Comments by "DasBubba" (@dasbubba841) on "Russia: a Terrorist State. The Kremlin’s Grand Strategy Failure." video.

  1.  @FRIPPE_THE_GREAT  Russia makes it very easy to dislike them.
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  2. Putin is a risk taker, but he is not stupid. The fact that he has maintained power for longer than I've been alive (I'm in college) illustrates this. He made a very poor gamble, but to give up and thrown in the towel in unthinkable. This is because I'd say it is not Putin that has the fragile ego, but the entire Russian citizenry that does. Russia is an immensely proud nation that has suffered immensely. The economic situation is terrible (even before sanctions), having probably one of the greatest wealth gaps in the world, suffocating corruption, an ageing population, terrible living standards for the average Russian, and HIV epidemic caused by a dysfunctional healthcare network, crumbling Soviet-legacy infrastructure, and the list goes on and on. Pride is all Russians have left. Unlike the Germans, whose defeat in WWII forced them to come to terms with authoritarianism, and who had an economic miracle to promote optimism for the future, Russians never had that. Only stagnation and endless recollection of the "glory days".
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  3.  @DBZHGWgamer  I wasn't using proud in the positive sense. Russia has more in common with the long-gone Mongol Empire (an empire of conquest, pillage, and brutality) than a modern nation-state we'd recognize. Pride is a crutch for Russians. They measure the strength of a nation not by its living standards, stability of government, or functioning economy, but by its military strength. Why else does Russia have so many military parades? Thus, the average Russian cannot accept that Russia is flailing around in Ukraine (to a bunch of "hohols"), as it means Russia is weak. That is simply not acceptable because military strength is all Russia had. Take away that "2nd strongest military in the world" and you have a country that is little more than giant Detroit. No one drank the "Russia Stronk" Kool-Aid more than Russia itself.
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