[nullifidian]

Ah, yes, the remaining English speakers in Russia will overthrow the literal millions of the silovik class whose entire job is to repress (with violence) any independent political activity. There is no "lobbying" in Russia, if you didn't know.

If you hate all Russians just say you hate all Russians. No need for this "lobby your government" euphemistic BS.

[sqeaky]

We in the west can't change your government to ban hacking requests.

We can block whole countries and make a practical reduction in hacks. Sorry that you got caught in the middle and feel you have no options.

Maybe someone who does have options and makes their money from non-hacking will be inconvenienced and ask for change instead.

[wredcoll]

So political change in russia is literally impossible and everything will be exactly the same 50 years from now?

Obviously not. Is such change easy? Again, obviously not, but the only way countries change is their own citizens wanting to make the change.

[nullifidian]

>So political change in russia is literally impossible

Precisely. It's basically impossible. There has to be at least be a generational change, or a severe economic / military loss if we are talking about this decade, but even that isn't a guarantee since the system is perpetuating itself with force, with economic self-interest to continue doing so. Isolating Russian citizens from western sources of information (in addition to what the Russian government is already doing by itself) is not only not helping, it's counterproductive, since rejection engenders a rejection in return, lowering the probability that an inflection point in the Russian history would result in anything western.

>countries change

Authoritarian countries change when their enforcement class relaxes and loses control. It takes decades for it to occur. If there is no relaxation, then no change occurs, as demonstrated by numerous countries, not only Russia. Right now the control and propaganda are very tight. "Wanting to make change" publicly is literally a life-threatening activity.

[grishka]

Oh we do want to make this change. Desperately. The only minor issue with that is that we lack any means to do so. I'll be sure to do my part as soon as the window of opportunity opens.

[brokenmachine]

It's probably risky, but absolutely there's a means to do so.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Change happens slowly at first, and then all at once.

[grishka]

No, there really isn't any means right now. Even peacefully protesting gets one arrested in minutes. It's not probably risky, it's risky with absolute certainty.

I did participate in opposition activities that were 100% safe. I signed for Nadezhdin and voted for Davankov for example.

[brokenmachine]

What you're saying is there's no 100% safe way, not that there is no way.

Apparently desperately wanting change in Russia means desperately wanting someone else to change it for you, which perfectly aligns with the apathy the Russian population is infamous for.

If Putin somehow became unable to provide the population with food for three days, or pay his security team, you'd all quickly discover what desperately means, and I'm confident the problem would resolve itself quickly.

Your population's apathy has become the whole world's problem. pls fix.

[grishka]

So what, exactly, is your suggestion? "Do something"?

[firesteelrain]

Sure hope your govt is not monitoring your posts

[dead5ea]

The idea that Westerners might "hate" Russians (the people -- not the dictators and their regimes' activities) always seemed so silly to me that I assumed the majority of the related propaganda would be laughed off.

In my experience, the worst general case you have from Americans is absolute "other side of the planet" indifference. Hence the apathetic practice of blocking Russian-originating IP traffic... This may be arguably worse than hate.

A slightly better case, I think, is a healthy segment of the American populace thinks Russians are like the FPSRussia YouTube channel from a few years ago. (Disclaimer: Not sure what the status of that channel is now. Plus, I always figured he was geographically in the southern USA.)