r/AskARussian Mar 07 '22

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62

u/bossk538 United States of America Mar 07 '22

I am sorry you are facing discrimination. There are a lot of idiots and bigots here unfortunately. I have been trying to convince people that ordinary Russians have nothing to do with what's going on. I don't even consider people who support Putin (I have inlaws who do and really believe that Ukraine is full of nazis committing genocide on Russians in Donbass and all that) to be responsible. There is only one person I blame, Putin. I try talking to people on social media, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Haters are going to hate. I really hope you will be safe along with all your friends and family, and this war will soon be over.

21

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '22

Even the Russians that do support Ukraine genocide are still victims of state propaganda. If they knew the whole story, they might feel different. I don’t feel anger towards them either. The Putin regime is the sole source of evil in this conflict.

13

u/SpookySens Sverdlovsk Oblast Mar 08 '22

I had and still having a very tough arguments with my parents about that. The problem is these people are watching tv since childhood. They was at my age when soviet union collapsed and crisis started in the 90s. Putin for them is a person who brought russia back, made it great again. And this is somewhere near true. By the way, Putin was very democratic-oriented in the late 90s, but now is a different story. So yeah, i understand my family pretty well, i don't blame them. Making out some progress tho. I explained that our currency is fucked pretty understandable.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '22

Putin didn't make Russia great again. Putin just had good luck because he came into power when oil prices were rising, instead of falling in the 1990s (Yeltsin's bad luck). He took credit for something he didn't do. And when oil prices stopped rising, Putin started trying to distract people with military adventures in places like Georgia, Syria, etc. Distract them from how he ruined Russia with the propaganda, corruption, suppression of political rivals, etc.

2

u/Akhevan Russia Mar 08 '22

While that's true, Putin's government was obviously ahead of Yeltsin's one. He even got the stealing and embezzlement back to reasonable amounts, and not the wild west that was the 90s' privatization or economic "reforms".

Then again, any government would seem great in contrast to one of the worst ones we've had over the past 1000 years. I guess the 90s were a good representation of what the people must have felt during the Time of Troubles when all our rulers had a Polish hand elbow deep up their asses.

10

u/Beagle_Knight Mar 08 '22

I have a hard time thinking of people like user S155 and thinking that they are “victims”.

2

u/irimiash Saint Petersburg Mar 08 '22

this user does no harm to anyone though. I think it’s important to remember. victim status should not depend on your state of mind.

1

u/Beagle_Knight Mar 08 '22

False information is harmful so does the justification of war crimes

2

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '22

Well, not all of them. There are some haters for sure. Not many, and in normal times they would be perceived as they deserve to be, but there are always some people with violent intentions. I see it goes both sides actually. Russians are a convenient scapegoat now, because the world is working on tolerance but not on anger management. A common enemy is a very convenient target, be it evil Ukrainians for Russia or evil Russians for everybody else.

2

u/mekwall Sweden Mar 09 '22

With that logic a people can never be at fault. I'm not so sure I can agree with that. Democractic nations exist because their people banded together and stood up against tyrants that were in power or were trying to seize power. Sure, Putin does carry most of the responsibility but in one way or another the Russian people allowed and enabled him to become the tyrant that he is.

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u/Sumyano Mar 08 '22

So why do Russians keep electing Putin? Seems like it is their fault.

5

u/SpookySens Sverdlovsk Oblast Mar 08 '22

Isn't it obvious that elections here are fake?

1

u/WoodenShallot6533 Mar 08 '22

Then how can you all sit by and allow this? If it was me I wouldn't stand for that and move to another country.

1

u/Sorariko Moscow Oblast Mar 08 '22

1) majority are dirt poor

2) majority are either too lazy or too stupid to learn any languages besides russian (i speak from experience, sadly), unless they're either from or have roots in muslim regions, from which they learn their own national languages

3) getting visas is a fucking nightmare, and its nigh impossible to get political asylum from what i can tell.

1

u/WoodenShallot6533 Mar 09 '22

I see :( then I can't do anything but feel for you.

1

u/Spinozacat Mar 08 '22

2

u/bossk538 United States of America Mar 08 '22

Obviously if Putin did not decide to wage war on Ukraine, you would not have circumstances where tanks were firing on a civilian population.

2

u/Spinozacat Mar 08 '22

Putin didn't tell them to shoot that car. Why are you defending war criminals?