First, it's been a shock for all the society.
No one would imagine in a worst dream that this attack would happen.
Even when Putin made his speech about acceptance of LNR/DNR we were like "phew, another shitty fake politics, nothing really changes".
But then the war started.
And no one expected that! I think, even military or economic ministers didn't expect that. People are in the shock.
First, it's been incredibly painful to watch our beloved friends in Ukraine are suffering, fleeing the country and turning to be our enemies forever.
Almost every Russian have some relative or friend in Ukraine, and now these bonds are broken forever. It's very very painful!
The fact that the source of suffering is your country doubles the weight.
Second, there is an information attack "Every Russian is to shame", which targets even those who fleed the country seeking the asylum from Putin. It feels very dehumanizing and racist actually. When I opened facebook there was some ads with corpses of Russian soldiers, and FB moderation was okay with it. Now Facebook is blocked(which is actually good thing, it doesn't help, only melt people's minds).
Most people in Russia are very poor, and don't read facebook/watch youtube. They see the beautiful TV picture of brave Russian forces fighting Ukrainian nazis, without resistance from ordinary people. So this facebook war is only doing harm to educated class which doesn't have political power anyway.
The news about oligarchs who lost their yachts can only give Putin additional support.
Third, of course, it's very scary. We may die from nuclear war. We can end up in some North Korea/Iran scenario and never see Europe again. Businesses are falling, Europe connections are cut one by one. Russian people are used to some bad times, but I've never seen events unfolding so fast and so tragic and unpredictable.
There is a lot of propaganda from both of sides, lot of fakes, and infowar is melting our brains. Some people are panicking and try to move to Georgia/Armenia. Some are just preparing for bad days trying to hold on and help their families. Some people are happy with their TV picture.
Most of people are just trying to hold as much as they can - work, prepare for growing season, save their businesses. We don't have illusions that life
will just go on after the war is over.
The future is very unclear, but everyone I know just want this war to be over as soon as possible and with as low casualties as still possible and then work hard to deal with consequences.
I have talked to a bunch of Russians recently who are fleeing.
There is definitely collateral damage happening for "Russians" that are not in Russia (and Belarusians). Belarus is a good example of where we've already forgotten that they voted to remove Lukaschenko and then were violently repressed because of it.
It's one thing to throw red paint at the Embassy, which is an official part of the Russian government. It's quite another to damage a shop that is "Russian" (I believe the picture I saw of this was in Germany, but I can't find it now because there is such a volume of content flowing with regard to Ukraine).
The other thing that seems to come up constantly is that it's the Russian peoples fault regardless (for not removing Putin, etc). Mostly I suspect people that live in Western democracies and have never had to fear anything.
I'm personally in favour, I think, of helping anyone that wants to leave Russia, to leave. Treating them as refugees from Putin, albiet in not quite as high risk as those in Ukraine.
If there is a brain drain out of Russia, that's a good thing until change happens.
I'm assuming that Ukraine's president's religion is known to Russians (as apparently russians and ukrainians are very near/related to each other etc..., stated by the propaganda itself), how can that propaganda (and therefore as well the other related propaganda) not fall apart on its own, to still be accepted by the population? I totally don't get it... .
Actually in Russia Nazis are known for killing Russians, not jews.
There were about 40 millions of Soviet People killed in WW2.
So when Ukraine made https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera its national hero and even built some monuments, it became very easy to convince people that there are real nazi here. It was like a gift to Russian propaganda.
Thank you for the courage of reaching out. I don't think educated people judge all russians the same way.
It is absolutely shameful what happened in Ukraine. I think there is a lot of suffering, especially for ukrainians, but also for russians who lost sons or friends in this war.
I don't think it will end soon. As you said, it will drag on and will need at least a generation for the wounds to heal.
First, it's been a shock for all the society. No one would imagine in a worst dream that this attack would happen. Even when Putin made his speech about acceptance of LNR/DNR we were like "phew, another shitty fake politics, nothing really changes".
But then the war started. And no one expected that! I think, even military or economic ministers didn't expect that. People are in the shock.
First, it's been incredibly painful to watch our beloved friends in Ukraine are suffering, fleeing the country and turning to be our enemies forever. Almost every Russian have some relative or friend in Ukraine, and now these bonds are broken forever. It's very very painful! The fact that the source of suffering is your country doubles the weight.
Second, there is an information attack "Every Russian is to shame", which targets even those who fleed the country seeking the asylum from Putin. It feels very dehumanizing and racist actually. When I opened facebook there was some ads with corpses of Russian soldiers, and FB moderation was okay with it. Now Facebook is blocked(which is actually good thing, it doesn't help, only melt people's minds).
Most people in Russia are very poor, and don't read facebook/watch youtube. They see the beautiful TV picture of brave Russian forces fighting Ukrainian nazis, without resistance from ordinary people. So this facebook war is only doing harm to educated class which doesn't have political power anyway. The news about oligarchs who lost their yachts can only give Putin additional support.
Third, of course, it's very scary. We may die from nuclear war. We can end up in some North Korea/Iran scenario and never see Europe again. Businesses are falling, Europe connections are cut one by one. Russian people are used to some bad times, but I've never seen events unfolding so fast and so tragic and unpredictable.
There is a lot of propaganda from both of sides, lot of fakes, and infowar is melting our brains. Some people are panicking and try to move to Georgia/Armenia. Some are just preparing for bad days trying to hold on and help their families. Some people are happy with their TV picture. Most of people are just trying to hold as much as they can - work, prepare for growing season, save their businesses. We don't have illusions that life will just go on after the war is over.
The future is very unclear, but everyone I know just want this war to be over as soon as possible and with as low casualties as still possible and then work hard to deal with consequences.