You can well take the present to observe how a democratically elected president / prime minister / whatever turns into a dictator. Several persons in Europe and nearby are not quite there yet, but they do their best to get there.PeroK said:
Most of the populace grew up under the Soviet system. There was a small window of opportunity ca. early 1990s, but the hardliners (nationalists) took control over the decade.PeroK said:
And it wasn't any better before.Astronuc said:
You might have thought that would have given them a belly full of dictatorship and made them less likely to succumb than those who couldn't imagine the horrors.Astronuc said:
No, of course not, but that is with what the people were familiar. That's what they knew.fresh_42 said:
One of the facts why returning to democracy in Germany worked after WW II is, that we had it before and democratic movements since the 19th century. It wasn't a start from scratch and wasn't for 80 years. Some ignore this too often in my opinion and then are surprised that the model does not work elsewhere, e.g. in the middle and not so middle east.Astronuc said:
Exactly , on point. Russia has never had a democracy, those few years in the 90's doesn't count, it was more of a wild west, oligarchs grab all type of moment, while Yeltsin was busy getting drunk. (You can check youtube, he was drunk on visits often even)fresh_42 said:
At the risk of taking this thread further on a tangent, this is an extraordinarily simplistic analysis. It seems clear that human societies in all their forms are complex dynamical systems.fresh_42 said:
Surprisingly, I agree. However, it is equally too simplistic to ignore the effects of populism on societies. I'm sure the Russians dreamt of and had been promised a Western life in 1991. What they got instead was another system creeping silently into another oppression, which only recently revealed its full consequences. E.g. DW, BBC, and FB have been forbidden not earlier than these days.PeroK said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria_Warfresh_42 said:
Where do China and India, with 40% of the world population between them, fit into that model? Is China a "have" or "have not"?Keith_McClary said:
In 2011 China was in the bottom half:PeroK said:
I guess that makes China a "have not"?Keith_McClary said:
Wow. That's a lot.fresh_42 said:
DennisN said:
atyy said:
Star Trek - The Undiscovered Country said:
Was joke. Note lack of articles.fresh_42 said:
And foreign "investors" like Bill Browder.artis said:
This is actually a problem, here in the Baltic republics we already have a historically high Russian population and if more come, well we cannot be sure that sometime in the future they don't change their mind and become Kremlin expansionist policy advocates. The population that is already here is somewhat split between those that love the local culture and condemn Russian aggression and those that when the first news of war came cheered on.fresh_42 said:
Mr Putin's logic seems to be burn down half the house and hope the other will still stand!artis said:
I think Putin is a gambler. Gamblers sometimes take risks even in the face of clear danger to themselves. By no means there is a clear victory for him in Ukraine and the economic consequences are already severe.neilparker62 said:
I personally, already block axios, but that's a matter personal choice.artis said:
Well Facebook is also know to be a sweet spot of all kinds of misinformation but still I believe in a democracy you have to let all opinions be expressed as part of a free society. Clamping down and closing down everything from axios to Facebook is a sign of attack on freedom of speech I think.Oldman too said:
I've read about it in Swedish newspapers.fresh_42 said:
BBC Article said:
BBC Article said:
On the whole , I think we could probably do without this particular form of Russian Roulette!artis said:
Let's just hope that Putin doesn't later declare them as disaffected Russian citizens that need 'protecting'.DennisN said:
What shall we say? There are currently 263,000 Russians and countless German-Russians (ancestors mainly emigrated under Catherine the Great to occupy thinly populated areas in Russia, and their descendants returned in the last century) in Germany.Borg said:
In the soft power spectrum this usage of "protecting Russian diaspora" has been constant since the late 90's , here in Baltics we have had it constantly. We even have Kremlin sponsored political parties and leaders that have tried to "push" certain policies using this "protection" as an issue.Borg said:
How ironic that Russians themselves are fleeing to Finland to escape such 'protection' ! The Kremlin hierarchy should perhaps pause to reflect how can it be that they have failed to supply safety and security even for their own population.artis said:
artis said:
https://www.reuters.com/world/more-russians-ukrainians-seek-asylum-us-mexico-border-2022-03-04/
I see media noise about going after the oligarchs, but this will make it harder for crooks to steal from Russia and escape with the loot to the West. They will always leave loopholes for ourAstronuc said:
