What is your perspective on what's happening? What are you seeing and hearing from your family and friends in Russia?
My deepest sympathy goes out to everyone affected by this tragedy. <3
This is an absolute disaster for us. I can't imagine how and when we recover from this. The damage already made to our country is going to be devastating, and it's not even over yet. I even envy Ukrainians a little because they have a future (if they survive all this of course), and we don't.
Most people in my bubble, including myself, are strongly against the war. Many are fleeing the country. I'm currently on vacation abroad, and I haven't made up my mind if I'm coming back.
SWEs like myself probably are going to be the least affected by this because most of us can work for foreign companies just fine and make decent money, but most other people don't have this privilege and have nowhere to run. Generations of people are doomed to live in poverty because of decisions made by our genius of geopolitics. The old man actually thought we would win this war in 3 days and get away with it. I don't think he has a plan B. And I take his threats of using nuclear weapons very seriously.
While I blame Putin for most of this, I also think the collective West has gone mad too. The campaign to cancel, ban, boycott and belittle everything and everyone that has anything to do with Russia is out of control. People are not to blame for the actions their government. The talks like "let's hurt the regular people so they revolt against Putin" are just like that villain from Shrek: "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make".
- closing and isolating from West is a good thing - no bad influence and we will keep things, s.a. modernism, liberalism, libertine behavior, e.g. homosexuality and transgenderism away.
- closing foreign markets will boost Russian production and development by keeping all the resources and investments inside and protecting domestic market from unfair competition (e.g. agro subsidies)
- closing travel and foreign countries and markets will keep people inside and by extension will EQUALIZE everyone. Essentially, now there's no rich and poor and everyone is sort of equally poor. Remember, that few folks, s.a. oligarchs, various celebs with their conspicuous consumption are eternal target of people's hate.
- There's no freedom and liberty, all west are hypocrites and they always wanted to subjugate us via harsh force or through soft force. Note, that the western (btw, Australia and New Zealand are considered western in this paradigm) governments forcing vaccinations/masks/lockdowns are used against western governments claim that they are for freedom and liberty.
We laughed, we joked but at the end of the day we knew our bossees thought eachother enemies. And at the end of the day we knew that we were activeely working to kill eachother.
That didn't seem to bother us. Alot of people in the military believe what the world has taught us not to believe... That we are the greatest nation in the world and use of force is the only thing that is tangible and real in this world. You're right to Life liberty and property is an illusion and at any point i can kill you and take what you've worked hard for to save. Is it Moral? Yes, because it's real life. The only Amoral things in reality is these illusions that morality exist.
Asking what the russians think isn't the right question. The right question is what percentage of nationalist exist in russia. Because i can tell you one thing, Nationalists believe in this war to their core.
The weak don't deserve the products of their labor if they can't defend it. We've seen this as a fact of life since life has been a fact.
Good Luck Comrades, but one day i will have to kill you for your virtuos beliefs.
My strong believe is that there is pretty high support of Putin in Russia, especially around mainstream population, I'd estimate at least 40-50%. This is related to 20+ years of propaganda and phantom pains of USSR collapse. West people should not be delusional. Of course it is also not black and white - not liking West in general is one thing, supporting Putin's war is another.
Finally, I hope you realize that by asking here you will get a _very_ distorted view.
First, it's been a shock for all the society. No one would imagine in a worst dream that this attack would happen. Even when Putin made his speech about acceptance of LNR/DNR we were like "phew, another shitty fake politics, nothing really changes".
But then the war started. And no one expected that! I think, even military or economic ministers didn't expect that. People are in the shock.
First, it's been incredibly painful to watch our beloved friends in Ukraine are suffering, fleeing the country and turning to be our enemies forever. Almost every Russian have some relative or friend in Ukraine, and now these bonds are broken forever. It's very very painful! The fact that the source of suffering is your country doubles the weight.
Second, there is an information attack "Every Russian is to shame", which targets even those who fleed the country seeking the asylum from Putin. It feels very dehumanizing and racist actually. When I opened facebook there was some ads with corpses of Russian soldiers, and FB moderation was okay with it. Now Facebook is blocked(which is actually good thing, it doesn't help, only melt people's minds).
Most people in Russia are very poor, and don't read facebook/watch youtube. They see the beautiful TV picture of brave Russian forces fighting Ukrainian nazis, without resistance from ordinary people. So this facebook war is only doing harm to educated class which doesn't have political power anyway. The news about oligarchs who lost their yachts can only give Putin additional support.
Third, of course, it's very scary. We may die from nuclear war. We can end up in some North Korea/Iran scenario and never see Europe again. Businesses are falling, Europe connections are cut one by one. Russian people are used to some bad times, but I've never seen events unfolding so fast and so tragic and unpredictable.
There is a lot of propaganda from both of sides, lot of fakes, and infowar is melting our brains. Some people are panicking and try to move to Georgia/Armenia. Some are just preparing for bad days trying to hold on and help their families. Some people are happy with their TV picture. Most of people are just trying to hold as much as they can - work, prepare for growing season, save their businesses. We don't have illusions that life will just go on after the war is over.
The future is very unclear, but everyone I know just want this war to be over as soon as possible and with as low casualties as still possible and then work hard to deal with consequences.
The local and nationwide TV states that they found 30 Pentagon-funded biowarfare labs in Ukraine, got all the docs, and are preparing some statements for the West.
Obviously, high-level propaganda flows from Russia and the West both. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.
And if you take a look at videos from Feb, people in the Eastern part of Ukraine don't mind the Russian army there, even wave and show high-fives. My highly incorrect calculations suggest that about 80% of people in Eastern Ukraine support Russia. In the middle part, that figure is maybe 30-40%, and in Western Ukraine near zero.
I have a niece in the middle part (near Cherkasy). It's okay there, and no battles are incoming. So, she doesn't understand what to expect, doesn't support all this clusterfug, but doesn't support the Ukrainian government either.
There is a lot of propaganda flying out on both sides. I think the West/NATO's next steps should carefully consider the true level of support for these actions within Russia. If there is already a modest level of support (e.g. > 25%) then actions such as sanctions and supply of lethal aid could lead to growing support for the conflict within Russia and further escalation.
1. Absolutely no one expected an actual war with Ukraine. When the first news in english press were published (in November I think) about the coming war between Russia and Ukraine, everyone I know just simply dissmised the very idea of it. It seemed absurd, unthinkable. I did not believe there was any possibility of the war whatsoever and so were my friends, my colleagues, my parents, the ukranians I know. The news became a common joke, a meme even. So when I woke up Feb. 24th and opened the internet, I was stunned, appaled and absolutely embarrased on top of it. I've never read or heard that it is possible to feel enormous embarrassment about the delcaration of war, but it was the strongest feeling in me at the time (and reading various russian sites - not just in me). Despite various disagreements between the Russian and Ukrainian governments, the news about war seemed bizarre. It would be similiar to waking up one day and reading that US Navy are blockading Liverpool and Bristol, US Airforce are bombing London and Manchester, and US Marines are storming Brighton and Southampton. Absolutely surreal. It took a full week for this feeling to slowly fade away before I regained my ability to think straight; I just couldn't work or do anything productive during that time, I was glued to the news and even more news. My father still haven't recovered - he lost all appetite, doesn't talk with anyone and overall extremely depressed.
2. Reading various russian sites - the first reaction was very negative and almost no one supported the war as it happened. After the first 3-4 days the opinions started to change. People started to mentally cope with the news and invent various rationalizations in favour of war - nobody like to be a "baddie" or feel like one. So the opinion is slowly swaying towards the side that claims that the war is justified. That said, I believe even the official russian TV-propaganda were shocked and didn't know what to do or say at first - it took them several days to find the right groove. Propaganda-wise, there was zere preparation of the population for the coming war. The main downside of constantly manupulating statistics is that it is impossible to know which numbers are genuine and which aren't. It could really be that 70% of russians are supporting the war. Or it could be 50%. Or 30%. Or 99%. There is no way to know for sure.
3. On top of that no one really knows or understands what is it exactly that our army are fighting for, what are our end-goals and, especially, what exactly will happen if Ukrainian government will refuse to sign a peace treaty and deside to fight till the end. "Demilitarization" and "denazification' are extremely abstract goals with no clear purpose. There was (and still is) a strong emphasis that the russian army will not target civilian buildings and infrastructure (and soldiers are genuinly reluctant to do so). But it is plain to see now, that this goal is impossible to achieve in the modern war. So what do we do? Do we start to level Kiev and other cities to the ground? Do we march on Lviv? Just what is the plan? Nobody knows.
4. As for the future - right now I am genuinely more worried about the Ukranians than about Russia. I have friends in Sumy who are now almost two weeks under siege, and who knows how long it will last. The Ukraine itself is suffering an enourmous damage to it's infrastructure - how and when and with what funds it will be restored I have no idea. On top of that it looks like there will be at least 5.000.000 refugees (and probably much much more) - their fate is also unclear, I don't think EU can adequately deal with such a large number. In comparision the devaluation of the ruble doesn't seem as important. It looks like there are three main fears: 1) a large scale unemployment - a lot of businesses are leaving Russia, producing an enormous chain reaction; 2) lack of essential medicine - a lot of drugs are imported from the EU (Germany in particular); 3) complete default of the state - a lot of people have lived through the 90s (which in Russia were somewhat equivalent to the Great Depression in USA), so a certain level of impoverishment and hardship are ok, we are used to it, but a complete bancrupcy will be catastrophic. I don't believe there is any chance for an actual famine. The rest isn't so important in comparison.
5. It is also important to understand, that even in an unjust war it is impossible not to support and sympathize with your army. Wishing death and defeat to your own soldiers just isn't right and would feel dirty.
Most disgusted with EU/US, followed by Ukrainian government and finally by the Russian Government.
A war does not happen for no reason. Putin is a known to be a rational actor. Obviously ordinary people do not want war. So you have to ask yourself, what events led to the war? What was done to prevent it? What is done to stop it now?
Why am I disgusted with US/EU? Firstly the double standards make me sick. I am not going to go further into this to avoid buTwHatAbout. The cancellation of everything Russian, the message that every Russian is responsible and statements that they want to choke the Russian economy makes me and my people feel hated. This is accepted xenophobia.
Secondly Russia has been clear since 2008 that it would rather go to war than let Ukraine join NATO. They absolutely should not have sponsored Ukrainian nationalist parties or ever had their troops or weapons set foot there. They have been (relatively) silent about what was going on in Donbass and Lugansk. I hosted two refugees from there. Truly horrific stories coming from there for 8 years, and the West just downplays it. It is very clear to me that the current UA government is a puppet of the West that takes advantage of support from western Ukrainians who are quite different from central and eastern Ukrainians.
Thirdly they are now actively encouraging war by sending weapons, by pre training the troops there. My uncle was in Ukrainian Armed Forces, he quit and left back to our family in Russia because they were constantly brainwashed to hate Russia and everything Russian.
Now Ukraine, their leader is either a puppet or incredibly stupid. If he was warned for months that Russia is going to invade and has 190,000 troops at his borders while warning against NATO relationships. He comes out and says Ukraine will work to join NATO and will also develop its own nuclear weapons?? His recent actions feel like they intentionally are chosen to make it as difficult as possible for the next regime that will be installed rather than what would be best for the Ukrainian people. Like it or not he should understand that if the worlds largest nuclear power wants its neighbor disarmed from enemy weapons, it will be.
Finally the Russian government. I really wish they went with another approach. But I don't know what to suggest, don't do anything and let the West have its way? Continue talks that have been going on in circles for 8 years? Bomb the military infrastructure and leave it at that? I would have probably went with this but who knows what the consequences would be compared to now. I can see where they are coming from. The last time we had to defend the narrow UA/Belarus - West border we lost almost 30mil lives. Now if that border becomes much longer and a NATO - Russia border, flat and so close to all key cities - that is an existential threat. And the fact that the West doesn't seem to respect that and can't even give a NATO moratorium on Ukraine to avoid war makes me feel really uneasy.