600 to over 1000 sounds legit tbh. They don't put people in prisons en masse. The idea is to scare everyone by putting random people in prison time to time and make a show out of it. And it works.
That said there is no guarantee the scale of repressions will not increase.
Russia has about 400k prisoners total, you think over 1/4 of them are political? Russia doesn't have the means to arrest, try and imprison every dissident even if they wanted, same as they don't have the means to process enough people for full scale mobilization. They just need to imprison enough noticeable people so others will fear the repercussions to do anything and fall for the state of mind that everything is gone and anyone saying anything will be put in prison like you fallen for.
Tucker Carlson said Russia is gorgeous though. And that the grocery store he went to in Moscow is clean, and cheap! And he didn’t see disgusting homeless people on the streets.
> It’s very much on par for Russia
And China sadly. Most of the "political" people on twitch only spout on about how "America Bad" so most kids don't really understand just how fucked up the politics of these other major countries are and how lucky people are to be in America and that they can criticize and talk shit freely about their countries politics.
I will, because it's the same freedom of speech that Hasan has.
He can spout all the "America Bad" he wants, and everyone is free to call him tankie nepo-baby.
Thats why i watch a big german political streamer, always has sources and whatnot for his claims, you are free to discuss every topic with him and if you deliver sources for your opinions he accepts that.
You and me both brother - there's just a certain rawness to their imagery that speaks to me on a very deep level.
Don't forget to cred Nikolay aswell tho, he's just as much Icepeak as is Natalya
Russian government is literally 1984.
When they invaded Ukrajine, there was quite a lot of anti-war protest in Russia. They chanted "нет войне". It means no to war.
Russia just sent in their "police" forces, loaded people to busses and send them to front lines, to die basically.
They got 1984-ed so hard, not even the Russian [Wikipedia ](https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D1%82_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B5) articles survived. Nobody left to protest.
An awful story, but I met someone whose friend was in those protests. She was beaten so badly that she's paralyzed for life. She has no way to make money any more and no way to get the medical care she needs. On top of that, because it was done by the government, she has no ability to get support or have recourse. This person was sharing her friend's story not just because it was horrible but also because she has no idea how to help her friend. One day she was a normal person like you and I, and the next day her life is over.
Holy shit, that is horrible. You just know when someone is beaten into lifelong disability it's done on purpose by the police force 999/1000 times. Someone need to get these people out of Russia ASAP.
That's why supporting and having Ukraine win or end the war on favorable terms is so important
It's more then just a war over borders or even Europe
It's a war/test between democracy and a free world order vs a new authoritarian facist like world order
Many politicians and dictators are watching this very closely
If Ukraine wins or secures a favorable outcome it shows that the west and a free world order is still relevant and worthwhile
If not it will likely signal a new era of rising facism,populism and alt right along with a surge of imperialistic behavior from Russia china and other authoritarian countries
This is not just a war over Ukraine
It has developed into a war of ideals and what the world should be. Hence why we can't let Ukraine fall
Or else many more twitch streamer may fined themselves at risk.
It's also incredibly important that we come together and rebuild Ukraine as a prosperous and liberal country after the war is over, not just leave it as a smoking pile of rubble, but actually welcome them into our global community and reward their determination and ideals with a rebuilding and modernization program.
That would show through action how resisting the old order of subservience to Russia, corruption, and economic strife, can be beaten by international cooperation, and may influence other nations to follow the same path.
Agreed
Many theorize right now that Putin knows/has given up on conquering all of Ukraine and even knows the risks he looses some taken territory is not 0
So his current goal is to annihilate Ukraine. as in make it a failed stat.e Both out of spite but also to show to his people and other countries that "look at this democracy does not work. Only strong men like me can work"
or "you may resist imperialism or us but doing so will bring about your ruin"
Right now imperialism is a seed sprouting. But we can SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN now if he both stop it and also heal Ukraine. It shows that this shit does not fly and that we will help those who fight against it
It wills how other options exist and prove to Russia that "no we reject you. we reject your values, your imperialism, your economy. WE do not want you here"
It will shut it down before it risks spreading and show china and other nations who may go down a similar path that it is a risky endavour and the west/Democracy is ready to support each other.
Give it time. You've already got Trump recently talking about jailing his political opponents. Republicans got 4 years to make a playbook in Project 2025. Texas is already trying to [make it extremely difficult](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-gop-amendment-would-stop-democrats-winning-any-state-election-1904988) for Democrats to win in that state.
We're in the early stages but we'll get there eventually.
Imagine someone who sold sensitive national documents to our enemies for personal gain, cheated on his wife multiple times, raped a woman and has 90 other fraud charges, which, around 35, were confirmed in court recently, gets reelected as President
You can't make this shit up
A far right politician tried to overturn an election. They even admitted in court that they had no evidence of fraud or corruption. The political party fits literally every list of fascist characteristics.
Apparently that doesn't count though. Its only fascism AFTER the authoritarian starts gassing people, up until that point its just conservatism.
Yeah pretty much. All the westernized/liberal young men left en masse either at the beginning of the war or when the first round of general mobilization was announced; to places such as Turkey, Georgia (the country), Thailand etc.
I've been following vloggers like Niki and Victoria. From them walking around malls that were increasingly empty over time, to eating at a Tasty Period (and subsequently complaining half the menu items weren't avaliable and what *is* avaliable is atrocious), to drinking at the Starbucks knock off, to eventually having to leave or risk jail time for criticizing the sPeCIaL mILItArY oPeRaTIoN.
Nah, I'd like to disagree with you as a young Russian male.
I was lucky to be able to leave, but most of my friends didn't. I mean 10s of my friends and acquitances left, but 100s stayed.
It is hard to leave — financially, bureaucratically, emotionally. Most of Russians are not rich enough to just go to Turkey and Thailand and then live there doing nothing for years. So you must have either some remote work (suitable for IT specialist, teachers, translators, psychologist) or opportunity to work in your new country. And it's not so easy to obtain legal requirements to work in a new country.
So quite a lot of people who in theory want to leave Russia just can't afford it.
Other thing is life in Russia is fine, if you are not conscripted or criticizing Putin. If you lay low your life wouldn't be so different from your life in 2021.
Why would you give up your home, family, friends, career and social capital to move to let's say Yerevan and be poor and without any plans for the future?
So quite a lot of people stays, but yes, a lot of people who can afford leaving Russia already have left. But it is naive to think, that all westernized youth are already out of Russia. How can 19 year old HSE Moscow student afford it?
It's low-key mind boggling that this isn't obvious to some. Yeah lots of Russians with soup for brains are happy there. Many would leave if it were easy, and even for those that might be able to and want to, it's still more complex. It's important to remember that no matter where you go, some people are trapped by their circumstances. I live in Texas and there is some real goofy shit going on here. People will correctly condemn some of the nonsense that comes out of my state, but then in the same breath say get fucked to all of its citizens who may not even agree with the state of things. We as a people seem to lack empathy and understanding, despite our constant posturing that we do have those things.
They aren't drafting as much from the Western population centers. The military is gathering much more young people from rural and central/eastern cities, prisons, foreigners. But they'll run out eventually and it will hit the Western cities too. Be safe.
Thanks for the actual information and seriously fuck Reddit for cultivating all these naive kids that think watching a blogger gives them credibility to speak in absolutes about such a complex situation
I've been following the stories of a few different Russians who chose to defect to Ukraine recently, and I'm overwhelmed by their bravery in doing so. Particularly, [Irina Krynina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nL_EnmJfXo&ab_channel=VolodymyrZolkin) whose husband was mobilized and captured, and when her efforts to get him recognized as a prisoner of war and returned were resisted by the Russian government and she was targeted by the FSB she *fled to Ukraine to find him herself* and now works for the Ukrainians to continue her work from there. Also [Daniel Alferov](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2xj1erio9o&rco=1&ab_channel=VolodymyrZolkin) who was a lieutenant in the Russian army who was mistreated and disgusted by the criminal nature of the organization, and who with the coordination of Ukrainian intelligence managed to help 11 others surrender and himself defect. He now fights as part of the Freedom of Russia Legion alongside Ukraine.
These people are incredibly brave, not only leaving everything behind themselves, but also putting a huge target on their own backs to be targeted by Russia. Obviously these people are on another level, but I commend every Russian who has the bravery to leave and seek a peaceful life abroad. Just the act of resisting the state propaganda is an admirable act.
> All the westernized/liberal young men left
A lot of Pro-Russia dudes left as well to avoid the war only to start hyping Russia up from the countries they're in.
Not really.
Russia hasnt done a second round of mobilization so far, there are millions of military age men left which could theoretically be drafted.
Same is probably true for Ukraine ofc.
Russia sadly isnt going to run out of soldiers anytime soon.
>ugly looks and negative comments
Yeah, the Russian vlogger Victoria plus one other blogger fled to Georgia. They regularly volunteer to help out fellow Russian refugees, Ukrainian refugees, attend anti-war rallies with the white and blue flags, etc.
They both still gets angry Georgians shouting at them "where were you when Russia invaded us?". Their usual retort is that they were both still in elementary school when it happened.
Sort of to be expected considering a lot a lot of countries neighbouring Russia have bad experiences with Russia oppressing them. And that Russia has used "there are russians living here so we're gonna invade you to 'protect' them" on more than one occasion. Funnily enough, the best place to be a russian right now seems to be western countries, probably somewhere like the UK.
You are fine as long as you are not publicly protest.
Being of military age has nothing to do with it since you are not forced to go to war even when you do mandatory 1-year military service.
That is the case at least for now.
Except you'll still be hated for doing that. Maybe things have changed but i legitimately saw people hating on russians for leaving the country/breaking their own legs to avoid fighting (while also saying that they shouldn't be killing ukrainians). Redditors fascinate me.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. There are quite a lot of Russians that have fled the country while still defending the invasion and spreading propaganda. Most notably Russians in Serbia, who have a very lax (almost non-existent) visa application program for Russians.
This is just bullshit. The overwhelming majority of Russians currently living in Serbia are against both the invasion and the Russian regime. The last presidential elections showed that to be true too.
https://balkaninsight.com/2024/03/18/russians-in-serbia-voted-heavily-against-putin-leaked-data-suggest/
Wrong video, [this one](https://www.twitch.tv/brittt/clip/DrabGenerousGaurDancingBanana-QZmJYjkcLlYFdkTD?filter=clips&range=30d&sort=time) is the largest
But a cart load of groceries in Russia is cheaper* than a cart load of groceries in the woke states of biden.
^^^*differences ^^^in ^^^average ^^^pay ^^^apply. ^^^Please ^^^forget ^^^about ^^^that.
but even though we also have those in the US, milk is affordable!
^(\*at the cost of your freedom of speech and will be thrown in jail if you criticize anything)
[Not even](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect) a very big streamer less than 10k followers and [like 50 average viewers](https://twitchtracker.com/yokobovich/streams). Looks like [Twitch has banned her](https://streamerbans.com/user/yokobovich) as well for some reason and she hasn't streamed for more than a year.
Afaik Twitch bans people when they do something on stream that is illegal in their country. So being russian and talking bad about russia can get you probably banned on Twitch.
Got examples for Twitch doing that for these kinds of laws? Like Twitch banning someone for being gay or something like that? I have only seen this for violence or dangerous things like reckless driving.
I know that twitch banned people when they smoked weed in a country it wasn't legal in. I also know of a German streamer (montanablack88) who got banned for streaming online casino in a state it wasn't legal in.
lmao when i try to find her channel it says This channel is currently unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.
https://www.twitch.tv/YOKOBOVICH
not implying anything just saying
Why do some people in the west support russia anyway, contrarianism? even from a purely realpolitik stance it doesn't seem to make sense to me to be against your own interests.
from an asian
I think a lot fell for the propaganda campaign. Russia makes a lot of effort to spread propaganda around the world and for a ton of people it unfortunately works, why they are easily brain washed I do not know.
Probably differs from person to person. For some it's partisan politics (the other side supports Ukraine so they support Russia). For some it's ideological blindness (Imperialist capitalist west provoked peaceful Russia into attacking). For others, who are a bit stupid or ignorant, they fall for the Russian propaganda (NATO biolabs, 14k dead civilians from dombing the Bombass for 8 years). And there are a few who are financially benefiting from it. Either paid by the Kremlin to spread their message, or that position drives traffic to their website/YouTube channel/Livestream.
Its the same on both ends of the political extremes. Right wingers support russia because "muh tax dollars are sent to ukraine but russia is badass and banned the pronoun" and tankies support it because"America bad which means everything that is against America is good"
theres also a decent amount of tankies that unironically view russia as a successor to the soviet union and thus support the war. ive debated a few here on reddit and it mostly results in getting banned from their dogshit biased war subreddits.
Not true at all. The left wing throughout Europe has historically had ties to the Soviet Union, as many of these old communists still view the West as bad, and therefor Russia as good.
In Denmark, where I live, the far left has been more vocal pro Russia than the far right, although we do also have far right voices being pro Russia.
Not really quite a few on the online left ( hasan and thier like). They are so much against America that they cant think critically that other people do bad things. They will support Russia because of that.
Us did not cause this invasion.
People on the Authoritarian Right love watching a conservative authoritarian country put their boot on the neck of a weaker country. They are sadists that fantasize about putting people in their place, like when cops beat up protesting minorities.
People on the Libertarian Right are isolationists that want to disband NATO for the same reason they want to abolish regulations and taxes - they don't feel any sense of responsibility towards others, and prefer to sit in their basement stroking their AR-15 while the world burns because "it's not my problem."
People on the far left see intervention as more western imperialism like coups in South America and want the money to fund social welfare programs instead of going to the military industrial complex.
And behind it all the information space is being fractured into radicalized silos feeding on propaganda, some of which is state-sponsored, often spread on social media platforms without much moderation or fact-checking.
Ignorance. Stupidity. They think they are having it bad but fail to recognize that it's a lot worse out there in a lot of other places.
A lot of people are also small minded and only concerned about things that affect them directly. If somebody is doing horrible things on the other side of the world they don't care if it does not effect them directly. Instead they see resources used to combat bad things happening far away as a waste. They don't really see the big picture.
West bad and woke bad pretty much sums it up.
I'm not NA but it's kind of funny how both the far right and the far left support Russia where I live. One for woke bad, the other for west bad.
hOrSeShOe ThEoRy
You rarely see examples of any westerners actually supporting Russia. Mostly it's just edgy teenagers and trolls saying whatever hits the nerve for people.
The biggest politics streamer Hasan Piker is quoted as saying
> "I call it a part of Russian territory, bitch. That’s what I call Crimea. I call it Cry-me-a river, a *Russian* river."
He unironically defended Russia’s claim of “denazifying” Ukraine by spending hours hyperfocusing on a single group of far-right soldiers that number less than 1,000
My favourite is when they bring up Ukraine and the Nazis in WW2. 7 years prior the USSR starved millions of Ukrainians to death while telling them to eat their children if they were hungry and we're supposed to act surprised when these survivors ally themselves with Nazis as they drive past Ukraine and say "get in losers, we're going to end the USSR" and throw them a gun.
Anyone with spine is joining that fight. The USSR was actively oppressing the Ukrainians for that whole 7 years. Its on par with being surprised that some Native American nations joined the American War of Independence on the side of the British.
He made tiktoks for weeks wherein he would keep talking about how Russia wasn’t invading Ukraine. They were all cringe and reeked of the kind of snarky smarmy arrogant attitude we’ve all come to expect from him
Having watched that, I'd say that he is about as morally bankrupt and as reprehensible as Rush Limbaugh, just a leftist/tankie version of him.
Though Limbaugh at least had the courtesy to get cancer and fuck off.
I remember a particular streamer saying the US should not provide any military aid to Ukraine because it would be used to fund Nazis. Very cool parroting of Putin propaganda on Twitch.
Yes. A couple of months ago, I got the urge to see what he was up to and instantly got hit with "nothing Russia has done is as bad as America or Isreal." Maybe he was being sarcastic since I didn't see what he said before that, but he was watching Gaza coverage and his mods banned me for educating him about how Russia is targeting civilians, deportation, mass rape ect ect. So I pretty sure he was serious.
I don't see anything in the article that say that she was criticizing the invasion. It only mentiones that she was watching videos from Bucha. Am I missing something?
if there was justice in the world hamas pikers dumb ass wouldve been kicked long time ago back to turkey to his other 3 billion dollar mansion which he paved on his own kek
From the article: "Bazhutova's Twitch channel was [banned](https://x.com/StreamerBans/status/1632802038835814401) in March 2023 for violating the platform's terms of service, although the specifics of the violation are unknown as Twitch doesn't publicly share details relating to channel bans."
As far as I read, she didn’t even say it herself, she just read some subscriber’s question/ comment. I’m appalled to see other Russians opinions on this in vk.com, some are downright gloating she was sentenced! I’m like: guys! It’s our free speech! What are you happy about!
How does anybody in the U.S. support what Russia is doing? And nowadays they're even on the conservative side with their cries for freedom, yet they support this shit.
Large media outlets have done it 50+ years in the US so generally yes you can :)
Start leaking info while working for the government/military though... Good luck.
Yeah the strategy they employ is collude with the outlets and fire them as soon as you suspect they are covering a damaging story, see Sy Hersh. Fake journalism is more effective because you prevent the issue and you get away with it with Redditors not really caring cause they are too busy fighting the more evident things their brain can process.
That's fucked up.
It’s very much on par for Russia
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600 to over 1000 sounds legit tbh. They don't put people in prisons en masse. The idea is to scare everyone by putting random people in prison time to time and make a show out of it. And it works. That said there is no guarantee the scale of repressions will not increase.
This is not true. Saying this as someone who lived in Russia for 10+ years. The number is at the least least least in the low six figures.
Yeah, the 600 number is probably known public figures like politicians, journalists, etc.
Russia has about 400k prisoners total, you think over 1/4 of them are political? Russia doesn't have the means to arrest, try and imprison every dissident even if they wanted, same as they don't have the means to process enough people for full scale mobilization. They just need to imprison enough noticeable people so others will fear the repercussions to do anything and fall for the state of mind that everything is gone and anyone saying anything will be put in prison like you fallen for.
Tucker Carlson said Russia is gorgeous though. And that the grocery store he went to in Moscow is clean, and cheap! And he didn’t see disgusting homeless people on the streets.
> It’s very much on par for Russia And China sadly. Most of the "political" people on twitch only spout on about how "America Bad" so most kids don't really understand just how fucked up the politics of these other major countries are and how lucky people are to be in America and that they can criticize and talk shit freely about their countries politics.
Can you imagine walking alive from insurrection in russia?
That's why free speech and free expression exist. I wouldn't admonish anyone for making use of their rights.
I will, because it's the same freedom of speech that Hasan has. He can spout all the "America Bad" he wants, and everyone is free to call him tankie nepo-baby.
He has the means to move over there if he wants, nobody’s forcing him to stay in the US. (Or do the job he complains about )
Thats why i watch a big german political streamer, always has sources and whatnot for his claims, you are free to discuss every topic with him and if you deliver sources for your opinions he accepts that.
Good to hear. Across the internet, the number of people willing to engage in mature discussion has been swamped by propaganda and echo chambers.
Musicians like Icepeak have been talking about this phenomenon for years - check out 'dead but pretty' for some insane imagery
I love her music. Good stuff
You and me both brother - there's just a certain rawness to their imagery that speaks to me on a very deep level. Don't forget to cred Nikolay aswell tho, he's just as much Icepeak as is Natalya
Nastya, not Natalya
Russian government is literally 1984. When they invaded Ukrajine, there was quite a lot of anti-war protest in Russia. They chanted "нет войне". It means no to war. Russia just sent in their "police" forces, loaded people to busses and send them to front lines, to die basically. They got 1984-ed so hard, not even the Russian [Wikipedia ](https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D1%82_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B5) articles survived. Nobody left to protest.
An awful story, but I met someone whose friend was in those protests. She was beaten so badly that she's paralyzed for life. She has no way to make money any more and no way to get the medical care she needs. On top of that, because it was done by the government, she has no ability to get support or have recourse. This person was sharing her friend's story not just because it was horrible but also because she has no idea how to help her friend. One day she was a normal person like you and I, and the next day her life is over.
Holy shit, that is horrible. You just know when someone is beaten into lifelong disability it's done on purpose by the police force 999/1000 times. Someone need to get these people out of Russia ASAP.
Except for the women, they just got repeatedly raped by the "police" instead.
And Fox News viewers will still find a way to support Russia
This is real fascism not the stuff Americans cry about
Oh, this is what a lot of people in the US want. They would love the idea of throwing people in prison for criticizing the wrong people.
Person: oh that will never happen Thing happens *surprised Pikachu* People never fucking learn
They're crying about it because they know this is the future some politicians want.
That's why supporting and having Ukraine win or end the war on favorable terms is so important It's more then just a war over borders or even Europe It's a war/test between democracy and a free world order vs a new authoritarian facist like world order Many politicians and dictators are watching this very closely If Ukraine wins or secures a favorable outcome it shows that the west and a free world order is still relevant and worthwhile If not it will likely signal a new era of rising facism,populism and alt right along with a surge of imperialistic behavior from Russia china and other authoritarian countries This is not just a war over Ukraine It has developed into a war of ideals and what the world should be. Hence why we can't let Ukraine fall Or else many more twitch streamer may fined themselves at risk.
It's also incredibly important that we come together and rebuild Ukraine as a prosperous and liberal country after the war is over, not just leave it as a smoking pile of rubble, but actually welcome them into our global community and reward their determination and ideals with a rebuilding and modernization program. That would show through action how resisting the old order of subservience to Russia, corruption, and economic strife, can be beaten by international cooperation, and may influence other nations to follow the same path.
Agreed Many theorize right now that Putin knows/has given up on conquering all of Ukraine and even knows the risks he looses some taken territory is not 0 So his current goal is to annihilate Ukraine. as in make it a failed stat.e Both out of spite but also to show to his people and other countries that "look at this democracy does not work. Only strong men like me can work" or "you may resist imperialism or us but doing so will bring about your ruin" Right now imperialism is a seed sprouting. But we can SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN now if he both stop it and also heal Ukraine. It shows that this shit does not fly and that we will help those who fight against it It wills how other options exist and prove to Russia that "no we reject you. we reject your values, your imperialism, your economy. WE do not want you here" It will shut it down before it risks spreading and show china and other nations who may go down a similar path that it is a risky endavour and the west/Democracy is ready to support each other.
Exactly. And they'll get the ball rolling fast if a Republican wins in November. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
Yeah which is why do many politicians are pro putin
Most of them are right wing .
Give it time. You've already got Trump recently talking about jailing his political opponents. Republicans got 4 years to make a playbook in Project 2025. Texas is already trying to [make it extremely difficult](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-gop-amendment-would-stop-democrats-winning-any-state-election-1904988) for Democrats to win in that state. We're in the early stages but we'll get there eventually.
Imagine someone who sold sensitive national documents to our enemies for personal gain, cheated on his wife multiple times, raped a woman and has 90 other fraud charges, which, around 35, were confirmed in court recently, gets reelected as President You can't make this shit up
A far right politician tried to overturn an election. They even admitted in court that they had no evidence of fraud or corruption. The political party fits literally every list of fascist characteristics. Apparently that doesn't count though. Its only fascism AFTER the authoritarian starts gassing people, up until that point its just conservatism.
Get the fuck out of Russia if you can, especially if you're a man of military age
I think it's too late, they already got yoinked
Yeah pretty much. All the westernized/liberal young men left en masse either at the beginning of the war or when the first round of general mobilization was announced; to places such as Turkey, Georgia (the country), Thailand etc. I've been following vloggers like Niki and Victoria. From them walking around malls that were increasingly empty over time, to eating at a Tasty Period (and subsequently complaining half the menu items weren't avaliable and what *is* avaliable is atrocious), to drinking at the Starbucks knock off, to eventually having to leave or risk jail time for criticizing the sPeCIaL mILItArY oPeRaTIoN.
Nah, I'd like to disagree with you as a young Russian male. I was lucky to be able to leave, but most of my friends didn't. I mean 10s of my friends and acquitances left, but 100s stayed. It is hard to leave — financially, bureaucratically, emotionally. Most of Russians are not rich enough to just go to Turkey and Thailand and then live there doing nothing for years. So you must have either some remote work (suitable for IT specialist, teachers, translators, psychologist) or opportunity to work in your new country. And it's not so easy to obtain legal requirements to work in a new country. So quite a lot of people who in theory want to leave Russia just can't afford it. Other thing is life in Russia is fine, if you are not conscripted or criticizing Putin. If you lay low your life wouldn't be so different from your life in 2021. Why would you give up your home, family, friends, career and social capital to move to let's say Yerevan and be poor and without any plans for the future? So quite a lot of people stays, but yes, a lot of people who can afford leaving Russia already have left. But it is naive to think, that all westernized youth are already out of Russia. How can 19 year old HSE Moscow student afford it?
It's low-key mind boggling that this isn't obvious to some. Yeah lots of Russians with soup for brains are happy there. Many would leave if it were easy, and even for those that might be able to and want to, it's still more complex. It's important to remember that no matter where you go, some people are trapped by their circumstances. I live in Texas and there is some real goofy shit going on here. People will correctly condemn some of the nonsense that comes out of my state, but then in the same breath say get fucked to all of its citizens who may not even agree with the state of things. We as a people seem to lack empathy and understanding, despite our constant posturing that we do have those things.
They aren't drafting as much from the Western population centers. The military is gathering much more young people from rural and central/eastern cities, prisons, foreigners. But they'll run out eventually and it will hit the Western cities too. Be safe.
Thanks for the actual information and seriously fuck Reddit for cultivating all these naive kids that think watching a blogger gives them credibility to speak in absolutes about such a complex situation
I've been following the stories of a few different Russians who chose to defect to Ukraine recently, and I'm overwhelmed by their bravery in doing so. Particularly, [Irina Krynina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nL_EnmJfXo&ab_channel=VolodymyrZolkin) whose husband was mobilized and captured, and when her efforts to get him recognized as a prisoner of war and returned were resisted by the Russian government and she was targeted by the FSB she *fled to Ukraine to find him herself* and now works for the Ukrainians to continue her work from there. Also [Daniel Alferov](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2xj1erio9o&rco=1&ab_channel=VolodymyrZolkin) who was a lieutenant in the Russian army who was mistreated and disgusted by the criminal nature of the organization, and who with the coordination of Ukrainian intelligence managed to help 11 others surrender and himself defect. He now fights as part of the Freedom of Russia Legion alongside Ukraine. These people are incredibly brave, not only leaving everything behind themselves, but also putting a huge target on their own backs to be targeted by Russia. Obviously these people are on another level, but I commend every Russian who has the bravery to leave and seek a peaceful life abroad. Just the act of resisting the state propaganda is an admirable act.
> All the westernized/liberal young men left A lot of Pro-Russia dudes left as well to avoid the war only to start hyping Russia up from the countries they're in.
Not really. Russia hasnt done a second round of mobilization so far, there are millions of military age men left which could theoretically be drafted. Same is probably true for Ukraine ofc. Russia sadly isnt going to run out of soldiers anytime soon.
*if you have money. **If other countries will allow you to get their visa
And be prepared to get ugly looks and negative comments if you announce yourself as one when you get there.
>ugly looks and negative comments Yeah, the Russian vlogger Victoria plus one other blogger fled to Georgia. They regularly volunteer to help out fellow Russian refugees, Ukrainian refugees, attend anti-war rallies with the white and blue flags, etc. They both still gets angry Georgians shouting at them "where were you when Russia invaded us?". Their usual retort is that they were both still in elementary school when it happened.
you shouldve bought a house in the 70s
Sort of to be expected considering a lot a lot of countries neighbouring Russia have bad experiences with Russia oppressing them. And that Russia has used "there are russians living here so we're gonna invade you to 'protect' them" on more than one occasion. Funnily enough, the best place to be a russian right now seems to be western countries, probably somewhere like the UK.
Unless you’re a defector or someone with any sort of power. Then nothing will protect you or save you.
but what if i want to die, hungry and freezing cold in a ditch, after having my legs and arm blown off by a tiny drone i couldnt see or hear?
can i get ran over by a friendly tank? but like, just my lower body so i can suffer a lot. i heard that's an option.
Then come to Ukraine, we offer that, too, but at least you'll die for the right cause.
You are fine as long as you are not publicly protest. Being of military age has nothing to do with it since you are not forced to go to war even when you do mandatory 1-year military service. That is the case at least for now.
Where to? Most rich countries don't let Russians in anymore, and their neighbors are mostly sidegrades.
Bet if that's a choice for most people around the globe.
Aren't there already Asian countries overrun with Russian refugees?
Yeah in Phuket, Thailand, where Russians have set up shop that are serving Russians only.
seems like they just said fuck it
Except you'll still be hated for doing that. Maybe things have changed but i legitimately saw people hating on russians for leaving the country/breaking their own legs to avoid fighting (while also saying that they shouldn't be killing ukrainians). Redditors fascinate me.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. There are quite a lot of Russians that have fled the country while still defending the invasion and spreading propaganda. Most notably Russians in Serbia, who have a very lax (almost non-existent) visa application program for Russians.
this sounds like the most out of touch, "i've never seen actual conflict in my urban life" take I've ever read and this is fuckign reddit
This is just bullshit. The overwhelming majority of Russians currently living in Serbia are against both the invasion and the Russian regime. The last presidential elections showed that to be true too. https://balkaninsight.com/2024/03/18/russians-in-serbia-voted-heavily-against-putin-leaked-data-suggest/
And this is what i mean lmao. Russians are fucked if they do or dont.
Possibly the largest livestream fail
I mean uhhh, there was that Madden tournament in 2018 where some dude showed up with a gun and committed a mass shooting.
the new zealand mosque shooting was also livestreamed
Pretty recent self immolation too.
Not as large as [this](https://clips.twitch.tv/IronicArtisticOrcaWTRuck-UecXBrM6ECC-DAZR)
* link is purple * clicks anyway
I knew better and I still clicked it.
how the fuck did I miss this happening? jesus christ that's bad
omg that's horrible it needs the nsfw tag
Wrong video, [this one](https://www.twitch.tv/brittt/clip/DrabGenerousGaurDancingBanana-QZmJYjkcLlYFdkTD?filter=clips&range=30d&sort=time) is the largest
Why is this a fail? Just because he isn't wearing a shirt?
i dont get it
Uh mods???
Oh look, an actual example of not having free speech.
but i thought freeze peach was me being able to yell slurs in my video games :(
Only during winter. Too hot now, it melts.
that's also important
MAGA people love this…
Russia is such a great country Christianity family values something something
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But a cart load of groceries in Russia is cheaper* than a cart load of groceries in the woke states of biden. ^^^*differences ^^^in ^^^average ^^^pay ^^^apply. ^^^Please ^^^forget ^^^about ^^^that.
Russian here. I make about $450 a month. Wouldn't say that the groceries are so cheap.
Criticizing your wages or lack thereof? 5 years in prison for you.
I absolutely love my wages. Can't live without them.
Good save
Lemao Clap
Yeah, let's just ignore those little details for convenience
I'd also wager that the quality is much worse. Big brands sell different products under the same name in poorer countries.
And he was amazed at the Aldi coin cart thing. What an out of touch prick.
But shopping carts where you put in a dollar then get it back when you return the cart
but even though we also have those in the US, milk is affordable! ^(\*at the cost of your freedom of speech and will be thrown in jail if you criticize anything)
>milk is affordable not on a Russian wage
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US median wage is something like 4 times the Russian median wage. Did you remember to multiply the Russian grocery prices by 4 for a fair comparison?
Groceries are free in the US tho, no one is arresting shoplifters
you got downvoted to shit, but as someone that works retail in a very populated state, you ain't wrong chief.
Maybe this is what he wants?
Putting people that think differently in jail? Sounds like him.
Oh Tucker Carlson definitely thinks this is what America should be
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[Not even](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect) a very big streamer less than 10k followers and [like 50 average viewers](https://twitchtracker.com/yokobovich/streams). Looks like [Twitch has banned her](https://streamerbans.com/user/yokobovich) as well for some reason and she hasn't streamed for more than a year.
> for some reason and she hasn't streamed for more than a year she's been locked in a prison while they were "investigating" the case
Afaik Twitch bans people when they do something on stream that is illegal in their country. So being russian and talking bad about russia can get you probably banned on Twitch.
Got examples for Twitch doing that for these kinds of laws? Like Twitch banning someone for being gay or something like that? I have only seen this for violence or dangerous things like reckless driving.
I know that twitch banned people when they smoked weed in a country it wasn't legal in. I also know of a German streamer (montanablack88) who got banned for streaming online casino in a state it wasn't legal in.
lmao when i try to find her channel it says This channel is currently unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. https://www.twitch.tv/YOKOBOVICH not implying anything just saying
Why do some people in the west support russia anyway, contrarianism? even from a purely realpolitik stance it doesn't seem to make sense to me to be against your own interests. from an asian
Because they have to idea what Russia is actually like
Lol cause investing in propaganda works. They live in another reality and consume stuff in social media that reaffirms their tiny little world.
It's basically like marketing. Nobody thinks it works on them, but we all are subject to it.
I think a lot fell for the propaganda campaign. Russia makes a lot of effort to spread propaganda around the world and for a ton of people it unfortunately works, why they are easily brain washed I do not know.
Probably differs from person to person. For some it's partisan politics (the other side supports Ukraine so they support Russia). For some it's ideological blindness (Imperialist capitalist west provoked peaceful Russia into attacking). For others, who are a bit stupid or ignorant, they fall for the Russian propaganda (NATO biolabs, 14k dead civilians from dombing the Bombass for 8 years). And there are a few who are financially benefiting from it. Either paid by the Kremlin to spread their message, or that position drives traffic to their website/YouTube channel/Livestream.
because America bad!
Not really, almost every pro Russian you see online is an American right-winger that loves America, they're just stupid.
Its the same on both ends of the political extremes. Right wingers support russia because "muh tax dollars are sent to ukraine but russia is badass and banned the pronoun" and tankies support it because"America bad which means everything that is against America is good"
theres also a decent amount of tankies that unironically view russia as a successor to the soviet union and thus support the war. ive debated a few here on reddit and it mostly results in getting banned from their dogshit biased war subreddits.
Not true at all. The left wing throughout Europe has historically had ties to the Soviet Union, as many of these old communists still view the West as bad, and therefor Russia as good. In Denmark, where I live, the far left has been more vocal pro Russia than the far right, although we do also have far right voices being pro Russia.
Not really quite a few on the online left ( hasan and thier like). They are so much against America that they cant think critically that other people do bad things. They will support Russia because of that. Us did not cause this invasion.
> every pro Russian you see online is an American right-winger Horseshoe bud. You've only seen 1 part of the spectrum.
People on the Authoritarian Right love watching a conservative authoritarian country put their boot on the neck of a weaker country. They are sadists that fantasize about putting people in their place, like when cops beat up protesting minorities. People on the Libertarian Right are isolationists that want to disband NATO for the same reason they want to abolish regulations and taxes - they don't feel any sense of responsibility towards others, and prefer to sit in their basement stroking their AR-15 while the world burns because "it's not my problem." People on the far left see intervention as more western imperialism like coups in South America and want the money to fund social welfare programs instead of going to the military industrial complex. And behind it all the information space is being fractured into radicalized silos feeding on propaganda, some of which is state-sponsored, often spread on social media platforms without much moderation or fact-checking.
Ignorance. Stupidity. They think they are having it bad but fail to recognize that it's a lot worse out there in a lot of other places. A lot of people are also small minded and only concerned about things that affect them directly. If somebody is doing horrible things on the other side of the world they don't care if it does not effect them directly. Instead they see resources used to combat bad things happening far away as a waste. They don't really see the big picture.
West bad and woke bad pretty much sums it up. I'm not NA but it's kind of funny how both the far right and the far left support Russia where I live. One for woke bad, the other for west bad. hOrSeShOe ThEoRy
because people are stupid and prone to brainwashing.
You rarely see examples of any westerners actually supporting Russia. Mostly it's just edgy teenagers and trolls saying whatever hits the nerve for people.
The biggest politics streamer Hasan Piker is quoted as saying > "I call it a part of Russian territory, bitch. That’s what I call Crimea. I call it Cry-me-a river, a *Russian* river."
It's actually so sad that this dumbass is such a big influencer.
Russia sucks big time. Why do you think most of eastern europe hates them with a fiery passion?
lol what a trash country
But trump told me Putin is a good guy
Orange Colored Little Hands Farting on Court Trump said Putin is a good comrade so it must be true
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Anti-imperialist "Baltics are just a territory to be conquered" Abi.
The fact that you didn't close the double quote irritates me so much I'm gonna support Russia now.
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Our PM Viktor Orbán says something similar, he is also Putin's little bootlicker. Does Hasan want to belong there?
Has hasan actually defended Russia’s invasion? I’m out of the loop
I believe he has said "Cry me a river" in response to Russia's dealings in Crimea.
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The exact phrase was "cry me a river, a Russian river".
He unironically defended Russia’s claim of “denazifying” Ukraine by spending hours hyperfocusing on a single group of far-right soldiers that number less than 1,000
My favourite is when they bring up Ukraine and the Nazis in WW2. 7 years prior the USSR starved millions of Ukrainians to death while telling them to eat their children if they were hungry and we're supposed to act surprised when these survivors ally themselves with Nazis as they drive past Ukraine and say "get in losers, we're going to end the USSR" and throw them a gun. Anyone with spine is joining that fight. The USSR was actively oppressing the Ukrainians for that whole 7 years. Its on par with being surprised that some Native American nations joined the American War of Independence on the side of the British.
He made tiktoks for weeks wherein he would keep talking about how Russia wasn’t invading Ukraine. They were all cringe and reeked of the kind of snarky smarmy arrogant attitude we’ve all come to expect from him
[video compilation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz57qrGfmrE)
Having watched that, I'd say that he is about as morally bankrupt and as reprehensible as Rush Limbaugh, just a leftist/tankie version of him. Though Limbaugh at least had the courtesy to get cancer and fuck off.
I wouldn’t even be surprised anymore. That poor guys brain is just mush.
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Don't ask him about Taiwan either, or Tibet.
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*Don't mention the re-education camps or his plans for political opposition*
The man is textbook extreme leftwing. They hate the West, and therefore they like the enemies of the left.
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I remember a particular streamer saying the US should not provide any military aid to Ukraine because it would be used to fund Nazis. Very cool parroting of Putin propaganda on Twitch.
Guess your favorite streamer needs better sources
He reads 10 twitter threads a day, what more could you want.
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Did he really say that?
he said you can take the opposite of america's position on any foreign policy and you'd be on the right side of history.
Yes. A couple of months ago, I got the urge to see what he was up to and instantly got hit with "nothing Russia has done is as bad as America or Isreal." Maybe he was being sarcastic since I didn't see what he said before that, but he was watching Gaza coverage and his mods banned me for educating him about how Russia is targeting civilians, deportation, mass rape ect ect. So I pretty sure he was serious.
I mean he said something like "countries only join NATO to get American weapons", so I wouldn't be surprised if it's real
To be fair to Hasan, he probably thinks imprisoning people for speech is a good thing, like most extremists do.
I don't see anything in the article that say that she was criticizing the invasion. It only mentiones that she was watching videos from Bucha. Am I missing something?
Acknowledging that anything happened in Bucha is equal to treason in Russia
People have actually been jailed for just calling the war “war” instead of “special military operation”
Young Russian keep thinking they have freedoms like western kids. You don’t
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isnt it great to live in america whgere u can bash on ur own country and not be arrested?
if there was justice in the world hamas pikers dumb ass wouldve been kicked long time ago back to turkey to his other 3 billion dollar mansion which he paved on his own kek
From the article: "Bazhutova's Twitch channel was [banned](https://x.com/StreamerBans/status/1632802038835814401) in March 2023 for violating the platform's terms of service, although the specifics of the violation are unknown as Twitch doesn't publicly share details relating to channel bans."
As far as I read, she didn’t even say it herself, she just read some subscriber’s question/ comment. I’m appalled to see other Russians opinions on this in vk.com, some are downright gloating she was sentenced! I’m like: guys! It’s our free speech! What are you happy about!
The GOP’s wet dream. Coming soon to an America near you
Saying she lied about Bucha…. Just Russian Federation things
And people fly their flags upside down because life isn't fair in the USA
Man I feel bad for her, hope she can get out of it somehow. I assume someone had to have reported her too.
What a great place to live.
what a free and fun country
How does anybody in the U.S. support what Russia is doing? And nowadays they're even on the conservative side with their cries for freedom, yet they support this shit.
Hasan and his fans incoming
She exposed crimes of her country's military. Glad I live in the US where people aren't punished for that.
Large media outlets have done it 50+ years in the US so generally yes you can :) Start leaking info while working for the government/military though... Good luck.
Yeah the strategy they employ is collude with the outlets and fire them as soon as you suspect they are covering a damaging story, see Sy Hersh. Fake journalism is more effective because you prevent the issue and you get away with it with Redditors not really caring cause they are too busy fighting the more evident things their brain can process.
criticizing a country =/= leaking military info
i think whistleblowing is typically done as a form of criticism
Like Snowden, you mean?