While my assumption is that Trump will stop all aid, comply meekly with putin’s demands and then attempt to market this to Americans as a “great success” and a sign that he is a “great negotiator”, I do wonder if putin risks overplaying his hand. While Trump is a coward and an authoritarian, he does seem to be sensitive to anything that makes me look weak.

I’ve been pretty clear in my statements.

You don’t think it is problematic for Kara-Murza (and the russian opposition) to ignore these issues? Or are you saying they do address them? If yes, can you provide a source?

The reason for these choices is something you should ask the russians and Kara-Murza.

Russian society; the choices russians make.

• The choice to condone the killing of 50 thousand Chechen civilians in the 90s (equivalent to 7 million russian civilians being killed) and to reject their right to self determination. This was done by both Yulia Navanlnay and Maria Pevchih.
• The choice to elect a KGB goon in 2000
• The choice to reelect the same goon in 2004 when he shut down all mass independent media
• The choice to near universally support the invasion of Georgia in 2008
• The choice to support the comical seat warming exercise with Medvedev
• The choice to allow the KGB goon to become leader for life in 2012
• The choice to near universally support the annexation of Crimea, the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine
• The choice to near universally support the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022

You cannot make any progress or claim to want to change russia’s political environment if refuse to admit these facts.

Instead we get victim-hood polemics, bullshit about “the west is actually to blame” or “NATO made us do this!”, almost threat-like statements saying that discussing these facts will only make things worse and comical bullshit about russophpobia (a concept that does not exist, when you act as a lying, murderous, scoundrel, you should expect people to treat you like shit, if you don’t like this then change).

Do you have something to say or are you “just asking questions”?

I am just curious, do you speak russian? Have you ever lived there? Can you state 3 bullet points about key developments in russia in the decade of 1900 (or say 1920) without doing a web search?

While Kara-Murza is one of the few somewhat humane members of the russian opposition (Ilya Yashin is a piece of shit and Navalniy and his thugs are racist, corrupt imperialists), like all of them he is completely delusional, refuses to recognize reality and keeps playing the victim.

He once again repeats the canard that it is impossible to measure public opinion in russia as an excuse for society’s broad support for the war. This is false, there are polling methods such as list experiments that account for preference falsification and they align with “regular” polls; a strong (if not overwhelming) majority of russians are genocidal imperialists.

But he also claims that somehow we should trust his statement that there are lots of people russia that are against the war because “hundreds of thousands” supported an allegedly anti-war candidate (what exactly is his “anti-war” position?).

He then goes on to say “reconciliation [between russians and Ukrainians] is possible” but a under different political regime. And how will this different regime come about? What are you doing to make it happen, Mr Kara-Murza?

I also don’t believe in reconciliation. My animosity towards all russian is permanent, but that’s just my personal opinion. Reconciliation would require that russians take ownership for their actions (it is their society that is responsible, it is not only putin that is a genocidal imperialist) and make a clear commitment to right the wrongs that they did (ending all russian occupation - not only in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of russians prosecuted for war crimes and full financial compensation).

There is nothing to suggest this will happen. The russians have the capability to do this, there is nothing “inherent” about their genocidal imperialism. But they don’t want to do take ownership for their crimes.

Kara-Murza then goes on to claim that russia is on the precipice of change, without providing any specifics or explaining what the russian oppositions’ game plan is.

We then hear some typical russian victimhood narratives about how the west is to blame (ignoring that by early 90s russia was already engaged in imperialism in Moldova and Georgia).

Some more BS about how taking a sober attitude towards russia and recognizing that it is not only putin to blame is very wrong and “a gift to putin”.

The interviewer of course never challenges Kara-Murza in any substantive manner, as is typical with western media interviewing russian opposition.

Kara-Murza is the epitome of why the russian opposition is such a comical failure. Magical thinking, constant victimhood and zero desire to focus on the root cause of russian genocidal imperialism and authoritarianism.

I generally prefer 80s/90s anime, but there is some really good stuff from the 2000s as well (haven’t really watched anything from last 10 years).

Michiko to Hatchin (2008) Ergo Proxy (2006) Texhnolyze (2003) Kaiba (2008) The Sky Crawlers (2008) Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (2004) Blame! (2003) Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Paranoia Agent (2004) Planetes (2004) Samurai Champloo (2004)

Not saying you have to like all of them (these are my favourites after all), but there is good stuff from the 2000s.

You still get people who think anime is “cartoons”, but they tend to be older.

I feel like around ~20 years ago is when anime started entering the mainstream.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be an anime fan, and we are strategically feeding a pipeline of anime content and experiences that fuels that fandom, deepens the love of anime, and exposes more audiences to the medium,” the company said. “The Crunchyroll business is outperforming our financial expectations, and the company is well positioned to continue to grow alongside the rising global demand for anime.”

We live in interesting times. ~20 years ago I would have never imagined such a statement.

It basically relies on this false stereotype that since Israel is a Jewish state, and Jewish people are inherently manipulative or deceitful, Israel must not be telling the truth.

This almost supremacist rhetoric. With the implication being that the Israeli government due to its superiority over others is inherently incapable of being manipulative or deceitful and any claims to the contrary are anti-antisemitism.

One could interpret this as a racist take.

Source FT article (archive)

I find this difficult to believe. I am assuming he was either lying or this was an off the cuff statement that wasn’t serious.

The house was shaking due to the ballistic missile takedowns and it wasn’t even particularly close.

You’re either trolling or you are ignorant.

The first ~15 seconds of discussion before BBC’s Steve Rosenberg asked his question really shows how pathetic the russian authoritarian model is.

Symmetrically in the West, you will find angry people who, momentarily discarding any regards for human life, would find it “interesting” to destroy ruSSia in a nuclear Holocaust.

Is that really true, though (with respect to the “west” specifically)?

And why is it wrong to disregard the lives of people (not a few people but somewhere between a strong majority at minimum to an overwhelming majority [*]) who wish you, your family and your fellow citizens harm?

[*] With majorities holding across any and all demographic segments; age, income, rural vs urban, education.

I disagree. You are infantilizing the russian population.

Russia has been involved in genocidal imperialism even before putin (Moldova, Chechnya, Georgia, mercantile involvement in Nagorno Karabakh - all this happened in the 90s).

In the 90s, TV stations were openly critical of the government, yet putin was elected again in 2004 even though he shut down much of the mass market independent press.

Since ~2010, most major European news agencies (DW, BBC) launched russian language YT services. The rise of smartphones and lack of YT censorship meant that almost everyone had access to independent news in a few clicks. They could even access local independent-leaning news services (TV Dozhd also launched their YT channel around ~2010).

Russian genocidal imperialism and authoritarianism is a direct product of the choices russians make. There is nothing inherent to the russian population/culture that stops them from showing humanity. They just don’t want to.

They need to realize that they hold responsibility for their actions and that no one is buying their victimhood polemics.

This guy has just, out in the open, bought himself into a position of power. This is the type of shit you see in a movie. Next thing you know, he’ll be scowling at a local detective reminding him of his diplomatic immunity.

Is it really something you only see in a movie (even in the context of the US). This is being reported because Musk’s diva persona, but I would speculate a lot of US oligarchs have previously had massive influence on government processes and some even got themselves into positions of power ala Musk.

Don’t forget, it’s not only putin, it also at least a strong majority of russian society (if not an absolute majority) that support genocidal imperialism.

With the US civil rights movement it’s worth considering the international context too. The cold war was was it’s early phase of intensity and it was difficult for US to compete in terms of soft power with formal discrimination laws. The world was undergoing intense decolonisation during that period.

That being said, I don’t support a defeatist view of the viability of protest. But you do need clear goals and a sufficiently large core group of people willing to take risks.

I am not from the US, so I might be out of league here, but haven’t recent US protest movements been somewhat ineffectual?

In a global context, successful protests movements tend to take active measures; blockading of transport and key commercial zones, organisation on a level that makes security forces ask themselves uncomfortable questions.

To be fair, such movements also tend to have very strange support (be it broad based or high approval amongst a very large minority).

It is not my intention to be defeatist or overly critical, just some thoughts. I could be wrong.

They do have a large air base in Murmansk oblast, but this doesn’t seem to be it. Wondering what got hit.