Comments by "George Carty" (@GCarty80) on "The Russian Military Looks Desperate" video.

@daneaxe6465 Actually the first capital of Rus wasn't Kyiv but Novgorod, which later on became the capital of an independent republic (which sadly ultimately fell to Moscow). So to me it looks like the problem isn't with (Great) Russians as an ethnicity, but rather with Moscow in particular. Moscow rose to prominence as a brutal kleptocracy serving its Mongol overlords, and likely retained this kleptocratic character even after throwing off the Mongol yoke: it reminds me of how many African lands went from being brutally exploited by white European colonialists, to being brutally exploited by local black kleptocrats (with Mobutu perhaps being one of the most infamous examples of such).
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@rexsceleratorum1632 Or maybe Spanish and Portuguese?
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The difference is that Putin is a 21st century Tsar, while Zelenskyy is a 21st century Cossack hetman.
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It's not that easy because Russians have been taught for centuries to see blind and unquestioning obedience to authority as the highest virtue: in fact a common epithet used against Russians who disagree with this is "mentally Ukrainian"!
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There's a video on here of the Azov Battalion in 2015 reciting the "Prayer of a Ukrainian Nationalist", where the soldier leading the "prayer" had a Union Jack on his uniform just above the Azov insignia!
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@dreadpenguinlord340 The problem isn't so much with the man at the top, but with the whole Muscovite culture of unquestioning obedience to authority: in fact a common epithet used to attack Russians who insist on thinking for themselves is ментальный украинец ("mentally Ukrainian")! Also note that not only did the Bolsheviks who killed the last Tsar ended up just as despotic themselves (if not more so), but also how many of the Tsar's officer corps basically went like lambs to the slaughter after the Bolshevik takeover, rather than attempting to fight back.
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