@ GI: I... don't think it's actually on fire yet, s'just Mict actively trying to set it alight. And CP helping a little, I'unno.
I've got extra matches, if anyone wants 'em.
I'm not terribly anti-Russian, and I'm not even thoroughly anti-Soviet. I can understand why they did what they did. But at the same time, I'm definitely anti-Stalin, and anti-Putin, and anti-anyone who thinks fondly on that "strong Slavic autocrat" type of ruler and thinks that Russia can't function without one.
They probably CAN'T, mind you (I think the 1990's showcased that pretty well)...but then IMHO the solution is to break Russia up into more manageable chunks than to keep putting iron-fisted powermongers in charge.
Part of my family lived in the Saratov region for around 200 years until their ethnic group began getting the shit end of the stick from neighboring Russians and the Russian Imperial government. They got out just shortly before the 1917 Revolution, which is good. Because after 1943 or so, those who were still left found themselves on trains bound for Siberia because they were deemed insufficiently loyal because they were ethnic Germans. Ignoring the fact that when they originally migrated in the 1700s, there was no German state, and that their version of German language was so heavily divergent that it's almost unintelligible to native Germans, and that they had fought and died for the Tsar in the Russo-Japanese War....