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by swader999 1223 days ago
You think the ones in Russia that followed the news are any better off?
2 comments

Yes. They left the country.
Uh, absolutely. They saw the way things were going and fled the country before they could be pressganged.
Also this would not have happened had they actually acted on time and had they cared. The level of depoliticisation and degeneration of that society is insane. Consider the practice of hiring an ambulance to get through traffic quickly. Yes, it is a thing. Now you and me would think that it is completely unacceptable to abuse the system in such a way and protest. But many Russians see that and think "gee, I should have that kind of money too".

Timothy Snyder half-jokingly asks whether Russia is even a country. Sure, it exists as a state (for example it can wage a war, ineptly but still), however the civil society is nearly entirely demolished. It wasn't always so.

That passes both of our ancestor's tests:

- it affects you in some way

and

- you can do something about it