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I can't speak for other countries, but the regime in Russia has popular support.

And if "every Venezuelan you know" is someone who immigrated because of Chavez and/or Maduro, then you have an extremely biased sample to gauge the overall mood of their populace.

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>>> but the regime in Russia has popular support.

Yeah, because in Russia if you don't support the regime then straight to jail.

That's not quite true even today (it all depends on how loud your non-support is), and was even less true prior to the war. The majority support Putin not because the alternative is prison but because they genuinely believe that he's a good leader. And they're wrong, but that's a different story.

> then you have an extremely biased sample to gauge the overall mood of their populace.

I think that if a good chunk of the people that don't agree with their government are basically forced to emigrate you don't get to turn around and say "See, everyone that remains loves the government!"

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