Asked a Russian friend who shared the memory of opposition leader Alexei Navalny on social media, how is he doing?
After a moment of silence he began to write. “When the war started two years ago on February 24, I was shocked. Now the war? Just recovering from the backlash of Covid. Meanwhile, border unrest…
My apprehensions were correct…drama, bloodshed, tragedy…all in store for Russia. The war brought death and destruction to Ukraine. But the Russian army also suffered heavy losses. Russian towns were shelled. Old Ukraine did not have the courage to turn to Russia…
First several drone strikes. Then hundreds of thousands of young Russians were recruited into the army. When that didn’t seem enough, Wagner turned to mercenaries. New drama as they finally turned against the government.
The mercenaries marched on Moscow. Yevgeny Prigoshin, who was presented as a patriot, became a traitor. But at first it seemed that he was alive. (Those who turn against the regime are not so lucky). Prigosh fled to Belarus and received a farewell with a leader. That feeling was wrong. Prigoshin later died in a plane crash.
It didn’t stop there, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president on charges of war crimes. A move that Russian nationalists could not tolerate at all. Now, Putin’s fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, is dead. Where is this drama going…”
“February 24, 2022 was a critical day. But it didn’t all start then. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The army rushed into Donbass. But there was little opposition. There were protests in some areas.
Then the tug of war to remove the enemies of the country. Move to poison Alexei Navalny in 2020. Due to the intervention of the pilot, he was brought back to life. After receiving treatment abroad, Navalni returned home in 2021 and was jailed.
Domestic repression in Russia predates the invasion of Ukraine, but has accelerated since then. For Vladimir Putin, the past two years have been a time to defeat his enemies at home and abroad.
The United States, NATO, and the European Union are united against each other. But Putin presents this war in a different way. This is a fight for the country’s survival.
(Facebook is banned in Russia. However, Instagram and WhatsApp are available to Russian citizens, through which they connect with friends from outside the world.)
Putin was not like this
“In my second meeting with Putin, he asked: When will you invite Russia to join NATO? I said, we don’t invite countries to join NATO. They will apply, we will consider” – former NATO head Lord Robertson said in an interview.
At first, Putin tried to strengthen the country through trade agreements. When I met him, I felt that he was more of a good businessman than a head of state.
“I remember the meeting with Putin in May 2002. Putin was standing next to me. He said that Ukraine is an independent nation and can make its own decisions about security. Those words seemed sincere.
But later things changed. I think he always thought that Russia was a great country on the world stage and deserved the respect that the Soviet Union had. He would never accept an alliance of equal nations. I was convinced that he could not accept a situation where everyone sat around the table and discussed public policy. Putin has changed a lot. The man who wanted to cooperate with NATO has now become someone who sees NATO as a major threat.
Today’s Russia believes that it has broken its promise not to allow countries formerly controlled by the Soviet Union to join NATO. – he said in the interview.
Ego is the cause of everything
The Soviet Union was once the world’s second superpower. The countries of the world have accepted it. Modern Russia does not quite get that succession. Russia is lagging behind, including in the field of technology. There are those who think that the reason is Putin’s leadership.
Putin has imposed strict restrictions on the country. But graffiti supporting the Wagner mercenary group is not uncommon on Russian streets. There are flowers in memory of Alexei Navalny. There are also many pictures of soldiers killed in Ukraine.
There is also a new structure near the memorials to those killed in World War II and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. For those who were killed in a special military operation in Ukraine…
Imports from abroad became rare. There are those who think it is good. Russian factories are also likely. Many goods which were imported have been manufactured in the country. But the word war scares everyone.
#Russia #Russia
2024-02-22 19:47:00
