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user-inactivated  ·  3396 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: "People in Russia are Anti-US" and other such statements

    How are things going in Russia, after the annexation of Crimea?

The public is no longer buzzing about it - which is to say, the government has lost any reasons to keep the Crimea situation afloat in the mind of the public. Much more attention is now given to the situation in Ukraine as a whole, with accusations of corruption of the Ukrainian leader (what's his name, Yatsenyuk? I don't keep up: I don't watch TV) and war crimes abundant on the waves. Only sometimes do the narrators tell how Crimea continues to adapt to the Russian lifestyle (using Russian ruble as its main currency, using Russian for the documents and so on) or how the evil Ukraine cuts some sort of access (electricity was the one I heard of) to the republic.

In the meantime, people are actively taking trips to the newly-acquired peninsula: from the Soviet times people believe that Crimea is a major relaxation destination, much like Sochi was (or is - I've been there a long time ago and didn't keep up). No idea how true it is still, but people seem to be eager.

    I suppose there are a large majority of people who don't support war but can't really voice it, is this what it's like?

The majority, I'm afraid, is on the side of the war. The public image is that the separatists in Ukraine - the newly-formed Ukrainian republics - are fighting against the oppressive Kievan state, for reasons completely forgotten, and we ought to support them because they're the underdogs fighting against the big brother, or somewhere along those lines. Vladimir Putin actively denies Russian involvement in the separatist war, even though there are plenty of evidence against it beyond the national news outlets - if only people cared enough to look for it instead of being happy being fed already chewed thoughts and ideas.

Still, there are plenty of people who's speaking up against the war and the Russian invisible war effort. It mostly happens online, because the Russian government is notorious for its arrests of anyone who opposes the current regime.

With a better government, Russia could be such a wonderful place.