Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "Fear is the new normal in Russian politics" video.
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His insights are informative and valuable, but not always 100% right. Though his analysis of the facts are honest, factual and truthful, sometimes his conclusions are not spot on. For instance, “Fear is the new normal,” in his video’s title. I responded to that by asking, “Hold on? What’s, ‘new,’ about it?” Putin has always murdered his opponents, for more than 20 years now. He’s ramping up his consolidation of power moves right now, but it’s literally the typical way he has always done things.
Things began to look a bit, “new,” when the unusual levels of criticism were being levelled at him from senior figures inside his own country. But, Putin is literally restoring the Russia that was before his insanely misjudged war in Ukraine, probably in order to be in a, “safe,” position to pull his forces out of part or all of Ukraine without being deposed for, “weakness.”
Admiral Nielsen, I have noticed, has a tendency to see Russia through his NATO tinted lenses. That’s fine, as those lenses do have 20/20 sight and all, but they favour long term narratives, both forward thinking, and past analysis, which can be flawed when it comes to judging the facts in the moment.
And this is the sort of result I’m speaking of, where Putin’s purging of opponents is being judged as some kind of new phenomena, because NATO has always given Putin the benefit of the doubt, historically, and cannot bring themselves to admit that their policy of Appeasement is what lead to the Ukraine war in the first place. NATO and the UN made the same historical mistake over Crimea that the allies did with Hitler over The Sudetenland and other territories, hoping to buy peace at the cost of other people’s freedom.
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@garyevans5335 : I’ve seen that film. The time line is truncated for the sake of story, and one or two events didn’t happen in quite the way depicted, but, the more outrageous the scenes get, the more accurate the history is. Even outrageous like, “You can kiss my fat Russian ass,” are direct quotes. It is quite brilliant and touches on the modern Russian psyche quite brilliantly. A mindset that remains very much the same to this day. To understand the alien nature of Russian culture and behaviour, watch that film, I say. There is no distortion of history and it is more truthful than most such films. And the various accents of the actors only adds to the fact that Russia was a vast Empire, with its, “regions,” (actually different countries, swallowed whole) being so different from each other, that they only had Communism and Stalinism in common. So that aspect illustrates the fact rather than detracting from anything.
Sorry. You set me off there. F’ckn’ LOVE that movie. 👍
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I think we should all see this for what it really is? A restoration of the, “old,” Russia. There is absolutely NOTHING, “new,” about Putin murdering his opponents, or his doing it in a cowardly, spiteful and vengeful manner. He’s been doing that for the past 20 + years!
Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he broadcast a final message to the plane’s intercom; a spite filled equivalent of, “This is what you get for crossing me, and I just wanted to be sure you knew I killed you and think about that as you plunge to earth for a whole minute.”
The only, “new,” thing about recent events in Russia has been the fact that ANY senior figures have been openly criticising Putin, or indirectly doing so, at all. What we’re seeing is a literal restoration of the old Russia, or an attempt to go back to business as usual, at any rate.
Putin needs the option of pulling out of Ukraine, either partially or totally, available to him. And if people accuse him of weakness for that, it could cause a revolution. So, he’s purging people. But purging is what Putin, Stalin and so many other Russian dick-taters have done best over the country’s entire history. This is the old Russia coming back.
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