Thousands of Ukraine civilians are being held in Russian prisons. More planned
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It would be interesting to see where crime rates in Russia end up after the war (but of course UA has started to mow the invaders down pretty well so those felons are just more easy meat.)
Considering that ~99.99% of Russians had neither any say in the "invade or not?" decision, nor meaningful advanced notice of the invasion...this might not be the best way to frame things.
I'd take the [cough] patriotic zeal and [snort] heroic vigor with which 99.99% of Russian citizens resisted the criminal Prigozhin's doomed coup attempt as the best evidence of their real feelings on the subject.
Considering the pride Russians proclaim regarding their role in defeating a WWII dictator, it's ironic they refuse to lift a finger to handle the one they raised and enabled at home.
https://www.rferl.org/a/prigozhin-wagner-cheered-leaving-ros...
Wagner, his mercenary army, selling sledgehammers as home decorations. For those not familiar with how Wagner treats its deserters, they are hunted down, tortured and then have their head bashed in with a sledgehammer.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/19/wagner-mer...
The exact split of Russians who aren't in favor of the war is surely difficult to determine. But it's not so high that Russians have had a revolution over it. Yet. And unlike 1992, Russian revolutions are usually very violent, and have often resulted from failed wars. Russians don't like being revealed to be losers. I guess.
Most of techies and people I know have been what counts as "supporters by default". They don't watch TV, don't listen to what government says, read western media and low key ridicule putin. They knew something is going on but did not care to understand and protest what's happening. It's "politics" to them and they are "above" it. Me included.
I am only catching up now after the war entered this phase in 2022. But with no GFW like in China nothing prevented me from becoming aware earlier and doing whatever (protesting, emigrating) except my own convenience.
Some people still don't get it really. They just left the country to evade mandatory conscription end of last year. They continue to be supporters by default in other countries.
https://human-rights.cmc.edu/2022/04/14/russias-genocide-han...
All UN members have an article 51 right to collective self defense with Ukraine. This agreement came straight out of the ashes of two world wars expressly to prevent a 3rd word war.
And here you are arguing against the charter, among the many imperfect things we need to try and do better as a species. And arguing against self-defense. And arguing in favor of tyranny.
Go fuck yourself.
How many of your family members would you trade for your realist views?.
How many of your brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews would you happily feed into a wood chipper or allow to be raped and tortured with no consequence?.
How much of your land would you give up?.
> Something has to give, and if history is any guide, it won't be the Russians.
Russia and the USSR lost wars just like everyone else.
There’s plenty of historical precedence for them giving up and going home.
What on earth are you talking about?
Russia has yielded a whole bunch of times of course, going way back to the Crimean War - often to countries much smaller than itself. BTW that particular war ended with the Black Sea fully demilitarized, its military and civilian institutions discredited - and 3 church bells from Sevastopol hung up in Arundel Castle, England, as trophies.
Even WW 2 probably would have gone the same way, had it not been for Lend Lease.
And now it's attempting to fight a war of aggressive occupation a country with a quarter of its population. So far it has lost 50 percent of the territory it initially sized. Just 18 months in, there's already been a mutiny which forced the current Tsar to flee Moscow.
If history is any guide, this definitely isn't going to end well for them.