Terry Cline retuiteado
While Putin secured another day to breath air even as a lame duck the whole episode showed us another constant in this Russia.
Cynicism and nihilism
You can be a traitor in the morning and pardoned in the evening, even when you kill a range of Russian soldier, the very few who held the line while the rest of the army disappeared into nowhere. And yes, I stand by what I said yesterday because it was fact. There was no more Russian army. The command structure was inexistent, by design, because this is exactly what defines cynicism and nihilism. There is no protocol, ideology or even honor, there is only survival and in this process people can turn from your friends to your enemies and vice versa, whatever helps the situation at the moment. You as an individual do not exist and when you perish it is all your fault for making the wrong decisions at the wrong time, just like those 6 Russian pilots who were blown out of the skies over their own home homeland.
Far worse is situation for the non-ethnic Russian population, when it comes being cannon-foddered, because they are welcome scapegoat for all the hardships for living in such conditions. When Wagner was rolling through the Russian oblasts yesterday trying to locate Shoigu, Pro-Wagner channels were excessively using ethnic slurs, pointing out his Tuvan heritage. It was not about Shoigu’s incompetency, which is all over the place. He as Tuvan was their scapegoat of their failed system. It was exactly this racial undertone which drove them, especially when they talked about “genocide against the Russian people”. When reflecting that minorities are making the brunt of losses of the Russian army, it paraphrases that shameless lies all but shameless to them.
This is why the countries which were formerly under control by the Kremlin fought for their freedom and independence and achieved at least separation. Some succeeded even more and gained relative peace, as we saw with the Baltics. Some have been caught in new nightmares as we see in some Turkic states. Others were caught somewhere in between and Ukraine was one of them. A state with a history full of tragedies and again under threat being vassal, but this time by one of their own. And this is when the Maidan in 2014 took place. Ukrainians have endured every foreign atrocity and where not willing to accept the atrocity by one of their own. This was an affront against a dictator like Putin whose very system can only survive in this atmosphere and it could not stand in the Kremlin’s eyes. This is the only reason why this war exists. Some call it a fight democracy vs. autocracy, but for me it is a fight for law vs. arbitrariness. This is why I from time to time quote the 2nd US President, John Adams:
“A republic of laws, not men.”
What we saw yesterday in Russia was the travesty from which laws should protect us, because when people can decide the faith of millions based on a whim, then terror is the only result.
I for one will not stop to continue my struggle for freedom for anyone, anywhere. The possibility why I can do this today was granted by people who did this for me, before I was even born. It is a gift I can never be too thankful. I will continue this fight so that our children can live to do the same. This is our duty as freedom-loving people who have freedom and liberty handed over. We have to draw the line so that nihilism and cynicism cannot get hold of us and we can and will achieve this for as long as we do not stop pursuing this goal.
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