Continuing to incur sacrifices due to the belief that Ukrainians are fraternal people who thus shouldn’t be inconvenienced or harmed if it can be helped instead of decisively doing what’s needed to end the conflict on as many of Russia’s terms as possible is Christ-like but entails tremendous costs and risks.
Andrew, Anatoly Karlin recently posted on X about a Russian girl who got the highest score in everything from math to computer science, to chemistry, I think, on the big exam high schoolers take in Russia. I asked if Russia tracks these kids and what they do after, and someone commented that he was one of the high scorers, and now he works for an AI startup in Shenzhen.
Has Putin done anything to retain the smartest young Russians, or attract some of them them who are expats to come back? It seems like a colossal brain drain for these people to be working in Silicon Valley and China. Even from a short term perspective, these people might help Russia deal with Ukraine's drone threat, or otherwise expedite an end to the conflict on more favorable terms for Russia.
Russian businesses, including state ones, aren't usually proactive at all. What we in the West call talent scouting is practically unheard of here. Job fairs also aren't all that common either but they're more common than talent scouting.
When it comes to businesses, in my experience at least and there are some exceptions, the attitude is that the customer is always wrong, the customer should appreciate that the service or good is being offered in the first place, and go elsewhere if they don't like it.
I worked in customer service-related jobs from 14 till I left the US a decade later at 24, and here in Russia, it's mostly the polar opposite of what I'm used to. I know that everyone has bad customer service experiences wherever they are, but here, they're more bad than good.
I also worked in fast food for some years too and enjoy watching fast food workers prepare my meal as a hobby of sorts. Whereas we had what is known as a "sense of urgency" to serve as many clients as fast as possible, here they're mostly sluggish and don't care.
You can't complain either because they frankly don't care. Once I was at the "Russian McDonald's" and it was something like 20 minutes to get my small order (there were barely any people there either and not many online orders).
I said something like "Isn't this supposed to be McDonald's? Why are you so slow?" and they angrily retorted, "You're not in America, this is Russia, and this is now a Russian company!", which actually made them look very, very bad if you think about it.
What they were basically saying is that the American style of customer service in this industry is far superior to the Russian one, the latter of which is by their innuendo lazy and couldn't care less about the customer. "If you don't like it, leave", is the impression.
There have been times where I walk up to a cash register whenever I don't want to use the touchscreens and it takes between 1-2 minutes for them to send someone to serve me. In the US, we're supposed to greet customers within seconds even if we can't serve them.
Stuff like this just grinds my gears because I personally believe that workers should be respectful to customers, who spend their hard-earned money buying their goods or services, but the mentality here is that they almost despise you for making them work.
If most customer service employees are slow and lazy, then there's not much difference if you go to another place, right? So through these means, you're left with an absence of choice when it comes to service unless you go to a top-notch expensive place.
It's incredibly demoralizing because I used to think that Russians wanted to improve themselves and their country, but actually, many just want to get by, finish their 9-5, then go home and do whatever. It's the cultural trait (cancer in my opinion) of "avos":
So circling back, I could easily imagine some extraordinary, hard-working, visionary Russian genius not being approached by any company, neither private nor public, and then going abroad for work because they don't appreciate her here.
With few exceptions, extraordinary people seem to make average people here jealous, and I guess it's the same everywhere, but the difference is that the US or China for example would want to keep that talent inside the country to help the country.
I'm sure that they want the same in Russia, but they almost certainly expected her to grovel on her knees and beg, applying to who knows how many places until someone begrudgingly finally says, "okay, we'll accept a genius in our ranks, fine."
I think it's sad what happened to her, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. It's a cultural issue and one that probably won't ever be changed since another cultural trait is stubbornness, ESPECIALLY in the face of change!
That 2% unemployment rate is only since the SMO, it wasn't like that in 2013 when I first arrived. It's a cultural issue, not an economic systemic one. The mindset causes so many problems here, from broken feedback loops to needless brain drain, but they cling to it since they (in my opinion wrongly) conflate it with some eternal culture when it's really just a bunch of bad habits that hold Russia back.
In a sense, I can't help but imagine some isolated tribe doing something that 99% of the world would consider bad for them, let's say they brutally mutilate their limbs as a coming of age initiation, but the tribe angrily clings to their tradition because their forefathers did so they can't imagine not doing it as well. It's sad, but that's how I consider (the, in my opinion, cultural cancer) of "avos" to be here.
Take a look at the Chinese and how the CPC reformed their mindset from the brutal -- arguably almost savage -- interwar period of civil wars, warlords, and the like to one where people are thinking in advance, doing scenario forecasting in their own lives (both personal and professional), and planning accordingly while their government regularly engages in self-criticism and -reform culminating in policy changes as required instead of clinging to outdated ones that nowadays do more harm than good (like Russia does).
What communism, despite being a violently imposed foreign ideology, did for Russians is it got them to abandon 'avos" in favor of what was described above per what is now more widely known as the Chinese model.
Unfortunately, during Brezhnev's era, complacency led to stagnation and then decline, which resulted in disillusionment with the system as a whole due to its economic underperformance and other problems, which resulted in the return of "avos".
Russians "threw the baby out with the bathwater" so to speak after communism ended by (in my opinion falsely) conflating "avos" as some mystical aspect of eternal Russian culture that was suppressed for decades and re-embraced it with a vengeance.
I'll never forget the footage from the first weeks of the SMO where column upon column of Russian forces were destroy over and over through Javelin ambushes.
You'd think that the armed forces would have realized early on that something is wrong, that their approach isn't working, that they're fighting the last war so to speak and must urgently change.
Nope, it wasn't till some weeks later, I think that summer, that this finally stopped after reforms were belatedly made, but for weeks, many, many Russians were killed through such means.
That's when I knew that "avos" is a cultural cancer that had infected the highest levels of the state if even the armed forces were affected as evidenced by the above.
That summer, I published my first constructive critique of the SMO with that in mind, which I now regularly hyperlink to whenever I mention the SMO in my work:
Every time I think about those images and that footage I get kind of depressed and it's not even my country -- I wasn't born here, I'm not ethnically Russian, and I'm not a citizen.
I just care about Russia deeply as my second homeland, which I love and have done everything to help in my 13 years here, and that's why it deeply saddens me to see "avos" destroy it.
I had to do a double-take to make sure I am reading the author’s reply. Wow! Well, I can only say that my experience is the polar opposite. US/Canadian customer service is okay, I guess, Europe is just bad overall, and Russia is head and shoulders above the rest. I’ve never waited more than a few minutes in a fast food joint and they’ve always been very friendly. As well as in restaurants, cafes, etc.
Yes, I was also surprised by this post. I visited Moscow and a couple of small towns in Central Russia in 2025, and the service was always very good. It seems the author has never been served in restaurants or fastfood in Europe.
It's exactly the same at service industries in Europe, anywhere there's union protections or government-mandated long term labor contracts (all of Scandinavia, Germany, France, the low countries). Tipping is the difference and reason for good service in the U.S. at many places.
Finland has even worse customer service than Russia. And Sweden has even worse customer service than Finland. And Germany doesn't even bother - stores close at 6 pm by law and aren't open on weekends, also by law.
I don't know enough about the Russians, but I would have thought the important question is not whether the state tracks and attracts them, but whether these kids feel they need to apply their talents and energy. and indeed be happy to sacrifice their lives if necessary, in their country's hour of need. Perhaps they don't feel this is their country's hour of need?
I learnt the Chinese have been impressed by the fact that many young Iranians in China, including students, dropped everything and went back to Iran to assist the war efforts after their country was attacked by the US and Israel. I am pretty confident the Chinese would have done exactly the same. The Russians in this conflict? I have no idea.
I agree, Andrew, however, the problem is not Ukraine. The problem is the globalist group that truly rules both the EU and the USA and pulls the strings of the leaders of these states: 'Who made you king?' I think that striking Ukraine excessively would be a mistake. It would only strengthen NATO's PR campaign depicting Russia as an imperialist barbarian (the height of irony...) and it wouldn't solve anything in Ukraine. All Russian elites say it and repeat it, rightly so, it's a NATO proxy war. If NATO's true leaders think that time is against Russia, it is them who must be deterred. Because Ukrainians defeated by force will not prevent terrorism directed from Langley, London, or Paris.
So the trillion dollar question is how do you "deter" those in Langley, London or Paris?
Since a war against them obviously can't be "won", I would have thought logically escalation would simply lengthen and deepen the conflict, and feed their PR campaign, as you indicated.
History suggests those morons love starting wars, but have short attention span (something to do with their election cycles, I suspect). They are also facing numerous, bigger, problems on all fronts. So perhaps patience (since this war is also costly to them), with judicious de-escalation eventually, is a better way.
" It's the only way, force and fear is the only thing that West knows and respect. "
" I think that striking Ukraine excessively would be a mistake. It would only strengthen NATO's PR campaign depicting Russia as an imperialist barbarian "
Many people mock Putin's 2021 magnum opus. However in 2014, Vlodomir Zelensky had said: "In the east and in Crimea, people want to speak Russian. Leave them alone, just leave them alone. Legally, provide them the right to speak Russian. Language should never divide our country... RUSSIA AND UKRAINE ARE BROTHERLY PEOPLE - I KNOW MANY MILLIONS, THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN RUSSIA AND WHO ARE WONDERFUL. WE ARE ONE COLOR, ONE BLOOD - WE UNDERSTAND EACHOTHER, IRRESPECTIVE OF LANGUAGE..." (emphasis added). Unfortunately when Ukrainian Nazi Oligarch, Igor Kolomoyski, got him elected, he attacked the Russian language to divide his country, as part of his preparations for the proxy war which Mi6 and the CIA have been engineering since WWII...
I believe in the historical basis of Putin's argument but my view nowadays is that the past 4.5 years have led to a shift in overall Ukrainian self-identification as a very distinct ethno-national group historically at odds with Russia as opposed to being its fraternal people.
I adhere closely to the Constructivist school of International Relations thought which emphasizes the significance of perceptions, which can change (both naturally and through intentional, including foreign, means) at the state and society level.
Shifting perceptions can lead to shifting interests, and I personally believe that's what happened here, and that it was both by design (both on Zelensky's and the West's part) and natural. As it stands, I don't believe that most Ukrainians consider Russians to be fraternal.
It doesn't matter what their objective history and socio-cultural status is; at present, they do not see themselves this way, just like many Islamized Slavs in the former Yugoslavia consider themselves to be Bosniaks instead of Croats or Serbs.
Some Serbs even claim that Croats used to be Serbs, but I don't want to get into the details of their historical interpretations, I'm just pointing out that self-identification can indeed change over time and this can lead to different perceived interests as well.
A popular example among Poles is the first interwar president Gabriel Narutowicz obviously considered himself to be Polish while his brother Stanisław Narutowicz interestingly considered himself to be Lithuanian:
I genuinely don't see that happening after all that Ukrainians have experienced. Most will likely see the strengthening of their self-identification as a people distinct from Russians. This is especially so if Kiev continues to control the media.
I can't imagine Kiev relinquishing its wartime control over these platforms. It seized control over them precisely to facilitate its goal of reshaping its people's identity. I see no indication that they'll willingly cede it. That's just wishful thinking.
I really think that for Russians, the interest would be to split Ukraine at least in three. The oblasts now Russian, a new Ukraine between Russia and Dniepr and including Odessa, neutralised, denazified. And Galicia..perhaps some lands to Poland, Hungary and Romania.
This would only be acceptable to the West if it benefitted as a result. The situations in Kosovo and the Donbass are remarkably similar. Kosovo has valuable mineral resources and a high concentration of Albanians, while the DPR and LPR have valuable mineral resources and a high concentration of Russians. Kosovo was allowed independence, because that gave the West the ability to plunder its minerals. Meanwhile the DPR and LPR are not allowed independence, as that would make it more difficult for the West to plunder its minerals...
At the start of the Special Military Operation, Timofey Sergeytsev set out the extensive measures which would be required to effectively denazify Ukraine. Needless to say the West labelled this as a genocidal"final solution" manifesto...
Zelensky has been following the advice given by General Moshe Dayan, when he said: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother". Nobody likes living next to a mad dog!
Like Israel, Zelensky cares nothing for the average person. Indeed one of Putin's weaknesses is the fact that he cares more about the kindred Ukrainians than Zelensky does...
This is sadly true. Since WWII, Mi6 and the OSS / CIA have been encouraging Ukrainians to idolise Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and hate Russians (Operation Aerodynamic). With the growing capture of Ukrainian politics since 1991, this has gotten steadily worse. Igniting the long planned proxy war escalated this to a new extreme.
Vladimir Buchok, a Ukrainian serviceman of the 24th brigade of the AFU, was mobilised on his way home from university. After being sent for training in the UK, he confirmed: “I was trained in the UK. They taught us how to use weapons and medicine. PSYCHOLOGISTS WORKED ON US SO THAT WE DID NOT LIKE RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AND ALL RUSSIANS IN GENERAL, SO THAT WE KILLED THEM AND TREATED THEM HARSHLY WHEN WE CAPTURED THEM” (emphasis added).
Finishing this war one way or another would be a most humanitarian act. There is something more and more irrational and surrealistic about the whole conflict. Putin is right, they are two closely related groups but this does not mean that Ukraine should be allowed to undermine the security and stability of the Russian Federation. Especially not when we consider that Ukraine is clearly enslaved by a small group of foreigners that caused more damage to that country than the Soviet Union. I see a possibility of Putin undermining his own authority.
"so it’s best for Russia to act decisively in order to win it soon before its sacrifices pile up."
It is not obvious to me why it is possible for Russia to "win" in this conflict - the Palestinians have been subjected to the Dahiya Doctrine for decades - yet Israel hasn't won - can we be confident that similar actions by Russia, as long as e.g. Donbas is occupied, will not simply harden resistance?
Wars are easy to start and difficult to end - how can Russia "win" this war, given neither Russia nor the US was able to win in Afghanistan, nor the US was able to "win" against Iran, e.g. - when neither of those targets had serious Western support behind them like Ukraine has?
I think we are better off starting from the position that this war is going to end as a frozen conflict - i.e. neither side wins - then work backwards to figure out how best to reach that state.
I get your point and agree in principle, but with Ukraine, I do believe that it's possible to force it into surrender. All that must happen is for the state apparatus to collapse since that's what's rounding up meat for the grinder because the average Ukrainian doesn't want to fight.
As for the Palestinians, if Israel *really* wanted to, it could have wiped them off the face of the earth already, especially in Gaza. That's not to say that it hasn't committed any war crimes, but just that it too is restraining itself, albeit much less than Russia is. The Palestinians also have religious motivations for resisting (the overwhelming majority are Muslim).
By contrast, the Ukrainians more or less just want to get by and live their lives, ideally continuing to speak Ukrainian and electing their own leaders, that's it. They don't really have any religious motivations or grander vision (exceptions exist of course). I therefore believe that collapsing the state would have ended this conflict long, long ago.
To that end, destroying government and military buildings, conscription centers, powerplants, and bridges could have brought this about with ease but Putin didn't want to inflict hardships on the fraternal Ukrainian people as he sincerely considers them to be. I believe that his kindness was indeed mistaken for weakness and is now being exploited.
Wars are nearly never instigated by the man on the street - so while the average Ukrainian might well prefer to get by and live their lives, they actually don't have a say, unless one believes liberal democracy does what it says on the tin...
I suspect you would also agree that neither people around Zelensky, nor the European leaders who are pulling his strings, are in the mood for peace - for most European leaders today to even suggest exploring peace with Russia, while allowing Russia to keep Ukrainian territory, would be nothing short of political suicide.
Wow Andrew, USA is not a good exemple. I've worked with almost the whole world and I can assure you that USA is far the best bizness Partner of the whole world.
Accurate like Germans, efficient like English, efective like Neederlander, and nice and cool like Americans.
It's incredible that a so nice and brave people is ruled by such SOB.
Oh yeah, for sure, we Americans -- when we do things right as we should, and not everyone does so and not all the time either! -- absolutely dominate in business and it has nothing to do with systemic advantages or "brutal capitalism" but culture.
I've come around over the years to placing a lot of emphasis on cultural factors due to my close personal and working experiences with many different cultures from all across the world. It's an intangible but extremely significant factor, I've realized.
Closing in on 50 years ago, in discussion with my spouse about various matters, I would brush off her albeit generalist contention about matters being a "cultural thing". Took me some years to disabuse myself of my impatience with this view, but disabused I remain.
But the suffering derived from Christian context, does that not imply vicarious beneficiaries? Can these remain nationalist and non-universalist and still work as "Christian"? So Poles, Russians, other relatively Slavic nations taken advantage of, would any contend their self-sacrifice reaches universal relevance?
It has long seemed plausible to outsider me (and even prior to the "disabuse"), that Catholic identity aspects played a very big role in national self-preservation against neighbourhood onslaughts in Ireland, Quebec and Poland. At the same time, making for relative impoverishment at least materially, until modernity set in in earnest in all three. Is the Catholic-Orthodox role not also a very big factor in the historic Croat vs Serb animus, and again re Ukraine? Or at least, in the latter, particularly taken advantage of, and of lesser historic "onslaught"-insulating effect as within the FSU acquisition of modernist elements was of the essence; thus a contrast with the others. Is the "return of history" to contain things like religio motivations really a contrivance; or a groping for retrieving the baby tossed with bathwater with advent of modernity?
"...so it would thus be best if Putin hardens his heart, changes his views about Ukrainians, and does what’s needed." First of all, if his views about Ukranians being brothers is what is holding him back, and not his deepest fear of "escalating" the conflict, we are all in trouble. London and the US perceive him to be weak and they will not stop crossing Putin's red lines. Sending Witkoff and Kushner to meet with Putin's "kindness" is a slap in the face and insulting. These two shysters are not diplomats and anyone with a brain knows what they want both here and in the Middle East: money, resources, and big money-making deals. If Russia does not act forcefully and now, Europe will get its war with Russia by 2030, and that will be nuclear. Si vis bellum, para bellum. The time is NOW to put the fear of god into the European Fascists, Nazis, London and the USA. Otherwise this war of attrition will once again bleed Russia's economy, destroy the military, and cast Russia into another post-Afghanistan disaster.
YES ,Russia is the Christ of nations. In Ameriica, the mainline Protestent churchs have all but vanished to be replaced by scores of little "rinky dink" churches with no real religion in them. Just make your choices as you wish. Thank GOD rhere is Russian Orthodoxy to step forward and LEED Chistianity. Russians are great in many respects. Military, who defeated the Germans 95% of the Germans got killed fightinf the Great Red Army. Calling RUSSIA the CHRIST of Nations.
Putin's Christian dilemma. The Western EU wishes to punish Russia for rejecting Communism and returning to the Christian faith. The European Union is a communist creation, and the United States under Biden was becoming communist. They saw Russia abandoning communism as a betrayal of Marxism, and they overthrew the Ukrainian government and set up a Nazi government. The Nazi begin the cleansing of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, who revolted and declared independence. Putin was forced into war to save the Russian minority. Putin sees Ukraine as a conquered nation that needs to be rescued from the western controlled Nazi gang. Putin now understands that to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, the war must end quickly. Mr. Putin should declare a day of prayer for Russia and the Ukraine and strike hard and fast to end this war for the sake of humanity.
Rudolph Hess tried to land a peace offering and he died in English. Custody . Hitler had the English surrounded at the coast but didn’t slaughter them because he thought the English were kindred spirits . We’re did he end up ? Do what needs to done . Even if it means triple Orecshniks at London , Paris , and Berlin . Maybe include Washington DC .
From the article: Putin continues to sincerely believe that Russians and Ukrainians are still kindred peoples ...... For this reason, he won’t authorize the complete destruction of their country’s powerplants nor any of the bridges across the Dnieper...... the Ukrainian capital remains extremely safe, .......
Question: What is the calculation that makes it obvious to Putin that the destructions you listed would have caused in total more death and suffering than the prolongation of the war at any point from 2002 to this day?
And what is the basis of your confidence that Putin uses that calculation rather than some other?
And if in response you insist that it is obvious because Putin has repeatedly expressed his view of fraternal peoples, and many analysis agree with you, my question is: When Putin says something about the nation, like "the preservation of traditional values and demographics and improving living standards and the quality of life across the country as key priorities", do you see his words consistent with what his administration actually does?
How tempting could it be for Ukr to repeat "operation spider" type operations attacking airbase- aeroplanes with nuclear bomb capacity as before one wonders, trying to push up to a redline???? Surely they will try.
I concede your point 100% that Putin is too nice. Whether he is, in his personal beliefs, a doctrinal Orthodox Christian or not, he seems to live according to the values of Christianity; peace, love, humility, forgiveness, etc. (I read years ago an interview with his confessor, Father Tykhon, who complained gently that the president does not come every week for confession.)
I would point out, however, that Putin's military tactics -- let the Ukies attack us and be wiped out -- have efficiently killed two million Ukrainians. The cemeteries have to be continually expanded. They have resorted to dragooning because a whole generation of Slavs has been killed off.
I am certain that Putin -- 100% correctly -- sees the current batch of Western "leaders" as incompetent, genuinely traitorous, blackmailed, pedophilic fools who have no problem starting WW3. No problem at all -- because in a form of negative selection that is common in all multiparty democracies, it is the ruthless,egotistical liars who get backing, thrive, and win elections, and the sincere patriots with their boring facts lose.
Sorry but I will use a vulgarism to express my utter disgust -- these a--holes figure that when the Poseidon tsunami occurs or the mushroom clouds form over Paris, London, Berlin, and New York, they, the imaginary "special ones," will be way down there in their nuclear-proof deep-deep-deep, bunker-buster-PROOF bunkers with gourmet food, water, adrenochrome, and -- yes -- white children to molest.
And Putin does not want WW3 on HIS conscience. Unlike the narcissists/psychopaths such as Trump, Starmer, Macron and Merz, who hate and despise their own people -- the Epstein Class -- Putin is actually a human being who cares for his people.
Just remember when you criticize him what cards he was dealt. The Collective West elites are medically insane, and they have nukes.
Andrew, Anatoly Karlin recently posted on X about a Russian girl who got the highest score in everything from math to computer science, to chemistry, I think, on the big exam high schoolers take in Russia. I asked if Russia tracks these kids and what they do after, and someone commented that he was one of the high scorers, and now he works for an AI startup in Shenzhen.
Has Putin done anything to retain the smartest young Russians, or attract some of them them who are expats to come back? It seems like a colossal brain drain for these people to be working in Silicon Valley and China. Even from a short term perspective, these people might help Russia deal with Ukraine's drone threat, or otherwise expedite an end to the conflict on more favorable terms for Russia.
Russian businesses, including state ones, aren't usually proactive at all. What we in the West call talent scouting is practically unheard of here. Job fairs also aren't all that common either but they're more common than talent scouting.
When it comes to businesses, in my experience at least and there are some exceptions, the attitude is that the customer is always wrong, the customer should appreciate that the service or good is being offered in the first place, and go elsewhere if they don't like it.
I worked in customer service-related jobs from 14 till I left the US a decade later at 24, and here in Russia, it's mostly the polar opposite of what I'm used to. I know that everyone has bad customer service experiences wherever they are, but here, they're more bad than good.
I also worked in fast food for some years too and enjoy watching fast food workers prepare my meal as a hobby of sorts. Whereas we had what is known as a "sense of urgency" to serve as many clients as fast as possible, here they're mostly sluggish and don't care.
You can't complain either because they frankly don't care. Once I was at the "Russian McDonald's" and it was something like 20 minutes to get my small order (there were barely any people there either and not many online orders).
I said something like "Isn't this supposed to be McDonald's? Why are you so slow?" and they angrily retorted, "You're not in America, this is Russia, and this is now a Russian company!", which actually made them look very, very bad if you think about it.
What they were basically saying is that the American style of customer service in this industry is far superior to the Russian one, the latter of which is by their innuendo lazy and couldn't care less about the customer. "If you don't like it, leave", is the impression.
There have been times where I walk up to a cash register whenever I don't want to use the touchscreens and it takes between 1-2 minutes for them to send someone to serve me. In the US, we're supposed to greet customers within seconds even if we can't serve them.
Stuff like this just grinds my gears because I personally believe that workers should be respectful to customers, who spend their hard-earned money buying their goods or services, but the mentality here is that they almost despise you for making them work.
If most customer service employees are slow and lazy, then there's not much difference if you go to another place, right? So through these means, you're left with an absence of choice when it comes to service unless you go to a top-notch expensive place.
It's incredibly demoralizing because I used to think that Russians wanted to improve themselves and their country, but actually, many just want to get by, finish their 9-5, then go home and do whatever. It's the cultural trait (cancer in my opinion) of "avos":
https://www.in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Avos_(Russia)
So circling back, I could easily imagine some extraordinary, hard-working, visionary Russian genius not being approached by any company, neither private nor public, and then going abroad for work because they don't appreciate her here.
With few exceptions, extraordinary people seem to make average people here jealous, and I guess it's the same everywhere, but the difference is that the US or China for example would want to keep that talent inside the country to help the country.
I'm sure that they want the same in Russia, but they almost certainly expected her to grovel on her knees and beg, applying to who knows how many places until someone begrudgingly finally says, "okay, we'll accept a genius in our ranks, fine."
I think it's sad what happened to her, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. It's a cultural issue and one that probably won't ever be changed since another cultural trait is stubbornness, ESPECIALLY in the face of change!
How much of the attitude that you describe above do you think is a function of a ~2% unemployment rate?
That 2% unemployment rate is only since the SMO, it wasn't like that in 2013 when I first arrived. It's a cultural issue, not an economic systemic one. The mindset causes so many problems here, from broken feedback loops to needless brain drain, but they cling to it since they (in my opinion wrongly) conflate it with some eternal culture when it's really just a bunch of bad habits that hold Russia back.
In a sense, I can't help but imagine some isolated tribe doing something that 99% of the world would consider bad for them, let's say they brutally mutilate their limbs as a coming of age initiation, but the tribe angrily clings to their tradition because their forefathers did so they can't imagine not doing it as well. It's sad, but that's how I consider (the, in my opinion, cultural cancer) of "avos" to be here.
Take a look at the Chinese and how the CPC reformed their mindset from the brutal -- arguably almost savage -- interwar period of civil wars, warlords, and the like to one where people are thinking in advance, doing scenario forecasting in their own lives (both personal and professional), and planning accordingly while their government regularly engages in self-criticism and -reform culminating in policy changes as required instead of clinging to outdated ones that nowadays do more harm than good (like Russia does).
What communism, despite being a violently imposed foreign ideology, did for Russians is it got them to abandon 'avos" in favor of what was described above per what is now more widely known as the Chinese model.
Unfortunately, during Brezhnev's era, complacency led to stagnation and then decline, which resulted in disillusionment with the system as a whole due to its economic underperformance and other problems, which resulted in the return of "avos".
Russians "threw the baby out with the bathwater" so to speak after communism ended by (in my opinion falsely) conflating "avos" as some mystical aspect of eternal Russian culture that was suppressed for decades and re-embraced it with a vengeance.
I'll never forget the footage from the first weeks of the SMO where column upon column of Russian forces were destroy over and over through Javelin ambushes.
You'd think that the armed forces would have realized early on that something is wrong, that their approach isn't working, that they're fighting the last war so to speak and must urgently change.
Nope, it wasn't till some weeks later, I think that summer, that this finally stopped after reforms were belatedly made, but for weeks, many, many Russians were killed through such means.
That's when I knew that "avos" is a cultural cancer that had infected the highest levels of the state if even the armed forces were affected as evidenced by the above.
That summer, I published my first constructive critique of the SMO with that in mind, which I now regularly hyperlink to whenever I mention the SMO in my work:
https://korybko.substack.com/p/korybko-to-azerbaijani-media-all
I also link to this one too from November of that year:
https://korybko.substack.com/p/20-constructive-critiques-about-russias
Every time I think about those images and that footage I get kind of depressed and it's not even my country -- I wasn't born here, I'm not ethnically Russian, and I'm not a citizen.
I just care about Russia deeply as my second homeland, which I love and have done everything to help in my 13 years here, and that's why it deeply saddens me to see "avos" destroy it.
I had to do a double-take to make sure I am reading the author’s reply. Wow! Well, I can only say that my experience is the polar opposite. US/Canadian customer service is okay, I guess, Europe is just bad overall, and Russia is head and shoulders above the rest. I’ve never waited more than a few minutes in a fast food joint and they’ve always been very friendly. As well as in restaurants, cafes, etc.
Yes, I was also surprised by this post. I visited Moscow and a couple of small towns in Central Russia in 2025, and the service was always very good. It seems the author has never been served in restaurants or fastfood in Europe.
It's exactly the same at service industries in Europe, anywhere there's union protections or government-mandated long term labor contracts (all of Scandinavia, Germany, France, the low countries). Tipping is the difference and reason for good service in the U.S. at many places.
Finland has even worse customer service than Russia. And Sweden has even worse customer service than Finland. And Germany doesn't even bother - stores close at 6 pm by law and aren't open on weekends, also by law.
I don't know enough about the Russians, but I would have thought the important question is not whether the state tracks and attracts them, but whether these kids feel they need to apply their talents and energy. and indeed be happy to sacrifice their lives if necessary, in their country's hour of need. Perhaps they don't feel this is their country's hour of need?
I learnt the Chinese have been impressed by the fact that many young Iranians in China, including students, dropped everything and went back to Iran to assist the war efforts after their country was attacked by the US and Israel. I am pretty confident the Chinese would have done exactly the same. The Russians in this conflict? I have no idea.
700 000 young Russians fled abroad at the beginning of this war.
I agree, Andrew, however, the problem is not Ukraine. The problem is the globalist group that truly rules both the EU and the USA and pulls the strings of the leaders of these states: 'Who made you king?' I think that striking Ukraine excessively would be a mistake. It would only strengthen NATO's PR campaign depicting Russia as an imperialist barbarian (the height of irony...) and it wouldn't solve anything in Ukraine. All Russian elites say it and repeat it, rightly so, it's a NATO proxy war. If NATO's true leaders think that time is against Russia, it is them who must be deterred. Because Ukrainians defeated by force will not prevent terrorism directed from Langley, London, or Paris.
Darras great assessment!
So the trillion dollar question is how do you "deter" those in Langley, London or Paris?
Since a war against them obviously can't be "won", I would have thought logically escalation would simply lengthen and deepen the conflict, and feed their PR campaign, as you indicated.
History suggests those morons love starting wars, but have short attention span (something to do with their election cycles, I suspect). They are also facing numerous, bigger, problems on all fronts. So perhaps patience (since this war is also costly to them), with judicious de-escalation eventually, is a better way.
In 1962, Kroutchev found the way to calm down Americans for 60 years.
And in 1950, Mao, at the cost of 500 000 chinese lives, calmed down USA untill now.
It's the only way, force and fear is the only thing that West knows and respect.
A little contradictory arent we Frenchie ?
" It's the only way, force and fear is the only thing that West knows and respect. "
" I think that striking Ukraine excessively would be a mistake. It would only strengthen NATO's PR campaign depicting Russia as an imperialist barbarian "
Economic warfare would be my guess.
Exactly, all wars are bankster wars - the few families that own all banks, central banks and the BIS! These families are the sole beneficiaries.
Many people mock Putin's 2021 magnum opus. However in 2014, Vlodomir Zelensky had said: "In the east and in Crimea, people want to speak Russian. Leave them alone, just leave them alone. Legally, provide them the right to speak Russian. Language should never divide our country... RUSSIA AND UKRAINE ARE BROTHERLY PEOPLE - I KNOW MANY MILLIONS, THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN RUSSIA AND WHO ARE WONDERFUL. WE ARE ONE COLOR, ONE BLOOD - WE UNDERSTAND EACHOTHER, IRRESPECTIVE OF LANGUAGE..." (emphasis added). Unfortunately when Ukrainian Nazi Oligarch, Igor Kolomoyski, got him elected, he attacked the Russian language to divide his country, as part of his preparations for the proxy war which Mi6 and the CIA have been engineering since WWII...
https://rutube.ru/video/3e31c048198bac9c2dd47fe0d36796c4/
https://www.voltairenet.org/article189895.html
https://mronline.org/2022/09/14/ukraine/
I believe in the historical basis of Putin's argument but my view nowadays is that the past 4.5 years have led to a shift in overall Ukrainian self-identification as a very distinct ethno-national group historically at odds with Russia as opposed to being its fraternal people.
I adhere closely to the Constructivist school of International Relations thought which emphasizes the significance of perceptions, which can change (both naturally and through intentional, including foreign, means) at the state and society level.
Shifting perceptions can lead to shifting interests, and I personally believe that's what happened here, and that it was both by design (both on Zelensky's and the West's part) and natural. As it stands, I don't believe that most Ukrainians consider Russians to be fraternal.
It doesn't matter what their objective history and socio-cultural status is; at present, they do not see themselves this way, just like many Islamized Slavs in the former Yugoslavia consider themselves to be Bosniaks instead of Croats or Serbs.
Some Serbs even claim that Croats used to be Serbs, but I don't want to get into the details of their historical interpretations, I'm just pointing out that self-identification can indeed change over time and this can lead to different perceived interests as well.
A popular example among Poles is the first interwar president Gabriel Narutowicz obviously considered himself to be Polish while his brother Stanisław Narutowicz interestingly considered himself to be Lithuanian:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Narutowicz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Narutowicz
After the end of the war the self-identification can change again. Depends on Russian Soft Power. The same for Serbia in the Balkans.
I genuinely don't see that happening after all that Ukrainians have experienced. Most will likely see the strengthening of their self-identification as a people distinct from Russians. This is especially so if Kiev continues to control the media.
I can't imagine Kiev relinquishing its wartime control over these platforms. It seized control over them precisely to facilitate its goal of reshaping its people's identity. I see no indication that they'll willingly cede it. That's just wishful thinking.
I really think that for Russians, the interest would be to split Ukraine at least in three. The oblasts now Russian, a new Ukraine between Russia and Dniepr and including Odessa, neutralised, denazified. And Galicia..perhaps some lands to Poland, Hungary and Romania.
With a massive emigration .
Like Yugoslavia.
This would only be acceptable to the West if it benefitted as a result. The situations in Kosovo and the Donbass are remarkably similar. Kosovo has valuable mineral resources and a high concentration of Albanians, while the DPR and LPR have valuable mineral resources and a high concentration of Russians. Kosovo was allowed independence, because that gave the West the ability to plunder its minerals. Meanwhile the DPR and LPR are not allowed independence, as that would make it more difficult for the West to plunder its minerals...
At the start of the Special Military Operation, Timofey Sergeytsev set out the extensive measures which would be required to effectively denazify Ukraine. Needless to say the West labelled this as a genocidal"final solution" manifesto...
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/chilling-final-solution-manifesto-genocide-26655579
Zelensky has been following the advice given by General Moshe Dayan, when he said: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother". Nobody likes living next to a mad dog!
Like Israel, Zelensky cares nothing for the average person. Indeed one of Putin's weaknesses is the fact that he cares more about the kindred Ukrainians than Zelensky does...
This is sadly true. Since WWII, Mi6 and the OSS / CIA have been encouraging Ukrainians to idolise Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and hate Russians (Operation Aerodynamic). With the growing capture of Ukrainian politics since 1991, this has gotten steadily worse. Igniting the long planned proxy war escalated this to a new extreme.
Vladimir Buchok, a Ukrainian serviceman of the 24th brigade of the AFU, was mobilised on his way home from university. After being sent for training in the UK, he confirmed: “I was trained in the UK. They taught us how to use weapons and medicine. PSYCHOLOGISTS WORKED ON US SO THAT WE DID NOT LIKE RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AND ALL RUSSIANS IN GENERAL, SO THAT WE KILLED THEM AND TREATED THEM HARSHLY WHEN WE CAPTURED THEM” (emphasis added).
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/10990
https://mronline.org/2022/09/14/ukraine/
https://freenations.net/crocus-massacre-ukraine-escape-uk-usa-teach-hatred-ukraine-leaders-boast-of-assassinations%EF%BB%BF/
Thanks for the links.
Finishing this war one way or another would be a most humanitarian act. There is something more and more irrational and surrealistic about the whole conflict. Putin is right, they are two closely related groups but this does not mean that Ukraine should be allowed to undermine the security and stability of the Russian Federation. Especially not when we consider that Ukraine is clearly enslaved by a small group of foreigners that caused more damage to that country than the Soviet Union. I see a possibility of Putin undermining his own authority.
"so it’s best for Russia to act decisively in order to win it soon before its sacrifices pile up."
It is not obvious to me why it is possible for Russia to "win" in this conflict - the Palestinians have been subjected to the Dahiya Doctrine for decades - yet Israel hasn't won - can we be confident that similar actions by Russia, as long as e.g. Donbas is occupied, will not simply harden resistance?
Wars are easy to start and difficult to end - how can Russia "win" this war, given neither Russia nor the US was able to win in Afghanistan, nor the US was able to "win" against Iran, e.g. - when neither of those targets had serious Western support behind them like Ukraine has?
I think we are better off starting from the position that this war is going to end as a frozen conflict - i.e. neither side wins - then work backwards to figure out how best to reach that state.
I get your point and agree in principle, but with Ukraine, I do believe that it's possible to force it into surrender. All that must happen is for the state apparatus to collapse since that's what's rounding up meat for the grinder because the average Ukrainian doesn't want to fight.
As for the Palestinians, if Israel *really* wanted to, it could have wiped them off the face of the earth already, especially in Gaza. That's not to say that it hasn't committed any war crimes, but just that it too is restraining itself, albeit much less than Russia is. The Palestinians also have religious motivations for resisting (the overwhelming majority are Muslim).
By contrast, the Ukrainians more or less just want to get by and live their lives, ideally continuing to speak Ukrainian and electing their own leaders, that's it. They don't really have any religious motivations or grander vision (exceptions exist of course). I therefore believe that collapsing the state would have ended this conflict long, long ago.
To that end, destroying government and military buildings, conscription centers, powerplants, and bridges could have brought this about with ease but Putin didn't want to inflict hardships on the fraternal Ukrainian people as he sincerely considers them to be. I believe that his kindness was indeed mistaken for weakness and is now being exploited.
Wars are nearly never instigated by the man on the street - so while the average Ukrainian might well prefer to get by and live their lives, they actually don't have a say, unless one believes liberal democracy does what it says on the tin...
I suspect you would also agree that neither people around Zelensky, nor the European leaders who are pulling his strings, are in the mood for peace - for most European leaders today to even suggest exploring peace with Russia, while allowing Russia to keep Ukrainian territory, would be nothing short of political suicide.
How can Russia "win" in this environment?
Wow Andrew, USA is not a good exemple. I've worked with almost the whole world and I can assure you that USA is far the best bizness Partner of the whole world.
Accurate like Germans, efficient like English, efective like Neederlander, and nice and cool like Americans.
It's incredible that a so nice and brave people is ruled by such SOB.
Oh yeah, for sure, we Americans -- when we do things right as we should, and not everyone does so and not all the time either! -- absolutely dominate in business and it has nothing to do with systemic advantages or "brutal capitalism" but culture.
I've come around over the years to placing a lot of emphasis on cultural factors due to my close personal and working experiences with many different cultures from all across the world. It's an intangible but extremely significant factor, I've realized.
Closing in on 50 years ago, in discussion with my spouse about various matters, I would brush off her albeit generalist contention about matters being a "cultural thing". Took me some years to disabuse myself of my impatience with this view, but disabused I remain.
But the suffering derived from Christian context, does that not imply vicarious beneficiaries? Can these remain nationalist and non-universalist and still work as "Christian"? So Poles, Russians, other relatively Slavic nations taken advantage of, would any contend their self-sacrifice reaches universal relevance?
It has long seemed plausible to outsider me (and even prior to the "disabuse"), that Catholic identity aspects played a very big role in national self-preservation against neighbourhood onslaughts in Ireland, Quebec and Poland. At the same time, making for relative impoverishment at least materially, until modernity set in in earnest in all three. Is the Catholic-Orthodox role not also a very big factor in the historic Croat vs Serb animus, and again re Ukraine? Or at least, in the latter, particularly taken advantage of, and of lesser historic "onslaught"-insulating effect as within the FSU acquisition of modernist elements was of the essence; thus a contrast with the others. Is the "return of history" to contain things like religio motivations really a contrivance; or a groping for retrieving the baby tossed with bathwater with advent of modernity?
Comme to the US and try some customer service at a Walmart or the equivalent. The new USA is not what you think it is.
"...so it would thus be best if Putin hardens his heart, changes his views about Ukrainians, and does what’s needed." First of all, if his views about Ukranians being brothers is what is holding him back, and not his deepest fear of "escalating" the conflict, we are all in trouble. London and the US perceive him to be weak and they will not stop crossing Putin's red lines. Sending Witkoff and Kushner to meet with Putin's "kindness" is a slap in the face and insulting. These two shysters are not diplomats and anyone with a brain knows what they want both here and in the Middle East: money, resources, and big money-making deals. If Russia does not act forcefully and now, Europe will get its war with Russia by 2030, and that will be nuclear. Si vis bellum, para bellum. The time is NOW to put the fear of god into the European Fascists, Nazis, London and the USA. Otherwise this war of attrition will once again bleed Russia's economy, destroy the military, and cast Russia into another post-Afghanistan disaster.
Whatever the Russian leadership has to tell themselves to feel better.
YES ,Russia is the Christ of nations. In Ameriica, the mainline Protestent churchs have all but vanished to be replaced by scores of little "rinky dink" churches with no real religion in them. Just make your choices as you wish. Thank GOD rhere is Russian Orthodoxy to step forward and LEED Chistianity. Russians are great in many respects. Military, who defeated the Germans 95% of the Germans got killed fightinf the Great Red Army. Calling RUSSIA the CHRIST of Nations.
Putin's Christian dilemma. The Western EU wishes to punish Russia for rejecting Communism and returning to the Christian faith. The European Union is a communist creation, and the United States under Biden was becoming communist. They saw Russia abandoning communism as a betrayal of Marxism, and they overthrew the Ukrainian government and set up a Nazi government. The Nazi begin the cleansing of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, who revolted and declared independence. Putin was forced into war to save the Russian minority. Putin sees Ukraine as a conquered nation that needs to be rescued from the western controlled Nazi gang. Putin now understands that to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, the war must end quickly. Mr. Putin should declare a day of prayer for Russia and the Ukraine and strike hard and fast to end this war for the sake of humanity.
Rudolph Hess tried to land a peace offering and he died in English. Custody . Hitler had the English surrounded at the coast but didn’t slaughter them because he thought the English were kindred spirits . We’re did he end up ? Do what needs to done . Even if it means triple Orecshniks at London , Paris , and Berlin . Maybe include Washington DC .
"Salvation will come from the East" - Our Lady of Fatima
From the article: Putin continues to sincerely believe that Russians and Ukrainians are still kindred peoples ...... For this reason, he won’t authorize the complete destruction of their country’s powerplants nor any of the bridges across the Dnieper...... the Ukrainian capital remains extremely safe, .......
Question: What is the calculation that makes it obvious to Putin that the destructions you listed would have caused in total more death and suffering than the prolongation of the war at any point from 2002 to this day?
And what is the basis of your confidence that Putin uses that calculation rather than some other?
And if in response you insist that it is obvious because Putin has repeatedly expressed his view of fraternal peoples, and many analysis agree with you, my question is: When Putin says something about the nation, like "the preservation of traditional values and demographics and improving living standards and the quality of life across the country as key priorities", do you see his words consistent with what his administration actually does?
How tempting could it be for Ukr to repeat "operation spider" type operations attacking airbase- aeroplanes with nuclear bomb capacity as before one wonders, trying to push up to a redline???? Surely they will try.
"Hopefully it won’t cease to exist like Poland twice did."
You mean, not even once, right?
Good point!
Interesting as always, Andrew!
I concede your point 100% that Putin is too nice. Whether he is, in his personal beliefs, a doctrinal Orthodox Christian or not, he seems to live according to the values of Christianity; peace, love, humility, forgiveness, etc. (I read years ago an interview with his confessor, Father Tykhon, who complained gently that the president does not come every week for confession.)
I would point out, however, that Putin's military tactics -- let the Ukies attack us and be wiped out -- have efficiently killed two million Ukrainians. The cemeteries have to be continually expanded. They have resorted to dragooning because a whole generation of Slavs has been killed off.
I am certain that Putin -- 100% correctly -- sees the current batch of Western "leaders" as incompetent, genuinely traitorous, blackmailed, pedophilic fools who have no problem starting WW3. No problem at all -- because in a form of negative selection that is common in all multiparty democracies, it is the ruthless,egotistical liars who get backing, thrive, and win elections, and the sincere patriots with their boring facts lose.
Sorry but I will use a vulgarism to express my utter disgust -- these a--holes figure that when the Poseidon tsunami occurs or the mushroom clouds form over Paris, London, Berlin, and New York, they, the imaginary "special ones," will be way down there in their nuclear-proof deep-deep-deep, bunker-buster-PROOF bunkers with gourmet food, water, adrenochrome, and -- yes -- white children to molest.
And Putin does not want WW3 on HIS conscience. Unlike the narcissists/psychopaths such as Trump, Starmer, Macron and Merz, who hate and despise their own people -- the Epstein Class -- Putin is actually a human being who cares for his people.
Just remember when you criticize him what cards he was dealt. The Collective West elites are medically insane, and they have nukes.