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Comment by scotty79 | Hacker News Reader

I think in Russians living abroad majority might oppose Putin or at least want nothing to do with him.

I imagine hating Putin and the country he created might be one of the more common reasons of living abroad.

From my experience it is much bigger share of Russians living abroad who oppose Putin, and I've met many at demonstrations, but it is not a majority. I'd say 50/50. Still much better share compared to those living in Russia (including my relatives).

I have Russian work colleagues in a western European country. While they don't support Putin (at least not overtly) and don't like the level of power he has acquired, they seem to have an ingrained distrust of the "west", even though the "west" gave them permanent residence, social security, a means of living. They somehow still believe Putin's propaganda, claiming that they're not sure if bioweapons or labs really were found in Ukraine, or generally not trusting western news sources, while somehow still believing Russian ones.

So in my experience, a majority of Russians, even those living abroad, really are Putin's puppets.

I guess it's hard to shake off yhe brainwashing. Especially since fo younger people it was throughout their whole lives.

More or less. Some lived outside Russia and supported Putin. (I remember the disheveled guy at the airport trying to get a ticket out of Europe to Russia because he feared war. I don't know his political views but he made a good impression of being pro-Putin to Aeroflot staff, who could not help him anyway.)

However, many Russians who could live outside did so for political reasons. Just like I would rather not live in China due to disagreements about what CCP does, I would rather not live in Russia.

Before now, every time I went to Russia there was a tinge of fear of political prosecution due to my views, but now the tables have turned significantly. My extreme hate for the war together with the likelihood of being imprisoned for my views means there is no going back.

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