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[Strongpoint]

Some Russians do have this agreement but I firmly believe that a huge majority of Russians largely enjoy their country as it is, it fits their values and beliefs.

They may dislike that Putin and his pals are thieves, that the war is fought in an ineffective way, that the infrastructure of their city is shit, and that their salary is tiny.

But they do think that Ukraine is just traitor Russians that must be reconquered and reeducated, that The West(c) is a degenerative LGBT immoral hell, that all that fair elections aren't really necessary, etc. And they are perfectly willing to defend their way of life and even die for it in the war.

[Maximum Spin]

Some Russians do have this agreement but I firmly believe that a huge majority of Russians largely enjoy their country as it is, it fits their values and beliefs.

All the evidence from previous western research and journalism in Russia suggests this is the case, yes.

[MaxTheFox]

In my experience the two younger generations tend to be anti-Putin but yeah 70% to 80% of older Russians support the current government. But also note that a lot of those surveys have no indication of being anonymous, which naturally skews the results because, frankly, most people would rather say they support Putin than risk anything.

But yeah it's still too many Putinists to make resistance be able to overthrow the government as it currently stands. There's a reason I have, as part of my political daydreams, fantasies of launching a "Deputinization" campaign that purges the government and censors the media of that filth. Realistic? No, I don't think so. Cathartic? Yes.

[Strongpoint]

Supporting Putin is an unimportant part.  Supporting current ideas and values of Russia is. Many of those who valiantly fight in Ukraine or work hard in the defense industry or "maintain order" in FSB hate Putin for one reason or another.  Many of them would happily vote for someone else on fair elections but that someone else would largely continue the current course because it is what the country wants.

And anti-Putin resistance is a dream,

[MaxTheFox]

Not even what I meant. The younger someone is the more likely they're disillusioned with Russian values. Why? Because that demographic spends more time on the Western internet. Though ofc some Russian zoomers are VK-brained or Odnoklassniki-brained.

[MaxTheFox]

On the other hand maybe I'm biased because people with similar beliefs tend to stick together and I rarely hang around Russian conservatives for long. But I still don't at all trust these surveys because they're biased too.

[EuchreJack]

Well, a lot of folks in my area love Trump, so I sympathize.

It's actually quite hard to fight propaganda and value signaling.  Most of the folks aren't too bad, they just want to believe in something that gives them comfort and does not question their previous 60+ years of life experience.

It's also scary how popular Vivek Ramaswamy is with the younger republicans. But he's a rich shitbagger*, so you can't really trust any statistics regarding his popularity, since he's perfectly capable of skewing them in his favor.

*I just added "shitbagger" to my dictionary. I use this word enough, and plan to use it more in the future.

[Strongpoint]

The United States has called on Kyiv to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries.

The reason - this could lead to an increase in oil prices worldwide, according to sources cited by the Financial Times.

According to one official, the White House is increasingly disappointed by the "brazen attacks" of Ukrainian drones on Russian oil facilities.


Mwuhahahahaha.

I read this as - You can't wage an effective war against your genocidal enemies because gas prices may stop Biden from winning elections.


Meanwhile, ~100 attacked our energy infrastructure this morning. Hello rolling blackouts... I got used to life without you.

[EuchreJack]

Dude, you cited the Financial Times. I think that is basically China's Japan's newspaper.

... actually a good bit of reporting on your part, Strongpoint.

As it turns out, Japan can still import Russian oil.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/commodities-futures/japan-can-keep-importing-russian-oil-above-price-cap-through-june-2024-u-s-says-be03e4a7

The Japanese do not believe in losing money, unfortunately.

[Strongpoint]

Yeah, those are rumors and not something official but the Financial Times, despite having its biases, is a rather reliable source and usually doesn't invent stuff out of thin air.

[Lord Shonus]

I don't believe a word of it, partly because the Financial Times is the only source (everyone else repeating it is quoting them), and partly because their article cites "three people involved with the negotiations" as their source. Not "officials", not "negotiators", not any of the usual journalistic codes to imply that the people they're quoting are people who actually matter.

[Strongpoint]

Terror attack in Moscow. At least two gunmen with assault rifles entered a mall and started killing.

Your bets

1) FSB's false flag
2) PTSD heroes of SVO having fun
3) Islamists\North Caucasus separatists
4) Some new anti-Putin Russian resistance with the type of ideology that allows such nasty stuff.
5) Some desperate and sick (and stupid) Ukrainian radicals who decided to bring some war to Moscow
6) Other

[Egan_BW]

How about the way it usually is in the US, which is that some random guy just decided to do that because fuck the world?

[Cathar]

Big terrorist attack special military operation currently ongoing in Crocus city hall, moscow.
Edit : My bet :
Popular resistance is totally out. False flag doesn't make sense. imho radical separatists got their almonds activated after peskov hinted at mobilization
Edit 2 : A terrorist plot was already hinted at earlier, with US embassy urging its citizen to leave moscow and avoid crowds. It's likely not a false flag operation, and the culprits are probably already known

Edit 3 : Reaction time from the russian forces, about one hour. The shooters escaped. The absolute state of that country.

[nenjin]

I'm both surprised, and unsurprised, that they got away.

If this was America they'd have both been killed, along with several other civilians and probably someone's pets.