[secondary_op]

Nemtsov is indeed a great loss for Russia.

On the other hand, Kara-Murza was literally and openly an actor playing against the country's national interests. He was running around Washington, DC, providing intelligence on who the U.S. should sanction next in Russia. It is not hard to imagine a reversed scenario of a hypothetical U.S. statesman who, for years, was sitting on a couch in the Kremlin and instantly jailed during wartime.

Kasparov might be good at chess, but it does not mean he is good at anything else. In fact, if you watch interviews with him, it is not hard to see that he is awful in geopolitics. He openly admits to being a monetary bridge between Washington and Navalny. Of course, no sane country needs foreign interference and destabilization through NGOs. It is not hard to imagine the consequences for such activity in the U.S.

[qwytw]

> but it does not mean he is good at anything else.

Possibly, but it's pretty hard/impossible for Russians who might be good in geopolitics/public administration/etc. to rise to a position where anybody would be willing to listen to them.

Just like most famous dissidents in the USSR were scientists, artists etc. because any person even marginally related to politics was either working for the state/party or was heavily tainted by association with it. There were simply no venues for an independent opposition to form. Putin's Russia is not at all different from the post 50s USSR in this way.

> Of course, no sane country needs foreign interference and destabilization through NGOs

Good because Russia is the opposite of a 'sane' country.

> It is not hard to imagine the consequences for such activity in the U.S.

Unless you work for Israel or some of the Gulf states. Also last I checked the U.S. government does allow people to openly criticize its policies (or even to actively and publicly undermine them) without the threat of prison so I'm not quite sure what are you getting at...

[secondary_op]

> Possibly, but it's pretty hard/impossible for Russians who might be good in geopolitics/public administration/etc. to rise to a position where anybody would be willing to listen to them.

The U.S. or any other behemoth corporation is no different, rendering this argument meaningless.

Why is it that, in a country of 300 million people, there are only a handful of individuals to choose from for the presidency, and they often come from the same families as before? (rhetorical)

> Good because Russia is the opposite of a 'sane' country.

There is nothing commendable about disrupting the lives of others for personal gain. There are some western countries with practices much more questionable than Russia; this became evident during the COVID-19 measures. Some countries seemingly simulated concentration camps for their citizens without delivering actual benefits, unlike Russia.

> U.S. government does allow people to openly criticize its policies

There is a considerable amount of open criticism in Russia, and individuals are not being incarcerated or silenced for it. However, when someone engages in double-dealing, harming their own people for personal gain, it is labeled as betrayal just like in U.S., or any other stable power structure.

[pastacacioepepe]

> Why is it that, in a country of 300 million people, there are only a handful of individuals to choose from for the presidency, and they often come from the same families as before? (rhetorical)

Couldn't have said it any better! People, especially USAers, should really learn how things work at home before talking about how bad the situation is somewhere else in the world.

Not only people with access to presidency/government mostly come from the same group of families, or caste, they also share the core political views, differences are mostly cosmetic. This is true not just of USA but of most other western democratic countries.

You can't outvote capitalist imperialism in the west.

The game is rigged with modern and effective propaganda, but if it looks like you're going to win anyway then they throw democracy away and switch to fascism and terrorism. See "Operation Gladio"[0] for an example of how this works, or see the countless coups orchestrated by western countries to protect the status quo.

.0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

[qwytw]

Why are you posting this on this site? Haven't you read the guidelines?

[pastacacioepepe]

I did. Have you? Because you're breaking the guidelines.

Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email [e-mail] and we'll look at the data.

Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did.

Judging from your comments, you clearly have a political opinion and you push for it often. Doesn't that behavior break the guidelines as well?

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That tramples curiosity.

[qwytw]

> There is a considerable amount of open criticism in Russia, and individuals are not being incarcerated or silenced for it.

Just like that father of a schoolgirl who drew antiwar drawings at school and had the impudence to criticize the government after the (scum) principal decided to call the police on her?

Really? What about other people who've been sentenced for years for doing absolutely nothing but sharing their (quite mild opinions) on the war.

> There is a considerable amount of open criticism in Russia,

From fascist imperialist who think that putin is not murdering enough people. Sure. As long as they they say out loud the open secret that he's utterly incompetent.

But no there isn't and there can't be. I bet you would've also have said that the USSR was a democracy and had freedom of speech?

> harming their own people for personal gain

If that was the case Putin and his cronies would've faced the firing squad years ago.

> The U.S. or any other behemoth corporation is no different, rendering this argument meaningless.

Come on... You can't just say "{RANDOM_COMPLETELY_NONSENSICAL_THING_} therefore you'r argument is meaningless" and expect anyone to take it seriously?

I'm just not quite sure why are you feeling compelled to share you ideas here? It's not like anything you say could make any sense to anyone who isn't a deranged pseudo-fascist...

[dralley]

>Kara-Murza was literally and openly an actor playing against the country's national interests. He was running around Washington, DC, providing intelligence on who the U.S. should sanction next in Russia.

This is only true if you consider the interests of Putin and his band of merry oligarchs equivalent to "the country's national interests".