Member-only story
The Kremlin Is Not Waging War on Russians
The Kremlin is an occupying force, and the Russians are the subjugated.
One of my first articles after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was about how Putin was not just waging war on Ukraine but also on his own people. I sent it to a friend back when I still shared articles with her, and she laughed at me. She didn’t call me naive because she knew I knew Russia, but she said I was being hypocritical.
She believed that Russia had invaded Ukraine under the same pretense that NATO went to war with Serbia — Russians love to support Serbia and vice versa. Russia was saving eastern Ukrainians from Kyiv’s fascist genocide. Kyiv, pro-Putin Russians deliriously believe, was genociding the residents of Donetsk and other eastern European cities for eight years. The fact that it was the eastern Ukrainians, with the support of Russia, who started the war by launching attacks first is missed by them.
My article then was in response to both the criminal incompetence of Russia’s officer corp, which has to date resulted in nearly 200,000 war dead in Russia, and the increasing suppression of anti-war protestors. In case you have forgotten, the punishment for ant-war sentiment was light in the first few months after the war began, although it seemed harsh then. A week or two of detention and small…
