Comments by "LancesArmorStriking" (@LancesArmorStriking) on "European Diplomats See Trump As "Laughing Stock"" video.

  1. Thank you for discussing my country! It always delights me to see people taking a detailed and nuanced look into Russia, as opposed to eating up the nightly news, like most people. Unfortunately, only until Putin leaves power and (most likely case) a business-minded oligarch steps in, will Russia see moderate progress in diversifying its economy. It has huge potential, but after 2012, for reasons that are debated and still unclear, Putin stopped catering to Russia's soft power and focused instead on military might. It is such a shame, because we have a highly educated human capital and, by scale of individual country, one of the largest wealths of natural resources in the world. Another issue I see is the mafia, which has been unofficially expanded in wake of government apathy and corruption. But that's a longer conversation, that I don't want to bore you with. What do you think? Can Russia be saved?
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  2. I certainly hope so, and I agree with your sentiment to an extent. The communists never really practiced their own philosophy, because they neither emphasized worker freedom or eventual elimination of the state. Truthfully, while Russia did make great advancements in the quality of life for many of its people under the Soviet period, it was doomed to fail from the start. Russia's societies had been historically centralized and authoritarian (which worked for it), so it was unlikely that a complete reversal of national ideology would work. However, I see the younger generation of Russians (i.e. me and my cohort) changing the political landscape within the next 20-30 years. Until then, it's anyone's guess how the country will progress. As for Eastern Europe, I see an eventual progression in their quality of life, so long as they can maintain Russia's economic neutrality (we do control Europe's oil, after all.)
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  3. I can only hope that you are correct. As far as I can tell, Russia's elite have always been just about as greedy as they are now. But what I think changed was the general expectation of those same elites. I would like to point out, as I think Americans are quite unaware, of the importance of public policy, or at least a facade of it. "Freedom" in America (to the extent it actually exists) is preserved almost entirely by the widespread belief that the country is free. Think about it- America has a litany of problems: over-consumption, mass obesity and depression epidemics, legal bribery and tax evasion at the national scale, all of which could threaten the foundations of individual liberties. However, there is a disconnect between the nightly news and the quiet suburban evening you get back to when you turn it off. Why? Because, at the local level, generally speaking, the people believe and therefore act as though they are free. This includes law enforcement, retail, banking, and all other facets of life. They could easily cheat the system and take advantage of the average American- it's done on a larger scale all the time. But they don't, for that reason. Back to Russia. During Soviet times, the mantra of workers' freedom was so widespread that no one could disobey it publicly and not get noticed (although the system was different- it was corrupt from the start, but still). Similarly, no one could completely indulge in capitalistic, materialistic wealth and greedy malpractice because some level of respect for the system existed. When it broke apart, though, the oligarchs had a field day, and stole most of Russia's wealth.
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