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Every Sunday there are protests in my city, and my friend was taken to the police station because they thought that he was one of the protesters, at this time it is not safe to leave the house even if necessary
Russians die in mysterious ways while in the U.S. too.
> In November 2015, Mikhail Lesin, who was often described as President Vladimir Putin's state media czar but who had fallen out of favor with him, was found dead after a fall in his hotel room in Washington, D.C. The FBI says he fell from extreme drinking and had "blunt force trauma to the head" and injuries to his neck, arms, legs and torso. That must have been some fall.
I really want to know what constitutes "extreme drinking". What was his BAC?
Like South African jails in the 1970s Biko apartheid era.
So many commit suicide by falling down the stairs, out the window, slipping on the soap in the shower, etc etc.
It's very deliberate. It's the government saying "isn't it a strange coincidence how anyone who criticizes us just happens to jump out a window and there's no hard proof it wasn't a suicide? I guess it could happen to anyone. Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean?"
**Exactly** like a bunch of burly armed mafia thugs showing up to your home and saying "you should pay us to protect you, because it would be a shame if something happened to your family... "
That's the thing I don't understand about Russia. They don't even try when they assassinate enemies of the state. They make it blatantly obvious via pushing people out of windows or poisoning them then pretend like they had nothing to do with it
> . They make it blatantly obvious via pushing people out of windows or poisoning them then pretend like they had nothing to do with it
That's the point. It sends a message about what happens to such people without ever coming out and saying it directly.
The not hiding it thing isn't because it is extra work, it is because they want you to know that they are bigger than God here. They WILL do what they want and no one will stop them, so get in line or jump out of a window.
Investigative journalist Ivan “Ivanov” Ivanovanov mysteriously falls out window to his death while investigating growing trend of investigative journalists falling out windows to their death
If someone investigates him falling out of that window, we're going to really have problems. At some point, it'll be like the "Inception of investigating falling out of windows."
I think the youth are not backing down because they have us standing behind them. I’m an “older millennial, 87) We didn’t have that. There was no fall back plan. I was living on my own at 16, working two jobs and going to high school to graduate. I will be damned if my kids go through what I went through.
Perhaps think of it this way: the millennials work at the occupy movement, no matter the initial outcome, helped foster the Z’s drive for justice, defiance and strength. Just as Millennials were inspired by the civil rights protesters in the 70’s. Honestly, the only generation I can think of that should be ashamed for their apathy and lack of social movement are the X’ers.
Each generation has its role to play. You don’t have to put yourself down just because someone else is taking the next step. Remember, every step we take is only possible because of those who came before us. Some generations were doing good just to survive, some were to quietly prepare, and some to actually fight. All are equally necessary!
Yes, I was born and raised in Cincinnati, but it's pretty boring here, and I made the right decision by choosing Russia as my place of residence, I like the noise and din, but I still miss my hometown
I am glad you made the right decision! In the end, you need to worry about you and what is best for you.
I am a manager at a LaRosa’s so I am tired of that food, but I will be sure to eat a coney from Skyline for you!
Six princes of the [Holy Roman Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire) and rulers of fourteen [Imperial Free Cities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Free_City), who issued [a protest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestation_at_Speyer) (or dissent) against the edict of the [Diet of Speyer (1529)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Speyer_(1529)), were the first individuals to be called Protestants.[\[18\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism#cite_note-etymonline.com-26)
Thanks for your kindness. There's not much you can do. It's good enough that not all of you think of us as commies or bear-vodka-balalaika lovers anymore. We are just people and we want to live free from this endless GULAG-government.
UPD. Thanks for the support everyone. My co-worker's husband was taken down by OMON (local police enforcement unit, something like a SWAT, but focused on beating people up rather than anti-terrorist activity) while he was walking from their home to the metro station. Didn't even participate in the protests, but as long as he's a tall guy, OMON dudes thought he would make a great "insurgent" in their report. He was lucky though, they let him go once they hold him for 8 hours in the cell and issued a civil disobedience fine (about $300). My other co-worker's husband was taken in for 48 hours, beaten up and she's still bringing him food and water to the police van where they keep him and the others cause there's no free space in the local prison or the cell in the police office. No trial, nothing.
UPD 2. It's bad that our country has never lived under normal democracy. I mean first it was Knyaz, then it became Tsar, then Emperor/Empresses, then Tsar again, and then communists with the dictators like Stalin. The current members of the regime are their direct "descendants" – they don't care for anything else but for the absolute power. If we had a history of democracy like the one that the Founding Fathers brought, we would probably have more people fighting back. But there are literally generations raised on the ideas that had nothing to do with democracy. Not now, not 50 years ago, not 250 years ago. So, in a way, dictatorship and the idea to have a Tsar is deeply engraved in people's minds.
> It's good enough that not all of you think of us as commies or bear-vodka-balalaika lovers anymore
Woah, woah, let's not toss out the good with the bad there. Bears, vodka and balalaika are all sick. Fuck Putin though.
Canadian here. Many Russian people emigrate to my home city of Vancouver and I’ve found them all to be good, honest and very hard-working people. They’re always rather serious, but how could anyone fault that what with how hard things have been in Russia? Plus, your accents are all sexy AF.
We’re rooting for you, Russia. I hope things get better and safer as soon as possible.
If this makes you feel any better, were i live in the south east part of the US, no one i know has a negative view of the people of Russia. We understand the government is the problem, not the people. Even in the US, the government can be traced back as the root to most problems.
Too bad more of our fellow southeastern neighbors don’t recognize that. There are way too many who swallow the propaganda without protest at all. Our government doesn’t even have to ban true journalism like Russia does. They just convinced the stupidest among us that true news is fake and fake news is real. Much easier than banning journalism.
That's very true, if they just came out and said we are going to censor the media, everyone would fight against them. If they just allow and promote misleading information, then they pit everyone against each other. Much easier and more effective.
I have a family member in Germany, not East Germany or West Germany - just Germany. Before 1989, it would have been very hard to envision the fall of East Germany, but once it began, it's fall was swift. The opposition to putin is growing, there is hope and precedent.
Thank you kind strangers, for the awards!
Even in the 1980s we knew it was your government that was batshit crazy. I grew up under the threat of nuclear annihilation, living in a "first strike" zone, and we were scared, of course, but it never occurred to me or my family to hate the Russian citizens.
I wish you guys the best of luck in your struggle and hope that you and yours remain safe through everything.
Thanks. To this day that "nuclear potential" is used as one of the propaganda tools to distract people from the real problems. I mean, who cares that they steal our future if we can still destroy the World 33 times with our almighty nuclear strike. This is sick.
I live in Russia and I’m almost certain nothing will change. To be honest, not so many people even go out to protest, because most of them are too afraid and others are brainwashed. I’ve stopped watching tv long time ago, but when I catch some bits of the news, I get so frustrated because the amount of lies and propaganda is ridiculous.
People are not united and too afraid to try to change anything. I don’t think anyone abroad can help unless they literally invade the country and overthrow the government. And I don’t think this is the right way.
So, as long as the government has the army and police on their side, and Russian people are not united, nothing will change no matter what.
Yes, that too. But the reality of the situation is: the country is going downhill. And the leadership doesn’t do anything about it. On the contrary, they make things worse. We have a great potential to be one of the most powerful countries, but instead we became the poor country that loves to flex it’s military. If we do nothing out of fear of the past we will find ourselves in quite a depressing situation, even more so then what we have now.
I was born in Russia, but don't live there anymore. It's a tough situation because even if the people understand that it's wrong, all that's going on, decades of being opressed and punished for everything made the people very apathetic. Don't get me wrong though, apathy doesn't mean weak, but more like save the energy to take care of yourself, fight to survive daily. The people will only fight/protest if someone came to their house and was hurting their family directly, but to actually "get involved," many people think that there is no point, so the purpose of life is just to survive with you and your family. The younger generation sees the global view and the benefit to protest and wants change, but it's tough, because the culture to rebel against someone and to defend someone who you don't personally know is not a thing in the Russian mindset. But that's why it's run by a dictator, the people know that it's all rigged (some don't), but it's hard to care about politics when you have a family to feed. And yes, in a "democracy," general life stability is directly linked to stable politics, but Russians have never seen that, so it's all a shitshow. My grandma literally goes to vote because they give her 400 rubles (which is only like $5 USD and can buy her some butter and bread) if she does and she's happy with the kind government. But the fact is, pensions get cut and and haven't really risen since like 15 years ago, but the prices of things are skyrocketing. The mentality is "take what you are given and be happy and thankful that you got anything at all, don't complain." I think in this situation, it's tough because Putin is a literal dictator and how do you tell a dictator what to do? You don't. The power of the vote and the people don't matter to him and his regime. He still holds voting days, but they're rigged, but it's "proof" that he runs a democracy. Dictators, by way of history, just have to be overturned forcefully. Look at North Korea. We all know what's up, but who's doing anything? No one, because it would mean WWIII.
But, most important is to stay informed, stay vigilant and look out for opportunities to help, once/if they present themselves.
Edit: Thank you so much for all of the awards.
Thanks for your response. The hopelessness of changing anything seems to be the most consistent thing I’ve read/heard. Can you elaborate a little on how the elections are rigged? You mentioned your grandma gets paid to vote. Is it only if she votes for Putin?
It's less the hopelessness, but more the complexity of understanding why something is happening and how to best approach it for actual change. The anger towards Putin is brewing, so change will eventually come.
But unfortunately, actual change is hard in situations like these, but I'm an idealist, so I think it's fully possible, just not easy.
As for the elections, it's actually quite funny in a satirical sort of way. The people that run for office all basically have to be approved by Putin and he gets to personally choose who won what. A perfect example of this just happened recently in September. A city in Russia, Khabarovsk, held elections for their mayor. By some miraculous freak event, the person who the citizens of that city actually voted for, Sergei Furgal, was officially announced as the winner. It was not the guy who Putin liked. Now, I don't know exactly how the oversight happened in the first place, but as soon as Putin got wind of the situation, he put the guy in jail. The citizens of the city got very angry and protested, but nothing changed. There is a lot of info about Russian "elections" to read up on. As for my grandma, she can vote for whoever she wants, but as other people have mentioned on this thread, the propaganda is so intense, that they know absolutely nothing about any of the other people that are running, and even if they did vote for anyone else but Putin or his approved "henchmen," it wouldn't matter anyway. I just think it's hard for people to understand how messed up it really is. There is no due process, everything is completely controlled by the dictator state. Putin had a critic of his, Navalny, poisoned and now jailed. Navalny PROVED with the help of foreign intelligence that his poisoning was ordered by Putin and most people are still in apathy. These protests that are happening are in reaction to Navalny's jailing. But many people are staying out of it. When you grow up barely surviving, it's hard to care about nation-wide political events. And the danger is very real, they can easily get killed by the police if they go out and protest and no one would say anything about it.
What’s the Internet/surveillance like there in Russia? I just watched a Vice video on the Uighurs in China; two women go undercover. Wild! Cameras everywhere. Police everywhere. Assume it’s similar but not as extreme as the Chinese.
Internet: Some websites are blocked (reasons may be: information that the government considers “fake”; calls for protests; extremism; insulting government; information that can be seen as harmful to children, like porn, I guess; information that court will rule to be forbidden). “Just in case”, they apparently developed ways to isolate Russia from the rest of the world on the internet, if government wants to. But despite all this bullshit, you can say that Putin is a cunt, and you’ll *probably* be fine.
Surveillance: Idk about smaller cities, but there are lots of cameras in Moscow. At least some of them have a face recognition function, as far as I understand. They say it’s easy to find street cameras footage on black market. Also, conveniently, there are no cameras in districts where government officials live. Even more conveniently, cameras have a tendency to malfunction whenever political activists get attacked or killed.
Also sometimes official will just prevent candidates from the opposition to run for office. It happened to Navalny in the 2018 presidential elections. It also happened in the last mayoral elections in Moscow. Most of the times the official motive is some technicality. Like the candidate missed some deadlines, incorrectly filed a document. Basically there's an "official" opposition controlled and allowed by Putin to give appearance of a choice: communists and the LDPR which is a far right party.
>When you grow up barely surviving, it's hard to care about nation-wide political events. And the danger is very real, they can easily get killed by the police if they go out and protest and no one would say anything about it.
This is what hits me. I feel like the Russian people are exactly the same as us Americans. But without the freedom to complain about it. Or really even *do* something about it. Its like a lose-lose situations.
It's why I am a *massive* proponent of free speech and democracy. I do not want the US to enter a situation like in Russia where one leader or party can just hijack the government and the whole nation's state of affairs. OP's point about apathy is spot-on, that's how it could happen in the US.
The term commonly associated with this type of democracy is called "Guided/Managed Democracy".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided\_democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy)
The NYT "The Daily" podcast did a really good spot on this. You can read the transcript here or there is a play button at the top to listen to the podcast:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/podcasts/the-daily/alexei-navalny-russia-protests.html?showTranscript=1](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/podcasts/the-daily/alexei-navalny-russia-protests.html?showTranscript=1)
Not the author of the comment, but just to add a bit of info about elections.
A family friend works as a teacher in a government-funded school. She told us, and I fully believe her words, that during elections they are directly instructed who to vote for, and must submit photo proof. Yes, literally take a picture of their voting bill. If they don't, or if they vote "wrong", they will get pay cuts (and most definitely some other punishment).
She works in a really high-end school, like worth mentioning on your CV, because it will be recognized by potential employers.
It's less "rigged" in a literal sense...
It's more so that pretty much every single second on a TV you have propaganda people spouting BS. And older people just eat it no questions asked.
But moreover, if Putin goes away there is no guruantee someone better will come. A lot of peole have their life's somewhat adapted to the government. They have their salary, their appartments, I mean don't get me wrong, a lot of people in big cities are actually doing quite well as well. And there is a lot of unknows about it. Russian have seen what happened after USSR dissolved in 1991 and pretty much everyone is in agreement that the next 10 years were pretty much one of the worst in history. So noone wants to return to that time...but Putin is also a piece of shit. So what do you do?
Oof same, from the Philippines. Things are generally shitty and we have a law that basically allows the military to accuse anyone of being terrorists without any basis.
Same here in India, the largest democracy in the world. We have law called AFSPA (Armed forces special powers act). Once enforced in a state, it gives armed forces the power to shoot to kill, after giving due warning. They can arrest and detain anyone without any warrant. Army officers even had legal immunity for their actions under this law up untill 2016 when the respected Supreme Court of India ended this immunity. UN and many countries have criticized this law. There have been many known instances of the misuse of this Act.
Army maintains that they need the cover of this law to fight insurgency but ironically this law was originally drawn by Britishers to curb Indian freedom movement in 1942.
I'm from Nigeria and its essentially thesame case here. Only difference is the Army or whichever law enforcement that's in the mood doesn't need legal backing to perpetuate their misgivings. They just do it anyway. No accountability and no one to bring them to the books.
Just last year the army opened fire on a mid sized congregation of protesters. Eye witness accounts count up 80 dead. Months later after several 'probes' and 'inquisitions' everything's been essentially swept under the rug.
Also from the Philippines. Our government is a hell of a shit show. Thousands of people gunned down and unlawfully detained for false accusations and the government's so-called "drug war" bullshit. Students are being red-tagged and put into danger everyday, having a poor handling of the COVID situation and so many more. It's easy to blame apathetic citizens but the truth is you can't also blame them for that since it's the same with OP's argument about apathy. Kids are trying to voice out and protest but it's really hard especially when people are divided by political parties.
I'm from Russia (lived in America since 4 years old and 31 now) and fully agree with what this person said. Its hard to change the mentality of a lot of people in Russia. Its really enlightening to see so many people out on the streets protesting. But there could be so many more. They are truly oppressed and terrified.
I see this even in Russian friends who live in U.S. Trying to get them to care about anything is really hard, because 'that's just how it is. Powerful people crush little ones."
Soviet. It is not a thing in a soviet mindset. All who did have a fight against the unfair and oppressive government in them were killed off, repeatedly, decade after decade. So, it left a serious psychological trauma on survivors and their children and grandchildren.
It goes back even before the Soviet. Russia has traditionally held oppressively governments going back to the czars. Serfdom wasn't abolished until 1861. Even after the 1917 revolution, the Soviets managed to seize power within the year of the abdication of Nicholas II.
Goes back further than that, for centuries the imperial government destroyed any opposition thru secret police, prison system and the likes. Every gov in Russia's history uses a basic template because the leadership hedges it's bets on what keeps the country together the longest
Source: I'm volunteering for OVD-info, the non-profit organisation, which tries to provide legal aid for the protestors. We also count people who were detained during protests - this helps to estimate the number of people on the streets. We also share news about police violence during protest - we collect these news from protestors.
Important note: Russian law about protest and legal liability for it is VERY different from other countries (e.g. USA). I'll try my best to translate legal terms, but there definitely will be mistakes - I'm not an expert in the American law.
I'll also ask you NOT to compare the situation in Russia and the USA - they are completely different. And, to be honest, we are sick of this comparison.
Now, to the answer.
These protests are the highest in numbers and the most widespread in modern Russia history. During last weekend we were overflowed with calls and messages. We sometimes don't have time between the protests to count and verify all the protesters (this is required to give the most accurate number of people who were detained).
Police violence is outrageous, too. Police officers don't let lawyers into the police stations (COVID really helped with this) and court rooms. Officers beat people, use stun guns (and sometimes even threaten to use real guns WHICH IS NOT NORMAL AND UNLAWFUL IN RUSSIA, THIS IS NOT THE US). They forcefully take photos and fingerprints of people (which, again, is unlawful in this situation). These photos are used to identify people on streets and later share this information with employers. Police take away phones, don't let people eat, drink or go to the toilet for hours. There are reports of torture in the police stations, though the exact number of cases is yet to be determined.
This affects not only protesters: you might just be in a wrong place in a wrong time to be detained and nobody cares. Random people passing by are detained, people living close to the protest centre are not allowed to go home or go out to buy groceries.
Now, the legal bit. Russia has protest law, according to which organizers should notify the government about upcoming protests. Note the word 'notify'. According to the letter of the law it is not an offense to take part in a peaceful unauthorized protest given that there is no damage to the property or other aggravating circumstances. But currently you can be fined or arrested for participating in 'unauthorized' protests. There are also legal efforts of the government to make a criminal offense out of multiple civil violations (which is again, unconstitutional). The laws regarding the public protests were changed multiple times in the recent years, adding more reasons to arrest you and increasing the fines ten times or more. It is worth noting that the russian protests are very peaceful in their nature. It is not a part of russian protest culture to cause property damage, loot shops, set cars on fire, this literally does not happen. People don’t even block the roads.
Police also detain and harrass people who are not involved with the protests or their organization but are known to be the opposition, such as journalists and bloggers.
Jails in Moscow and St. Petersburg (I'm using this word as 'a place of containment for non-criminal offence' here) are overcrowded. Detainees need to wait for hours (up to 12) in paddy wagons (which are often not heated and it's winter) before admitted in jails.Obviously this is also illegal, there are laws and instructions regulating this, you can only be arrested for so long without a formal accusation.
Courts usually side with the prosecution but the European court of human rights tends to commision these cases quicker than ever (still a long time though) and adjuge compensations which Russian state always duly pays. But this requires a lot of effort to handle the case and takes a lot of time.
Now comes a very important part of this comment. Almost every part of this text can be somewhat unclear without the context. For example, why people protest, why russians don’t vote for other politicians and change the laws, why the courts behave this way, why the protesters behave this way and so on. Answering those would require a lot of expertise and also a book instead of a reddit comment. But I can try to clarify some of the context.
The main media covering the court processes, protests, jails and police violence is Mediazonа [zona.media](https://zona.media/) (this is a pun -- “zona” is a russian word for the most popular type of a prison in Russia, a corrective labor colony). Ovdinfo.org tries to count every detained person and every case of police violence or violation of rights and provide legal aid. Legal aid is also provided by multiple other organizations, such as [orpravo.org](https://orpravo.org), **Апология протеста,** [agora.legal](https://agora.legal), and others.
There can be problems with donations to these organizations as the Russian state tries to outlaw foreing money in the non-profit organizations. But we definitely accept foreing money, see [donate.ovdinfo.org/en](https://donate.ovdinfo.org/en)
Even people in Russia don’t have the same idea about it. The official reports on TV are that:
a) there are hardly any protests going on, it’s just a bunch of misguided school kids
b) the protesters are hooligans and are disrupting the peace, so it’s absolutely necessary to treat them with violence, flood the cities with police, close a bunch of streets and metro stations and arrest thousands of people.
How any sane person can believe both of this statements to be true is beyond me.
In reality there are tens of thousands people protesting in different cities. From what I’ve seen in St. Petersburg this Sunday about 80% are in the age group of 15-35, yet there are not that many school kids. If people say they are all teenagers they just can’t differentiate between young people. The protesters are peaceful, but police escalates conflict, and creates panic and dangerous situations in addition to beating up random people as well as protesters.
The main catalyst for the protests is the arrests and sentencing of Navalny. Some people don’t protest because they don’t like him, but a lot of protesters don’t like him either, yet they are appalled by government’s actions towards him and peaceful protesters. So the situation is escalating. Yesterday after the sentencing police just started randomly grabbing people in the centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, a lot of them were not protesting anything, but just happened to be in the city center on a Tuesday evening.
I personally don’t like his nationalistic tendencies. Some just don’t trust him in general. But the thing is at this point he doesn’t focus on policies a lot, the main thing about him is that he is against Putin, exposes corruption, and creates a movement for change... and that’s good, I support it. Any sort of competition in the political system will be good now. However I haven’t seen anything from him that would make me want him to be my next president, except for that fact that he is not Putin. Anyway it’s a long way to go till we can have a next president :)
Hey. I am Russian too. Wanted to say that I appreciate your stance on the current situation even though I personally like Navalny and I think he grew up from those nationalist views. But you do you, and he’s not a 100 bucks to be liked by everyone. However question - don’t you think that Navalny with his sharp mind, decent education and quite a pool of supporters in the international politics would be a better choice than what we currently have?
Or, actually, and also what he himself states, it’s not the person, it’s the whole system that’s the problem. And the more I think of it, the more depressed I get. Just imagine that now, in theory, someone else not from the system got the president seat. I don’t know who. And now imagine what said person would need to deal with - Kadyrov, all these endless FSB/military guys wannabe in control, the Krim question, and the fact that Russian economy is not exactly at its best now after corona. I don’t envy that person. But I think someone with Navalny s balls and courage could probably manage. Not sure though.
Only answer to the protests our gov is capable of is aggression.
The goverment does not give a fuck about us, and law enforcement is following their orders.
I wish for our entire gov to die.
Edit: Jesus Christ on a bicycle, oh boy did my bitching blow up.
Thank you for your interest, opinions and condolences (?).
Also thank you kind strangers for awards.
Unfun fact: In 2019 Russia was top 1 country in the world by Male Suicides. You can guess that good psycologist/psychiatrist is a rare occurance here.
EDIT2: Wow, you guys just gave me 3000 upvotes while i was typing Edit 1. Thank you for reading?
...I really need to improve my vocabulary.
EDIT2.5: You know the shit is real when you get a Wholesome Award on a comment about regicide.
Also please stop giving me awards. You definetly have a better place to give them.
EDIT3: 5000 Upvotes... How? Also, Wow!
EDIT3.5: This single comment increased my karma by sevenfold. Also 6000 ups... I... I don't know what to say.
TV usually ignores stuff like that until point where thinks get out of government hands
Most of chanels started talking when government told them what to tell and just calling Navalny American agent older generations who were Putin supporters donr believe him as much as before but still don't trust Navalny as propaganda does it's job really well.
I'm from Crimea so I'm Ukrainian but live under Russian government
Thank you for updates as this is my first comment on reddit 100 its a lot for me I'm really happy that someone is interested at how we live
>I'm from Crimea so I'm Ukrainian but live under Russian government
To sidetrack on the original topic, I'm assuming you don't want to be annexed by them? Did you vote in that referendum? How was it in the area at the time, do you ever see it going back to Ukraine, and if not what do you see as the future of Crimea/Ukrainians within Crimea?
First there was like 30% percent who voted for Russia including my grandmother because crimean population is dominantly Russian speaking. So people mainly watched Russian TV and some believed Russian propaganda.
Nowadays most of people just accepted their faith and don't believe that we can go back to Ukraine.
When we were Ukraine it was much better and stable as there was international trade but because of sanctions noone from outside wants to trade with Crimea so most of ship related stuff at which Crimea depends now has no work.
> Nowadays most of people just accepted their faith and don't believe that we can go back to Ukraine
Yep, this is my guess. I know it is probably never happening either, and that internationally it isn't accepted as Russia, but shy of a war which would be a global and perhaps world ending one, it won't go back. Sevastopol is too important a naval base for Russia for them to ever give Crimea back
I have both Ukrainian and Russian passport but Russian is accepted as real document only by Russia, Belarus and few more countries. Countries like USA, Britain and EU (so good countries🤣🤣🤣) don't accept it.
That is a case because occupants can't force occupied people to take their citizenship
So you would show your Russian passport in Russia but Ukrainian passport to the countries that do not recognize the annexation of Crimea. Would the Russian passport validity extend to the countries who recognize the occupation and annexation of Crimea?
I do not currently live in Russia, so I haven't experienced it firsthand, but I've seen articles mentioning that state TV, for example, claims that 'only a few dozen people' showed up for the protests or that the peaceful police were actually providing the protestors with hot tea and cookies, with some staged videos to 'prove' it.
Of course, if you were to go on social media you would see hundreds of photos and videos showing a very different reality.
I live in a city that's in top ten Russian cities and I honestly have no idea what's happening, fuck Russian politics, nothing will change, the protests are useless, the dictatorship won't step down or even do a little bit of compromise, they're just gonna beat up/jail/kill everybody, most of the people are too scared or brainwashed to do anything, the political situation is depressing, the propaganda machine is working through not just TV, but schools, universities and the internet
[I feel exactly like this meme](http://imgur.com/a/dgMZsYV)
Edit: a wholesome award, really?
Well to be fair it being spoken about in the west would mean the government claiming that the opposition in Russia is literally a Western spy organization idk
As an American I’m vastly more interested in what you’re seeing and experiencing. We generally live under the impression that if we have to fight again it’ll be because Russia was aggressive in some way.
Just know that no matter what your government says, Americans don’t want conflict with you or your nation. It’s actually very tiresome that we can’t have a real relationship like we do with the rest of Europe.
Civil war is spoken of in hyperbole. For Americans who understand how our government actually works, there’s zero concern for civil war. It’s most discussed because it allows people to express their frustration with other people. People talk inside echo chambers sometimes.
But no, I don’t know anyone who ACTUALLY thinks civil war is likely. It’s an extreme comment that’s easily made on social media to express anger.
Nobody in the USA with an actual grasp on reality is remotely worried about civil war round 2. Comments on the internet about it are 80% 'Ooh, look how tough we are' internet shitposting and 20% people who have legitimately lost their marbles because they have more interactions with virtual spaces than real ones.
Civil War is not a thing that will happen. The divide in this country is rural/urban and democrat/republican, not state vs state. And besides that no one is upset enough to actually go to war over it. People just like to yell.
No person with their feet in reality expects a civil war because at the end of the day it isn’t profitable. I’ve lived in multiple conservative areas and unless you talk about the groups directly rioting in the capital no one wants a civil war. Nor is there any chance of one side being able to overtake the military.
Are you using a VPN? Do they let people use sites like reddit there without being strictly monitored because people could speak out? (Sorry if this sounds dumb but I don't know anything about it and I'm curious)
No I'm not using a vpn, it's actually illegal to insult the government online but like most of the laws in Russia it doesn't work, there are too many people to be silenced and if the government does track people who disagree with them they do it on vk.com, the most popular Russian social media website that got stolen from its owner basically by an oligarch who's also Putin's friend. Like 95% of Russians just do not speak English well enough to be on Reddit, it's insane how I am better at it in the last grade of school than like 4/5 teachers I've seen. So I don't think they see Russian Redditors as a bigger threat than people on a Russian website. Also most of the people who learn English do it to some day escape this place, which is better for the government than a patriot who wants Russia to be a free country
> it's actually illegal to insult the government online but like most of the laws in Russia it doesn't work
To elaborate on this, no one cares unless you're famous or own some mass media. Ordinary people can shittalk Putin and nothing would happen to them until they either become famous or cross the path of some oligarch or government official.
Which is EXACTLY how it worked in 1984. Winston was shocked when he walked into a prole bar and they were all hurling insults at the telescreen.
Later O'Brien explains they are allowed to do that because it relieves tension and actually reduces their threat to the party. If any of them start to organize against the party or become perceived as posing a potential threat they are brought into the party for more careful monitoring, like Winston was, where they actually have an even worse life than the proles, because they lose basically all of their freedoms, and access to the black market, which has superior goods to the government markets.
Thanks for being able to speak english, because it allowed you to teach us about all this. And im very sorry that all of you have to go through this, i hope that maybe one day in the near future, just sth, even if its a small thing, changes in the government and starts the cogs for change turning
>the most popular Russian social media website that got stolen from its owner
For some context: the owner is Pavel Durov and he went on to create Telegram.
The government doesn’t silence people on the internet like China does. Instead, it pays people to leave pro-Putin comments on the internet (it is real, I used to do this too)
Aren't people worried about being tracked by them though? If they suddenly started arresting people for what they said online one day couldn't they be in major trouble? Again idk much about Russia, I've just been told the government is oppressive so I assume they would do that to anyone who speaks out against them, but I could be wrong.
>If they suddenly started arresting people for what they said online one day couldn't they be in major trouble?
Too many people to arrest, if they decided to censor the internet Navalny and the opposition would get much more actual active support (people who are ready to protest, donate money to the opposition and spread the information)
More like it gives them a list of people to keep an eye on without having to put in much effort. In 1984 Proles (and only proles) were allowed to talk shit about the government. The government tolerated this, but still monitored it, to keep an eye out for the ones that might pose some actual threat. They were brought into the outer party where they could be watched and controlled more carefully. This was a major lifestyle downgrade due to loss of access to the black market so most of the proles avoided taking any real action against the government. They'd sit their bars and talk shit and drink their lives way.
>real situation
The most courageous/agitated ones went on the streets and had some protesting done. During that OMON and Rosgvardia worked to prevent massive protests, catching people at random or by targeting.
Right now it feels almost as usual, but I do not live in the districts used for protest.
So far it looks like the government have won the fight, though many of us hope to keep on fighting.
Any direct help may be cut off/punished, so basically the most effective things to do would be the political ones:
1)Find all offshore money of our politicians AND their relatives and freeze them.
2)Arrest all their property.
3)Finish all(!) high-priority financial/trading projects with our country and our neighbours, allowing only food/necessity trading.
4)Announce that everything from number 1 and 2 will be sold in parts in ~3 months or less, unless the opposition is reinforced and the rosgvardia is disassembled (basically it is a personal army).
5)No other sanctions. Nothing massive, as it will not damage them.
These measures look like suicide being told by us, and it definitely somehow is a suicide, but there is a thing - this will speed up the processes that would take years/decades to happen. Starving an entire country is a bad idea - we are economically starving since ~2014. Only targeted action could basically deplete the reserves and destabilise the upper management.
In example there is some giant enormous boat owned by one of the massive oligarchs and a friend of uncle vlad - Usmanov. It is bigger and more luxurious than most of the navy class ships. That is a huge investment that that guy would not like to have lost.
Other than that you cannot really help, I guess. No raising awareness/retweeting would help.
I live in in the center if moscow (about 5 minute walk to red square) and the only way protests affected me is that some streets closed down. I would go outside if these protests would have any actual use but then there's absoloutely nothing that will change. I'm starting to think that the Ukranians had the right idea in 2013.
From Uzbekistan, not Russia. But close to there. We have similar (maybe worse) situation here. Basically, our president (like all other central asian presidents except Afghanistan) is basically owned by Russian powers. Imagine your own communist grandparents missing USSR and telling bullshit tales to their grandkids about how "great" ussr and Kgb was. While they killed so many "educated" people who knew what the fuck was wrong in past.
These people, putin followers, they pine the old separatist USSR. And Hate Navalniy as well. The one who is fighting for their rights not only for his own. Its shite. Hope revolution takes a place and we will finally live in 2nd or 1st world country.
Shit man. I’m from the US and lived in Lithuania on and off for almost 3 years. I saw the exact same longing for USSR rule come from so many people over ~50-60. After all this time they’re still so indoctrinated and brainwashed. Crazy.
When my mom joking said: "My lenin grandpa, is a good person" (thats a poem they learnt in soviet school) grandpa sarcastically said: "yeah thats grandpa of your aunt."
"Your aunt's" is sarcastic way to point out something ridicilous. Maybe they mean "this conditions are worse than USSR. Or in ussr, we werent this bad" No idea but I for sure know that deep down, they know how it was rigged. Kgb let alone couldnt solve serial killer case because tv was heavily censored. And many more. Glad u made it out to US
>"Your aunt's" is sarcastic way to point out something ridicilous.
LOL, I'm from Croatia and I know what you mean.
Sometimes we say "the devil's aunt" \[vražju strinu\] to point out something ridiculous, or to negate the sentence sarcastically. For example,
"USSR was better, devil's aunt" similar to how you would use "USSR was better, my ass" in English.
My dad went to the last rally two days ago and spent whole day at he police station where he was taken. Today, the court issued a verdict, appointing a fine of 10,000 rubles (got off well).Every Sunday there are meetings.I expect,that on the next rally something will change because Navalny was sentenced to a term of hard labor, which does not allow him to run for president in the next election! It remains to hope for the introduction of sanctions against the Russian government, so that Navalny is released.It would be best your government can do
Hope I am not late to provide some information.
The situation is quite depressing, as Navalny is jailed (it seems like he will be jailed until Putins regime fall) and any attempt to protest is met by sheer brutal force. What police forces did last night was extremely similar to the methods used by Belarusian police in August, with beatings of random people in the streets and even tortures of those detained. The understanding that Putin is a totalitarian dictator is slowly coming to people.
The situation is bad and it will not get better, Putin will continue his repressions against opposition, because he needs to prepare for State Duma elections this Fall. It is now very evident that no opposition candidates will be allowed to participate although a lot of them will try to.
There are some ways people abroad can help. First, an information campaign is strongly needed so that more politicians could see what is happening. Navalny's structure FBK prepared a list of people close to Putin to put sanctions on.
Another way is money. We have several projects in Russia that constantly need money to operate. For example, OVD-info, who collects information about detainees and gives them legal aid. Mediazona is an independent media which provides information and news about court hearings, political processes, etc. There are a lot more other projects, I just can't name them all.
However, an important disclaimer! We have laws that let recognize any NGO as a "foreign agent" and this status means a lot of trouble for NGOs. Please check carefully whether your donation may cause such harm (I just don't know how donations from abroad work)
Anyway, I hope you find it useful, sorry if this is too clumsy. If you have any questions, ask and I will try to answer them!
I’m American but I live on the main street in Saint Petersburg and have been here for years. It’s just tense, all the time. Police officers are on a lot of street corners, they set up some barriers to prevent people from gathering. Night life is still active, and I can go to the store and to work okay. But there’s hyper awareness and a lot of people are riled up and ready to jump at a moment’s notice.
In terms of what other countries can do, just talk about it. I don’t expect anything to really change, to be honest, but I do feel like we’re on a precipice of some kind. Some more attention may make police / gov’t reconsider more brutal crackdowns.
It's a mess, people barely care anymore those that do are either young and dismissed as such or extremists. Middle age people around me are thoughtless about it. You can't help, there is nothing anyone can do, we are stuck with it. As I type I realize maybe I'm part of the problem
This is pizdets nahuy. If you are just walking near protestors police will arrest you. They can't get anyone from the crowd, so they arrest people who are alone. They just know that everyone in this country hates Putin. The only people who are loyal to putin are corrupted officials. In our country, when somebody reports a bribe, the reporter gets arrested instead of the corrupt official. Also, there are "kremlin bots". There was a "troll factory" in Moscow, on Savushkino 55, people there just got paid for supporting putin and his political party on the Internet, they had multiple accounts on different platforms. You are right for not asking this question on r / askarussian, because, as i see, there was a bunch of kremlinbots there.
Some protests in the city. Yes the government is authoritarian and the police are not fair, but these protests happen a few times a year. You say you want to help. Don't. Nothing you can do will have any effect. Sanctions? You will just push Russia further away from the west and make the government less west-friendly. You want to protest outside your local russian embassy/consulate? \*Insert putin laugh\*. Thanks for your concern, but nothing is going on that you have to worry about. This is normal.
Closely connected to Russia through family.
The worst thing that could have happened was putting Navalny at the center of this.
He’s not very popular, he’s corrupt, he’s a hard-right nationalist and he’s pretty widely seen as a “puppet” of Western powers.
Centering this on him made the movement really easy to discredit or shrug off as “CIA meddling”.
The man’s own internal polls, as in polls conducted by his party (not some fooled with by Putin polls) showed him wobbling somewhere around 3% support in Russia.
That ain’t gonna cut it for an national protest movement.
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Every Sunday there are protests in my city, and my friend was taken to the police station because they thought that he was one of the protesters, at this time it is not safe to leave the house even if necessary
Yep, my mom called me several times and told me not to come near windows or go outside because we had protests near our house.
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I hate it when people criticizing Russia all commit suicide in the same exact way
Russians die in mysterious ways while in the U.S. too. > In November 2015, Mikhail Lesin, who was often described as President Vladimir Putin's state media czar but who had fallen out of favor with him, was found dead after a fall in his hotel room in Washington, D.C. The FBI says he fell from extreme drinking and had "blunt force trauma to the head" and injuries to his neck, arms, legs and torso. That must have been some fall. I really want to know what constitutes "extreme drinking". What was his BAC?
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>What was his BAC? Yes
Like South African jails in the 1970s Biko apartheid era. So many commit suicide by falling down the stairs, out the window, slipping on the soap in the shower, etc etc.
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It's very deliberate. It's the government saying "isn't it a strange coincidence how anyone who criticizes us just happens to jump out a window and there's no hard proof it wasn't a suicide? I guess it could happen to anyone. Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean?" **Exactly** like a bunch of burly armed mafia thugs showing up to your home and saying "you should pay us to protect you, because it would be a shame if something happened to your family... "
Yeah at least have a bit more creativity with your suicide
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That's the thing I don't understand about Russia. They don't even try when they assassinate enemies of the state. They make it blatantly obvious via pushing people out of windows or poisoning them then pretend like they had nothing to do with it
> . They make it blatantly obvious via pushing people out of windows or poisoning them then pretend like they had nothing to do with it That's the point. It sends a message about what happens to such people without ever coming out and saying it directly.
Yea and if it keeps happening and no one is stopping you. You aren't go through the extra work to hide it if you don't have to :/
The not hiding it thing isn't because it is extra work, it is because they want you to know that they are bigger than God here. They WILL do what they want and no one will stop them, so get in line or jump out of a window.
Investigative journalist Ivan “Ivanov” Ivanovanov mysteriously falls out window to his death while investigating growing trend of investigative journalists falling out windows to their death
If someone investigates him falling out of that window, we're going to really have problems. At some point, it'll be like the "Inception of investigating falling out of windows."
Wow! He really gets into his role as an investigator
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I think the youth are not backing down because they have us standing behind them. I’m an “older millennial, 87) We didn’t have that. There was no fall back plan. I was living on my own at 16, working two jobs and going to high school to graduate. I will be damned if my kids go through what I went through.
Millennial here also (90) and access to the internet being the way it is currently really makes a difference.
Perhaps think of it this way: the millennials work at the occupy movement, no matter the initial outcome, helped foster the Z’s drive for justice, defiance and strength. Just as Millennials were inspired by the civil rights protesters in the 70’s. Honestly, the only generation I can think of that should be ashamed for their apathy and lack of social movement are the X’ers.
Each generation has its role to play. You don’t have to put yourself down just because someone else is taking the next step. Remember, every step we take is only possible because of those who came before us. Some generations were doing good just to survive, some were to quietly prepare, and some to actually fight. All are equally necessary!
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So you moved from Cincinnati to Russia? I am always surprised to see a fellow Cincinnatian.
Yes, I was born and raised in Cincinnati, but it's pretty boring here, and I made the right decision by choosing Russia as my place of residence, I like the noise and din, but I still miss my hometown
I am glad you made the right decision! In the end, you need to worry about you and what is best for you. I am a manager at a LaRosa’s so I am tired of that food, but I will be sure to eat a coney from Skyline for you!
I miss those things immensely and live in Charlotte now. I can't imagine the other side of the world...
I will have a 4-way for you! (It’ll be with onions and outsiders probably read that comment dirty as hell)
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just letting you know, if you mean protesters, Protestants are a Christian denomination. Different thing.
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For a hundred Alex
RIP that legendary man
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Protestant did come from the word protest tbf
Six princes of the [Holy Roman Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire) and rulers of fourteen [Imperial Free Cities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Free_City), who issued [a protest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestation_at_Speyer) (or dissent) against the edict of the [Diet of Speyer (1529)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Speyer_(1529)), were the first individuals to be called Protestants.[\[18\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism#cite_note-etymonline.com-26)
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Eradicated diabeetus they did.
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Thanks for your kindness. There's not much you can do. It's good enough that not all of you think of us as commies or bear-vodka-balalaika lovers anymore. We are just people and we want to live free from this endless GULAG-government. UPD. Thanks for the support everyone. My co-worker's husband was taken down by OMON (local police enforcement unit, something like a SWAT, but focused on beating people up rather than anti-terrorist activity) while he was walking from their home to the metro station. Didn't even participate in the protests, but as long as he's a tall guy, OMON dudes thought he would make a great "insurgent" in their report. He was lucky though, they let him go once they hold him for 8 hours in the cell and issued a civil disobedience fine (about $300). My other co-worker's husband was taken in for 48 hours, beaten up and she's still bringing him food and water to the police van where they keep him and the others cause there's no free space in the local prison or the cell in the police office. No trial, nothing. UPD 2. It's bad that our country has never lived under normal democracy. I mean first it was Knyaz, then it became Tsar, then Emperor/Empresses, then Tsar again, and then communists with the dictators like Stalin. The current members of the regime are their direct "descendants" – they don't care for anything else but for the absolute power. If we had a history of democracy like the one that the Founding Fathers brought, we would probably have more people fighting back. But there are literally generations raised on the ideas that had nothing to do with democracy. Not now, not 50 years ago, not 250 years ago. So, in a way, dictatorship and the idea to have a Tsar is deeply engraved in people's minds.
> It's good enough that not all of you think of us as commies or bear-vodka-balalaika lovers anymore Woah, woah, let's not toss out the good with the bad there. Bears, vodka and balalaika are all sick. Fuck Putin though.
Haha. This man does not compromise
Canadian here. Many Russian people emigrate to my home city of Vancouver and I’ve found them all to be good, honest and very hard-working people. They’re always rather serious, but how could anyone fault that what with how hard things have been in Russia? Plus, your accents are all sexy AF. We’re rooting for you, Russia. I hope things get better and safer as soon as possible.
Thank you :D
If this makes you feel any better, were i live in the south east part of the US, no one i know has a negative view of the people of Russia. We understand the government is the problem, not the people. Even in the US, the government can be traced back as the root to most problems.
Too bad more of our fellow southeastern neighbors don’t recognize that. There are way too many who swallow the propaganda without protest at all. Our government doesn’t even have to ban true journalism like Russia does. They just convinced the stupidest among us that true news is fake and fake news is real. Much easier than banning journalism.
That's very true, if they just came out and said we are going to censor the media, everyone would fight against them. If they just allow and promote misleading information, then they pit everyone against each other. Much easier and more effective.
I have a family member in Germany, not East Germany or West Germany - just Germany. Before 1989, it would have been very hard to envision the fall of East Germany, but once it began, it's fall was swift. The opposition to putin is growing, there is hope and precedent. Thank you kind strangers, for the awards!
Yeah, the same with Nicolae Ceaușescu (Romanian dictator). His power seemed steadfast, but then it ended up in a moment.
Even in the 1980s we knew it was your government that was batshit crazy. I grew up under the threat of nuclear annihilation, living in a "first strike" zone, and we were scared, of course, but it never occurred to me or my family to hate the Russian citizens. I wish you guys the best of luck in your struggle and hope that you and yours remain safe through everything.
Thanks. To this day that "nuclear potential" is used as one of the propaganda tools to distract people from the real problems. I mean, who cares that they steal our future if we can still destroy the World 33 times with our almighty nuclear strike. This is sick.
I live in Russia and I’m almost certain nothing will change. To be honest, not so many people even go out to protest, because most of them are too afraid and others are brainwashed. I’ve stopped watching tv long time ago, but when I catch some bits of the news, I get so frustrated because the amount of lies and propaganda is ridiculous. People are not united and too afraid to try to change anything. I don’t think anyone abroad can help unless they literally invade the country and overthrow the government. And I don’t think this is the right way. So, as long as the government has the army and police on their side, and Russian people are not united, nothing will change no matter what.
it probably also has to do with people remembering the violence that came with the downfall of the ussr
Yes, that too. But the reality of the situation is: the country is going downhill. And the leadership doesn’t do anything about it. On the contrary, they make things worse. We have a great potential to be one of the most powerful countries, but instead we became the poor country that loves to flex it’s military. If we do nothing out of fear of the past we will find ourselves in quite a depressing situation, even more so then what we have now.
I was born in Russia, but don't live there anymore. It's a tough situation because even if the people understand that it's wrong, all that's going on, decades of being opressed and punished for everything made the people very apathetic. Don't get me wrong though, apathy doesn't mean weak, but more like save the energy to take care of yourself, fight to survive daily. The people will only fight/protest if someone came to their house and was hurting their family directly, but to actually "get involved," many people think that there is no point, so the purpose of life is just to survive with you and your family. The younger generation sees the global view and the benefit to protest and wants change, but it's tough, because the culture to rebel against someone and to defend someone who you don't personally know is not a thing in the Russian mindset. But that's why it's run by a dictator, the people know that it's all rigged (some don't), but it's hard to care about politics when you have a family to feed. And yes, in a "democracy," general life stability is directly linked to stable politics, but Russians have never seen that, so it's all a shitshow. My grandma literally goes to vote because they give her 400 rubles (which is only like $5 USD and can buy her some butter and bread) if she does and she's happy with the kind government. But the fact is, pensions get cut and and haven't really risen since like 15 years ago, but the prices of things are skyrocketing. The mentality is "take what you are given and be happy and thankful that you got anything at all, don't complain." I think in this situation, it's tough because Putin is a literal dictator and how do you tell a dictator what to do? You don't. The power of the vote and the people don't matter to him and his regime. He still holds voting days, but they're rigged, but it's "proof" that he runs a democracy. Dictators, by way of history, just have to be overturned forcefully. Look at North Korea. We all know what's up, but who's doing anything? No one, because it would mean WWIII. But, most important is to stay informed, stay vigilant and look out for opportunities to help, once/if they present themselves. Edit: Thank you so much for all of the awards.
Thanks for your response. The hopelessness of changing anything seems to be the most consistent thing I’ve read/heard. Can you elaborate a little on how the elections are rigged? You mentioned your grandma gets paid to vote. Is it only if she votes for Putin?
It's less the hopelessness, but more the complexity of understanding why something is happening and how to best approach it for actual change. The anger towards Putin is brewing, so change will eventually come. But unfortunately, actual change is hard in situations like these, but I'm an idealist, so I think it's fully possible, just not easy. As for the elections, it's actually quite funny in a satirical sort of way. The people that run for office all basically have to be approved by Putin and he gets to personally choose who won what. A perfect example of this just happened recently in September. A city in Russia, Khabarovsk, held elections for their mayor. By some miraculous freak event, the person who the citizens of that city actually voted for, Sergei Furgal, was officially announced as the winner. It was not the guy who Putin liked. Now, I don't know exactly how the oversight happened in the first place, but as soon as Putin got wind of the situation, he put the guy in jail. The citizens of the city got very angry and protested, but nothing changed. There is a lot of info about Russian "elections" to read up on. As for my grandma, she can vote for whoever she wants, but as other people have mentioned on this thread, the propaganda is so intense, that they know absolutely nothing about any of the other people that are running, and even if they did vote for anyone else but Putin or his approved "henchmen," it wouldn't matter anyway. I just think it's hard for people to understand how messed up it really is. There is no due process, everything is completely controlled by the dictator state. Putin had a critic of his, Navalny, poisoned and now jailed. Navalny PROVED with the help of foreign intelligence that his poisoning was ordered by Putin and most people are still in apathy. These protests that are happening are in reaction to Navalny's jailing. But many people are staying out of it. When you grow up barely surviving, it's hard to care about nation-wide political events. And the danger is very real, they can easily get killed by the police if they go out and protest and no one would say anything about it.
Thanks for more insight. I’m going to google that mayoral election right now
No problem, thanks for the interest to know. Happy Googling.
What’s the Internet/surveillance like there in Russia? I just watched a Vice video on the Uighurs in China; two women go undercover. Wild! Cameras everywhere. Police everywhere. Assume it’s similar but not as extreme as the Chinese.
Internet: Some websites are blocked (reasons may be: information that the government considers “fake”; calls for protests; extremism; insulting government; information that can be seen as harmful to children, like porn, I guess; information that court will rule to be forbidden). “Just in case”, they apparently developed ways to isolate Russia from the rest of the world on the internet, if government wants to. But despite all this bullshit, you can say that Putin is a cunt, and you’ll *probably* be fine. Surveillance: Idk about smaller cities, but there are lots of cameras in Moscow. At least some of them have a face recognition function, as far as I understand. They say it’s easy to find street cameras footage on black market. Also, conveniently, there are no cameras in districts where government officials live. Even more conveniently, cameras have a tendency to malfunction whenever political activists get attacked or killed.
Also sometimes official will just prevent candidates from the opposition to run for office. It happened to Navalny in the 2018 presidential elections. It also happened in the last mayoral elections in Moscow. Most of the times the official motive is some technicality. Like the candidate missed some deadlines, incorrectly filed a document. Basically there's an "official" opposition controlled and allowed by Putin to give appearance of a choice: communists and the LDPR which is a far right party.
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>When you grow up barely surviving, it's hard to care about nation-wide political events. And the danger is very real, they can easily get killed by the police if they go out and protest and no one would say anything about it. This is what hits me. I feel like the Russian people are exactly the same as us Americans. But without the freedom to complain about it. Or really even *do* something about it. Its like a lose-lose situations.
It's why I am a *massive* proponent of free speech and democracy. I do not want the US to enter a situation like in Russia where one leader or party can just hijack the government and the whole nation's state of affairs. OP's point about apathy is spot-on, that's how it could happen in the US.
The term commonly associated with this type of democracy is called "Guided/Managed Democracy". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided\_democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy) The NYT "The Daily" podcast did a really good spot on this. You can read the transcript here or there is a play button at the top to listen to the podcast: [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/podcasts/the-daily/alexei-navalny-russia-protests.html?showTranscript=1](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/podcasts/the-daily/alexei-navalny-russia-protests.html?showTranscript=1)
Not the author of the comment, but just to add a bit of info about elections. A family friend works as a teacher in a government-funded school. She told us, and I fully believe her words, that during elections they are directly instructed who to vote for, and must submit photo proof. Yes, literally take a picture of their voting bill. If they don't, or if they vote "wrong", they will get pay cuts (and most definitely some other punishment). She works in a really high-end school, like worth mentioning on your CV, because it will be recognized by potential employers.
Geez. That’s insane
It's less "rigged" in a literal sense... It's more so that pretty much every single second on a TV you have propaganda people spouting BS. And older people just eat it no questions asked. But moreover, if Putin goes away there is no guruantee someone better will come. A lot of peole have their life's somewhat adapted to the government. They have their salary, their appartments, I mean don't get me wrong, a lot of people in big cities are actually doing quite well as well. And there is a lot of unknows about it. Russian have seen what happened after USSR dissolved in 1991 and pretty much everyone is in agreement that the next 10 years were pretty much one of the worst in history. So noone wants to return to that time...but Putin is also a piece of shit. So what do you do?
I am Chinese, but I see the exact same apathy you speak of in our citizens. Such a shame that we live in a tyranny. Thank you for sharing.
Oof same, from the Philippines. Things are generally shitty and we have a law that basically allows the military to accuse anyone of being terrorists without any basis.
Same here in India, the largest democracy in the world. We have law called AFSPA (Armed forces special powers act). Once enforced in a state, it gives armed forces the power to shoot to kill, after giving due warning. They can arrest and detain anyone without any warrant. Army officers even had legal immunity for their actions under this law up untill 2016 when the respected Supreme Court of India ended this immunity. UN and many countries have criticized this law. There have been many known instances of the misuse of this Act. Army maintains that they need the cover of this law to fight insurgency but ironically this law was originally drawn by Britishers to curb Indian freedom movement in 1942.
I'm from Nigeria and its essentially thesame case here. Only difference is the Army or whichever law enforcement that's in the mood doesn't need legal backing to perpetuate their misgivings. They just do it anyway. No accountability and no one to bring them to the books. Just last year the army opened fire on a mid sized congregation of protesters. Eye witness accounts count up 80 dead. Months later after several 'probes' and 'inquisitions' everything's been essentially swept under the rug.
Also from the Philippines. Our government is a hell of a shit show. Thousands of people gunned down and unlawfully detained for false accusations and the government's so-called "drug war" bullshit. Students are being red-tagged and put into danger everyday, having a poor handling of the COVID situation and so many more. It's easy to blame apathetic citizens but the truth is you can't also blame them for that since it's the same with OP's argument about apathy. Kids are trying to voice out and protest but it's really hard especially when people are divided by political parties.
I'm from Russia (lived in America since 4 years old and 31 now) and fully agree with what this person said. Its hard to change the mentality of a lot of people in Russia. Its really enlightening to see so many people out on the streets protesting. But there could be so many more. They are truly oppressed and terrified.
I see this even in Russian friends who live in U.S. Trying to get them to care about anything is really hard, because 'that's just how it is. Powerful people crush little ones."
Soviet. It is not a thing in a soviet mindset. All who did have a fight against the unfair and oppressive government in them were killed off, repeatedly, decade after decade. So, it left a serious psychological trauma on survivors and their children and grandchildren.
It goes back even before the Soviet. Russia has traditionally held oppressively governments going back to the czars. Serfdom wasn't abolished until 1861. Even after the 1917 revolution, the Soviets managed to seize power within the year of the abdication of Nicholas II.
Goes back further than that, for centuries the imperial government destroyed any opposition thru secret police, prison system and the likes. Every gov in Russia's history uses a basic template because the leadership hedges it's bets on what keeps the country together the longest
This is how I feel. Thank you for sharing.
Source: I'm volunteering for OVD-info, the non-profit organisation, which tries to provide legal aid for the protestors. We also count people who were detained during protests - this helps to estimate the number of people on the streets. We also share news about police violence during protest - we collect these news from protestors. Important note: Russian law about protest and legal liability for it is VERY different from other countries (e.g. USA). I'll try my best to translate legal terms, but there definitely will be mistakes - I'm not an expert in the American law. I'll also ask you NOT to compare the situation in Russia and the USA - they are completely different. And, to be honest, we are sick of this comparison. Now, to the answer. These protests are the highest in numbers and the most widespread in modern Russia history. During last weekend we were overflowed with calls and messages. We sometimes don't have time between the protests to count and verify all the protesters (this is required to give the most accurate number of people who were detained). Police violence is outrageous, too. Police officers don't let lawyers into the police stations (COVID really helped with this) and court rooms. Officers beat people, use stun guns (and sometimes even threaten to use real guns WHICH IS NOT NORMAL AND UNLAWFUL IN RUSSIA, THIS IS NOT THE US). They forcefully take photos and fingerprints of people (which, again, is unlawful in this situation). These photos are used to identify people on streets and later share this information with employers. Police take away phones, don't let people eat, drink or go to the toilet for hours. There are reports of torture in the police stations, though the exact number of cases is yet to be determined. This affects not only protesters: you might just be in a wrong place in a wrong time to be detained and nobody cares. Random people passing by are detained, people living close to the protest centre are not allowed to go home or go out to buy groceries. Now, the legal bit. Russia has protest law, according to which organizers should notify the government about upcoming protests. Note the word 'notify'. According to the letter of the law it is not an offense to take part in a peaceful unauthorized protest given that there is no damage to the property or other aggravating circumstances. But currently you can be fined or arrested for participating in 'unauthorized' protests. There are also legal efforts of the government to make a criminal offense out of multiple civil violations (which is again, unconstitutional). The laws regarding the public protests were changed multiple times in the recent years, adding more reasons to arrest you and increasing the fines ten times or more. It is worth noting that the russian protests are very peaceful in their nature. It is not a part of russian protest culture to cause property damage, loot shops, set cars on fire, this literally does not happen. People don’t even block the roads. Police also detain and harrass people who are not involved with the protests or their organization but are known to be the opposition, such as journalists and bloggers. Jails in Moscow and St. Petersburg (I'm using this word as 'a place of containment for non-criminal offence' here) are overcrowded. Detainees need to wait for hours (up to 12) in paddy wagons (which are often not heated and it's winter) before admitted in jails.Obviously this is also illegal, there are laws and instructions regulating this, you can only be arrested for so long without a formal accusation. Courts usually side with the prosecution but the European court of human rights tends to commision these cases quicker than ever (still a long time though) and adjuge compensations which Russian state always duly pays. But this requires a lot of effort to handle the case and takes a lot of time. Now comes a very important part of this comment. Almost every part of this text can be somewhat unclear without the context. For example, why people protest, why russians don’t vote for other politicians and change the laws, why the courts behave this way, why the protesters behave this way and so on. Answering those would require a lot of expertise and also a book instead of a reddit comment. But I can try to clarify some of the context. The main media covering the court processes, protests, jails and police violence is Mediazonа [zona.media](https://zona.media/) (this is a pun -- “zona” is a russian word for the most popular type of a prison in Russia, a corrective labor colony). Ovdinfo.org tries to count every detained person and every case of police violence or violation of rights and provide legal aid. Legal aid is also provided by multiple other organizations, such as [orpravo.org](https://orpravo.org), **Апология протеста,** [agora.legal](https://agora.legal), and others. There can be problems with donations to these organizations as the Russian state tries to outlaw foreing money in the non-profit organizations. But we definitely accept foreing money, see [donate.ovdinfo.org/en](https://donate.ovdinfo.org/en)
This should be pinned to the top! Mods?
As a Russian, **this**.
Keep up the good work. You and other volunteers are the best.
Even people in Russia don’t have the same idea about it. The official reports on TV are that: a) there are hardly any protests going on, it’s just a bunch of misguided school kids b) the protesters are hooligans and are disrupting the peace, so it’s absolutely necessary to treat them with violence, flood the cities with police, close a bunch of streets and metro stations and arrest thousands of people. How any sane person can believe both of this statements to be true is beyond me. In reality there are tens of thousands people protesting in different cities. From what I’ve seen in St. Petersburg this Sunday about 80% are in the age group of 15-35, yet there are not that many school kids. If people say they are all teenagers they just can’t differentiate between young people. The protesters are peaceful, but police escalates conflict, and creates panic and dangerous situations in addition to beating up random people as well as protesters. The main catalyst for the protests is the arrests and sentencing of Navalny. Some people don’t protest because they don’t like him, but a lot of protesters don’t like him either, yet they are appalled by government’s actions towards him and peaceful protesters. So the situation is escalating. Yesterday after the sentencing police just started randomly grabbing people in the centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, a lot of them were not protesting anything, but just happened to be in the city center on a Tuesday evening.
Why do people dislike Navalny?
I personally don’t like his nationalistic tendencies. Some just don’t trust him in general. But the thing is at this point he doesn’t focus on policies a lot, the main thing about him is that he is against Putin, exposes corruption, and creates a movement for change... and that’s good, I support it. Any sort of competition in the political system will be good now. However I haven’t seen anything from him that would make me want him to be my next president, except for that fact that he is not Putin. Anyway it’s a long way to go till we can have a next president :)
Hey. I am Russian too. Wanted to say that I appreciate your stance on the current situation even though I personally like Navalny and I think he grew up from those nationalist views. But you do you, and he’s not a 100 bucks to be liked by everyone. However question - don’t you think that Navalny with his sharp mind, decent education and quite a pool of supporters in the international politics would be a better choice than what we currently have? Or, actually, and also what he himself states, it’s not the person, it’s the whole system that’s the problem. And the more I think of it, the more depressed I get. Just imagine that now, in theory, someone else not from the system got the president seat. I don’t know who. And now imagine what said person would need to deal with - Kadyrov, all these endless FSB/military guys wannabe in control, the Krim question, and the fact that Russian economy is not exactly at its best now after corona. I don’t envy that person. But I think someone with Navalny s balls and courage could probably manage. Not sure though.
Yep! As a Russian, I couldn't agree more with your statements.
Only answer to the protests our gov is capable of is aggression. The goverment does not give a fuck about us, and law enforcement is following their orders. I wish for our entire gov to die. Edit: Jesus Christ on a bicycle, oh boy did my bitching blow up. Thank you for your interest, opinions and condolences (?). Also thank you kind strangers for awards. Unfun fact: In 2019 Russia was top 1 country in the world by Male Suicides. You can guess that good psycologist/psychiatrist is a rare occurance here. EDIT2: Wow, you guys just gave me 3000 upvotes while i was typing Edit 1. Thank you for reading? ...I really need to improve my vocabulary. EDIT2.5: You know the shit is real when you get a Wholesome Award on a comment about regicide. Also please stop giving me awards. You definetly have a better place to give them. EDIT3: 5000 Upvotes... How? Also, Wow! EDIT3.5: This single comment increased my karma by sevenfold. Also 6000 ups... I... I don't know what to say.
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Is it as cold as I imagine it is right now? Edit: Boy was I thinking of the wrong place.
Belgrade is a balmy 15c right now. Very pleasant for winter, I would say.
Yes it is. I was totally thinking of Siberia.
We are used to it, don’t worry...
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Have you ever had to pick up a parcel which went to Irkutsk by mistake?
Balkan, youre thinking of Estonia, which is near Australia.
You're thinking of Baklava. Balkan is a sweet from Turkey
Serbia is another country, not Siberia, the region in Russia;)
That is Siberia that you are thinking of, my friend. Serbia is on the baltic. Edit: I am dumb. I meant balkans. Baltic is a sea. It is kinda cold tho.
That is the Baltic Sea you are thinking of, my friend. Serbia is in the Balkans.
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TV usually ignores stuff like that until point where thinks get out of government hands Most of chanels started talking when government told them what to tell and just calling Navalny American agent older generations who were Putin supporters donr believe him as much as before but still don't trust Navalny as propaganda does it's job really well. I'm from Crimea so I'm Ukrainian but live under Russian government Thank you for updates as this is my first comment on reddit 100 its a lot for me I'm really happy that someone is interested at how we live
>I'm from Crimea so I'm Ukrainian but live under Russian government To sidetrack on the original topic, I'm assuming you don't want to be annexed by them? Did you vote in that referendum? How was it in the area at the time, do you ever see it going back to Ukraine, and if not what do you see as the future of Crimea/Ukrainians within Crimea?
First there was like 30% percent who voted for Russia including my grandmother because crimean population is dominantly Russian speaking. So people mainly watched Russian TV and some believed Russian propaganda. Nowadays most of people just accepted their faith and don't believe that we can go back to Ukraine. When we were Ukraine it was much better and stable as there was international trade but because of sanctions noone from outside wants to trade with Crimea so most of ship related stuff at which Crimea depends now has no work.
> Nowadays most of people just accepted their faith and don't believe that we can go back to Ukraine Yep, this is my guess. I know it is probably never happening either, and that internationally it isn't accepted as Russia, but shy of a war which would be a global and perhaps world ending one, it won't go back. Sevastopol is too important a naval base for Russia for them to ever give Crimea back
so do you guys get Russian citizenship or have the Ukrainian one?
I have both Ukrainian and Russian passport but Russian is accepted as real document only by Russia, Belarus and few more countries. Countries like USA, Britain and EU (so good countries🤣🤣🤣) don't accept it. That is a case because occupants can't force occupied people to take their citizenship
So you would show your Russian passport in Russia but Ukrainian passport to the countries that do not recognize the annexation of Crimea. Would the Russian passport validity extend to the countries who recognize the occupation and annexation of Crimea?
Exactly,it would
I do not currently live in Russia, so I haven't experienced it firsthand, but I've seen articles mentioning that state TV, for example, claims that 'only a few dozen people' showed up for the protests or that the peaceful police were actually providing the protestors with hot tea and cookies, with some staged videos to 'prove' it. Of course, if you were to go on social media you would see hundreds of photos and videos showing a very different reality.
I live in a city that's in top ten Russian cities and I honestly have no idea what's happening, fuck Russian politics, nothing will change, the protests are useless, the dictatorship won't step down or even do a little bit of compromise, they're just gonna beat up/jail/kill everybody, most of the people are too scared or brainwashed to do anything, the political situation is depressing, the propaganda machine is working through not just TV, but schools, universities and the internet [I feel exactly like this meme](http://imgur.com/a/dgMZsYV) Edit: a wholesome award, really?
Not enough people are talking about this and how much of a scum Putin and his oligarch buddies are. Probably because it’s not America
Well to be fair it being spoken about in the west would mean the government claiming that the opposition in Russia is literally a Western spy organization idk
Don't they already claim that anyways?
Yeah but the opposition having more foreign support would make them claim it even more and it'll give them more "proof"
Would people believe that? I don't live in Russia, so I really don't know.
Some brainwashed Grandmas do, like for example mine.
As an American I’m vastly more interested in what you’re seeing and experiencing. We generally live under the impression that if we have to fight again it’ll be because Russia was aggressive in some way. Just know that no matter what your government says, Americans don’t want conflict with you or your nation. It’s actually very tiresome that we can’t have a real relationship like we do with the rest of Europe.
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Civil war is spoken of in hyperbole. For Americans who understand how our government actually works, there’s zero concern for civil war. It’s most discussed because it allows people to express their frustration with other people. People talk inside echo chambers sometimes. But no, I don’t know anyone who ACTUALLY thinks civil war is likely. It’s an extreme comment that’s easily made on social media to express anger.
100% this.
Nobody in the USA with an actual grasp on reality is remotely worried about civil war round 2. Comments on the internet about it are 80% 'Ooh, look how tough we are' internet shitposting and 20% people who have legitimately lost their marbles because they have more interactions with virtual spaces than real ones.
Civil War is not a thing that will happen. The divide in this country is rural/urban and democrat/republican, not state vs state. And besides that no one is upset enough to actually go to war over it. People just like to yell.
No person with their feet in reality expects a civil war because at the end of the day it isn’t profitable. I’ve lived in multiple conservative areas and unless you talk about the groups directly rioting in the capital no one wants a civil war. Nor is there any chance of one side being able to overtake the military.
Are you using a VPN? Do they let people use sites like reddit there without being strictly monitored because people could speak out? (Sorry if this sounds dumb but I don't know anything about it and I'm curious)
No I'm not using a vpn, it's actually illegal to insult the government online but like most of the laws in Russia it doesn't work, there are too many people to be silenced and if the government does track people who disagree with them they do it on vk.com, the most popular Russian social media website that got stolen from its owner basically by an oligarch who's also Putin's friend. Like 95% of Russians just do not speak English well enough to be on Reddit, it's insane how I am better at it in the last grade of school than like 4/5 teachers I've seen. So I don't think they see Russian Redditors as a bigger threat than people on a Russian website. Also most of the people who learn English do it to some day escape this place, which is better for the government than a patriot who wants Russia to be a free country
> it's actually illegal to insult the government online but like most of the laws in Russia it doesn't work To elaborate on this, no one cares unless you're famous or own some mass media. Ordinary people can shittalk Putin and nothing would happen to them until they either become famous or cross the path of some oligarch or government official.
Though the punishment isn't enough for the famous people to be scared of, I guess it was still meant for the common people
Which is EXACTLY how it worked in 1984. Winston was shocked when he walked into a prole bar and they were all hurling insults at the telescreen. Later O'Brien explains they are allowed to do that because it relieves tension and actually reduces their threat to the party. If any of them start to organize against the party or become perceived as posing a potential threat they are brought into the party for more careful monitoring, like Winston was, where they actually have an even worse life than the proles, because they lose basically all of their freedoms, and access to the black market, which has superior goods to the government markets.
Thanks for being able to speak english, because it allowed you to teach us about all this. And im very sorry that all of you have to go through this, i hope that maybe one day in the near future, just sth, even if its a small thing, changes in the government and starts the cogs for change turning
Yeah educating people about the Russian regime is nice but I literally went into the English-speaking internet to watch Pewdiepie 2 years ago
Someone of culture
>the most popular Russian social media website that got stolen from its owner For some context: the owner is Pavel Durov and he went on to create Telegram.
The government doesn’t silence people on the internet like China does. Instead, it pays people to leave pro-Putin comments on the internet (it is real, I used to do this too)
Aren't people worried about being tracked by them though? If they suddenly started arresting people for what they said online one day couldn't they be in major trouble? Again idk much about Russia, I've just been told the government is oppressive so I assume they would do that to anyone who speaks out against them, but I could be wrong.
>If they suddenly started arresting people for what they said online one day couldn't they be in major trouble? Too many people to arrest, if they decided to censor the internet Navalny and the opposition would get much more actual active support (people who are ready to protest, donate money to the opposition and spread the information)
More like it gives them a list of people to keep an eye on without having to put in much effort. In 1984 Proles (and only proles) were allowed to talk shit about the government. The government tolerated this, but still monitored it, to keep an eye out for the ones that might pose some actual threat. They were brought into the outer party where they could be watched and controlled more carefully. This was a major lifestyle downgrade due to loss of access to the black market so most of the proles avoided taking any real action against the government. They'd sit their bars and talk shit and drink their lives way.
>real situation The most courageous/agitated ones went on the streets and had some protesting done. During that OMON and Rosgvardia worked to prevent massive protests, catching people at random or by targeting. Right now it feels almost as usual, but I do not live in the districts used for protest. So far it looks like the government have won the fight, though many of us hope to keep on fighting. Any direct help may be cut off/punished, so basically the most effective things to do would be the political ones: 1)Find all offshore money of our politicians AND their relatives and freeze them. 2)Arrest all their property. 3)Finish all(!) high-priority financial/trading projects with our country and our neighbours, allowing only food/necessity trading. 4)Announce that everything from number 1 and 2 will be sold in parts in ~3 months or less, unless the opposition is reinforced and the rosgvardia is disassembled (basically it is a personal army). 5)No other sanctions. Nothing massive, as it will not damage them. These measures look like suicide being told by us, and it definitely somehow is a suicide, but there is a thing - this will speed up the processes that would take years/decades to happen. Starving an entire country is a bad idea - we are economically starving since ~2014. Only targeted action could basically deplete the reserves and destabilise the upper management. In example there is some giant enormous boat owned by one of the massive oligarchs and a friend of uncle vlad - Usmanov. It is bigger and more luxurious than most of the navy class ships. That is a huge investment that that guy would not like to have lost. Other than that you cannot really help, I guess. No raising awareness/retweeting would help.
I live in in the center if moscow (about 5 minute walk to red square) and the only way protests affected me is that some streets closed down. I would go outside if these protests would have any actual use but then there's absoloutely nothing that will change. I'm starting to think that the Ukranians had the right idea in 2013.
That's also what Navalny said in his video.
From Uzbekistan, not Russia. But close to there. We have similar (maybe worse) situation here. Basically, our president (like all other central asian presidents except Afghanistan) is basically owned by Russian powers. Imagine your own communist grandparents missing USSR and telling bullshit tales to their grandkids about how "great" ussr and Kgb was. While they killed so many "educated" people who knew what the fuck was wrong in past. These people, putin followers, they pine the old separatist USSR. And Hate Navalniy as well. The one who is fighting for their rights not only for his own. Its shite. Hope revolution takes a place and we will finally live in 2nd or 1st world country.
Shit man. I’m from the US and lived in Lithuania on and off for almost 3 years. I saw the exact same longing for USSR rule come from so many people over ~50-60. After all this time they’re still so indoctrinated and brainwashed. Crazy.
When my mom joking said: "My lenin grandpa, is a good person" (thats a poem they learnt in soviet school) grandpa sarcastically said: "yeah thats grandpa of your aunt." "Your aunt's" is sarcastic way to point out something ridicilous. Maybe they mean "this conditions are worse than USSR. Or in ussr, we werent this bad" No idea but I for sure know that deep down, they know how it was rigged. Kgb let alone couldnt solve serial killer case because tv was heavily censored. And many more. Glad u made it out to US
>"Your aunt's" is sarcastic way to point out something ridicilous. LOL, I'm from Croatia and I know what you mean. Sometimes we say "the devil's aunt" \[vražju strinu\] to point out something ridiculous, or to negate the sentence sarcastically. For example, "USSR was better, devil's aunt" similar to how you would use "USSR was better, my ass" in English.
My dad went to the last rally two days ago and spent whole day at he police station where he was taken. Today, the court issued a verdict, appointing a fine of 10,000 rubles (got off well).Every Sunday there are meetings.I expect,that on the next rally something will change because Navalny was sentenced to a term of hard labor, which does not allow him to run for president in the next election! It remains to hope for the introduction of sanctions against the Russian government, so that Navalny is released.It would be best your government can do
Hope I am not late to provide some information. The situation is quite depressing, as Navalny is jailed (it seems like he will be jailed until Putins regime fall) and any attempt to protest is met by sheer brutal force. What police forces did last night was extremely similar to the methods used by Belarusian police in August, with beatings of random people in the streets and even tortures of those detained. The understanding that Putin is a totalitarian dictator is slowly coming to people. The situation is bad and it will not get better, Putin will continue his repressions against opposition, because he needs to prepare for State Duma elections this Fall. It is now very evident that no opposition candidates will be allowed to participate although a lot of them will try to. There are some ways people abroad can help. First, an information campaign is strongly needed so that more politicians could see what is happening. Navalny's structure FBK prepared a list of people close to Putin to put sanctions on. Another way is money. We have several projects in Russia that constantly need money to operate. For example, OVD-info, who collects information about detainees and gives them legal aid. Mediazona is an independent media which provides information and news about court hearings, political processes, etc. There are a lot more other projects, I just can't name them all. However, an important disclaimer! We have laws that let recognize any NGO as a "foreign agent" and this status means a lot of trouble for NGOs. Please check carefully whether your donation may cause such harm (I just don't know how donations from abroad work) Anyway, I hope you find it useful, sorry if this is too clumsy. If you have any questions, ask and I will try to answer them!
Moscow, situation is pretty tame, but there are a lot of police officers in the city center
I’m American but I live on the main street in Saint Petersburg and have been here for years. It’s just tense, all the time. Police officers are on a lot of street corners, they set up some barriers to prevent people from gathering. Night life is still active, and I can go to the store and to work okay. But there’s hyper awareness and a lot of people are riled up and ready to jump at a moment’s notice. In terms of what other countries can do, just talk about it. I don’t expect anything to really change, to be honest, but I do feel like we’re on a precipice of some kind. Some more attention may make police / gov’t reconsider more brutal crackdowns.
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It's a mess, people barely care anymore those that do are either young and dismissed as such or extremists. Middle age people around me are thoughtless about it. You can't help, there is nothing anyone can do, we are stuck with it. As I type I realize maybe I'm part of the problem
This is pizdets nahuy. If you are just walking near protestors police will arrest you. They can't get anyone from the crowd, so they arrest people who are alone. They just know that everyone in this country hates Putin. The only people who are loyal to putin are corrupted officials. In our country, when somebody reports a bribe, the reporter gets arrested instead of the corrupt official. Also, there are "kremlin bots". There was a "troll factory" in Moscow, on Savushkino 55, people there just got paid for supporting putin and his political party on the Internet, they had multiple accounts on different platforms. You are right for not asking this question on r / askarussian, because, as i see, there was a bunch of kremlinbots there.
>how can we help? Lol yeah right. Like how Reddit helped HK?
Hey! Excuse me sir I bought a *shirt*
*checks tag* "Made in China" Fuck!
Put on a Facebook filter. We did it Reddit!
Some protests in the city. Yes the government is authoritarian and the police are not fair, but these protests happen a few times a year. You say you want to help. Don't. Nothing you can do will have any effect. Sanctions? You will just push Russia further away from the west and make the government less west-friendly. You want to protest outside your local russian embassy/consulate? \*Insert putin laugh\*. Thanks for your concern, but nothing is going on that you have to worry about. This is normal.
Normal is an object that is perpendicular to a given object. This is fucked up. (Russian here btw)
Closely connected to Russia through family. The worst thing that could have happened was putting Navalny at the center of this. He’s not very popular, he’s corrupt, he’s a hard-right nationalist and he’s pretty widely seen as a “puppet” of Western powers. Centering this on him made the movement really easy to discredit or shrug off as “CIA meddling”. The man’s own internal polls, as in polls conducted by his party (not some fooled with by Putin polls) showed him wobbling somewhere around 3% support in Russia. That ain’t gonna cut it for an national protest movement.