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Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

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Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turks in Germany will vote for SPD in German elections is a bigger paradox.

It seems similar to what happens with Salvadorans in the U.S., especially newer arrivals. This is anecdotal, buy from my friends living in the U.S, even those who do not have papers, prefer Trump/Republican than Democrat party.

It's because Democrats are losing working class votes because of pandering to their leftist fringe in an unrelatable ivory tower bubble.

Less culture war, twitter wokism, identity partitions.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#532

I managed to escape the country yesterday, had to flight to Egypt of all places, because ALL (even business) tickets were sold out. The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed. The disheartening thing is that even if you never supported Putin, other countries treat you as enemy. I am at Georgia now and banks refuse to open bank accounts to Russians, and I need…

[Disclaimer: Russian] According to my estimations, probably at least 95% of people who are "against the war" do not go out to participate in protests. My estimations are based on talking to my colleagues (large IT company). Yes, starting from now, protesting becomes more risky (you may go to jail for years if you get caught second time). But just a week ago, it was mostly harmless (yes, some people get arrested for f…

You can read the book:

Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World

It proposes many interesting strategies and ideas on how to protest in dictatorships. Be subtle, use humor and focus your message on the most common people. Don't call for democracy, free speech or anything like that. You will be branded as foreign forces. Find something every Russian believes in like peace or the brotherly bonds between Russiand and Ukrainians. Pick small battles to win first.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#533
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because Ukrainian men don't have the choice to flee. It's not like Russians are moving away during peaceful times. It's a full on war in which one party is bombing the civilians of a democratic country, threatening NATO with nuclear war and Russians are the only ones who can actually stop it.

I still do not see the logic of punishing people who left russia - as they obviously do not support the war. If they stay and get drafted to fight in the war for real, how does this help? And sure, they could try to organize revolts - but would you? That is extremly dangerous and a million times easier said than done. Fleeing the country is a strong peaceful revolt on the other hand. Helping those people will mean he…

> I still do not see the logic of punishing people who left russia - as they obviously do not support the war.

Just an idea: perhaps it's easier to circumvent sanctions if you can move abroad in order to make money transfers. You could also make money transfers for your family and friends while you're there. Or even create some kind of a business, where you're a middleman. Perhaps the sanctions can be improved in a way to not hurt people leaving russia, but obviously as it increases complexity, it also requires more time to prepare.

Still, a russian may make money abroad and then return to russia with the money. So "improving" those sanctions would effectively decrease them.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That polarising effect on older generations versus younger ones is something that has affected a large part of the world and I’d be curios to know whether it originated by one source or it simply emerged as a trend. First time I heard about troll farms was something brewed in Russia but it certainly spread around by then

It originated as a consequence of a burgeoning free media environment due to the proliferation of smart phones and the internet. The younger generations, with their higher level of fluid intelligence, are able to approach things with better critical thinking and navigating the complexities of the internet world. The older generations aren't able to adapt and are sitting ducks for being easily manipulated by technolog…

This seems like wishful thinking. Young people are in no way manipulated by advertising and influencers et al. right?

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These people also have no idea, except abstract one, how it is to live in authoritarian country, when access to non-government news is hard or impossible, and even saying your opinion can be dangerous. As someone who was on the receiving end of sanctions in ex-yu, despite being antiwar and going to protests, I can’t ever support wide sanctions which affect all people. Years we were under sanctions were the worst year…

> These people also have no idea, except abstract one, how it is to live in authoritarian country, when access to non-government news is hard or impossible, and even saying your opinion can be dangerous. Many Polish people still remember communism. I was born in communism. And we still support sanctions. Tell us what do you propose as an alternative to the sanctions.

Frankly, I don't know. I'm just sharing my experience and opinion that sanctions don't help.

It's quite possible that there's nothing at all that can be done right now, apart from humanitarian help. No matter how much we wanted the war to stop. At least if we're only looking at options that don't lead to worse outcomes.

The time to prevent this was probably years ago. But I'm far from geopolitics expert, I can just speculate lake enyone else.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But it’s important to note that we haven’t chosen this government, we haven’t chosen this country we live in. From my perspective this is the only meaningful change you can make. If my government ever starts getting in my way too much I'll find another one. Voting with my feet literally. We have this luxury as in-demand professionals. Kind of hard for me to empathize with Russian developers when they had decades to…

And, where will You find it? (The new government I mean) Things are, The Reality is, much more complicated.

Corrupt west, of course. At least you can say what you think. Most of the time.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#537

I managed to escape the country yesterday, had to flight to Egypt of all places, because ALL (even business) tickets were sold out. The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed. The disheartening thing is that even if you never supported Putin, other countries treat you as enemy. I am at Georgia now and banks refuse to open bank accounts to Russians, and I need…

>The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed.

This is international flights of russian airlines that has leased airplanes. Currently like 60% of planes are leased and companies started to demand their planes back. Some planes already get arrested. This is move essentially to prevent returning airplanes because otherwise civil aviation (and not only) in russia will be dead.

It's still interesting to see, what they will do with spare parts. Also I think some airplanes must get some updates from "cloud" daily, which will probably be blocked as well

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#538
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see both sides to this. Yes, Russians should protest against the horrible actions of their government. On the other hand, if you’re an average Russian with few/no international ties, would you really risk protesting against a government with a demonstrated track record of murdering dissidents and imprisoning protestors? NATO/the West is choosing to worsen the lives of 144 million Russian citizens due to the actions…

Putin has popular support, and there's no evidence that Russians are against the war. This sort of argument is about as intellectually dishonest as saying Trump didn't represent the US. Factually, he did. A small minority fleeing the country isn't evidence that everyone opposes the country's leadership, and most of the anecdotes from Russians are about avoiding personal involvement - the fear is of being drafted into…

This might be true (as horrible as it sounds - and many people in Ukraine think exactly this), but I still hope that a vocal minority acting together could start something new - and then we could see another, better Russia (Russia that returns Crimea, Donbass, and don't start new wars).

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#539

I managed to escape the country yesterday, had to flight to Egypt of all places, because ALL (even business) tickets were sold out. The recent news is that starting March 6 all international flights are suspended, the trap has closed. The disheartening thing is that even if you never supported Putin, other countries treat you as enemy. I am at Georgia now and banks refuse to open bank accounts to Russians, and I need…

Honest advice: Get a tshirt with "FUCK PUTIN" printed on it. Wear it everywhere, even if it's covered up by a jacket. If you find yourself in a risky situation, make sure it's showing.

Re: Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends

#540
post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad truth is that Putin can only be removed from within Russia, by Russians. We cannot attack Russia without risking nuclear war, so imposing hardship to every russians is the best move we have. The guy is mad and made a bad strategic move by starting an unpopular war. This is the opportunity

The sadder truth may be that Russians might not be interested in removing Putin. Decades of propaganda, murdering of opposition, and authoritarian response to protests has grown a people that largely believes in their leader and is also afraid to openly oppose authority.

The sadder truth may be that you won't be getting anything much better than Putin from Russia in its current state.
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