Posted before the latest assassination of a member of the opposition The Absurd world of Russian Public Opinion is a reflection on said sad state.
As I have written a year ago this conflict can take many years. Much poison has been injected into the minds of many Russians through relentless and massive propaganda falling on often fertile soil.Hurray! We are attacking! Thank God! Many are dead and wounded! Thank God!" Thus exclaimed "good soldier Svejk" from the eponymous immortal novel by Jaroslav Hasek. And Russian public opinion today is no less absurd.
However this too will pass one day, likely far away. The economy is now heading south at a surprising speed and we will see how long Putin's apparat will endure economic hardship. The war is of course of great importance for the internal politics because imaginative external enemies help to the gang on top to conserve the power.
Thankfully most people in Europe or the USA are hardly affected by the downwards spiral of the Russian economy. If weakening Russia was a goal for some Western players then it was achieved brilliantly by Putin and company who however did a great job on getting a far tighter grip on power. Never let a selfcaused crisis go to waste.
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