It makes sense why the west and Russia fail to see eye to eye on foreign policies when you look at these things. There’s a really good Youtuber, a Russian citizen who interviews folk from all demographics about their opinions on literally anything related to current events. Goes by the name “1420 by Daniil Orain”. Great translations with raw footage.

It really helps grasp why the sentiment is so different.

Aight. Well I can report you, and a Reddit employee may read your post. So maybe follow your own advice and get the hell of this website lol

Yes but I don’t feel like the Civil War is nearly a good comparison. It’s a completely different era and the Confederacy was never a Sovereign nation. A succeeded union, sure, but pretty conceptually different. An ongoing civil conflict with a short few years of independence.

Also it’s interesting when Russians talk about Nazi’s, because so many westerners are contextualizing “nazi” to be a universal term. “Nazi” to Russia has never meant “Nazi” the way the US see it. Lots of interesting reads out there on this topic. In short, it is about the invaders from the west that caused the Great Patriotic War, or WW2.

The Nazi terminology in the Ukraine war is much more about the western favoring government that “infiltrated” this ex-Soviet state back in 2014. Which makes sense, since Kiev has suppressed and attacked the Russia-favoring republics of Donetsk and Luhansk for nearly a decade. The Nazi narrative makes some sense when you look at it from that perspective, “invaders from the west”.

I do see a debatable difference, but I wouldn’t call it a big difference. It should be expected that if your data is being mined, someone may be reading what you type.

The point isn’t how Californians view themselves. It’s how Americans would view a succeeded state, California being a likely candidate for its GDP and ideal borders.

The point also isn’t how Ukrainians view themselves. It is how the older generations of Russians view Ukraine.

I don’t know how you missed that point of the post.

I like the think that internal governments will fall REALLY quickly in a nuclear disaster. The leaders of that new world (if possible) will be the ones looking to survive. Nobody will want to listen to someone who is hell bent on violence. I can’t even imagine people following a US president after a nuclear war unless their first priority was stability

It’s not just that this is some off-beat Putin opinion. Most of the older generations of Russians, especially retired, have a very strong opinion about “the motherland”.

I mean, if California succeeded from the US in an economic collapse, it’s pretty plausible to believe that Americans would still consider it to be an “American” territory, vassal, or rebellious state. If several states broke apart from the US, there would be a strong following of people who believe the US deserves to reclaim and reunite and that should be a political goal. Now imagine if Russia started arming these breakaway states.

It’s still an unjust and unethical war in Ukraine, but the perception in Russia is just different. Most of the opposers to the war are young people, who don’t have any government power.