s revolution or when the war does not go as planned. In the Kremlin, as we remember, they thought they would win the war in three days. He failed. And now it is obvious, for the first time since the Second World War, that the soldiers of a foreign country are on Russian territory. It is very difficult for Putin to answer. On the one hand, it is a feature of his character, and on the other hand, it is the special system that he himself created.”

The professor stressed that the Kursk operation is important because

the mood has completely changed, and now the West is putting much less pressure on Kyiv to come to an agreement with Russia and possibly give it some territories.

“Now this pressure, which was there – by this I mean before I entered the Kursk region – is much less. And now the West is waiting to see what will come of this attack. Will Ukraine be able to keep the area and create a buffer zone? I think we are in that position we would like to be,” said Kujo.

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