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Russia killed its tech industry

technologyreview.com

31–40 of 285 posts

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#31
post #26
post #8

You can vote yourself into authoritarianism, but you cannot vote yourself out. And when that authoritarian you love so much makes a major blunder, invading Europe for example, he takes everyone with him, and that's by design.

>a major blunder On the contrary this war is Putin's multiyear bet on Russia's useful idiots in the West. US Republicans overwhelmingly supported US military aid to Ukraine in the beginning of the war. However Tucker Carlson and other populists spend the next 12 months lowering that support to less than 40%. The only reason Russia started this war is because they believed their useful idiots in the West will save the…

We know for a fact that Putin thought it will take less than a month. There were russian propaganda articles posted russian state media accidently that celebrated the "succesfull take-over of whole Ukraine" stating that it only lasted few days.

So yes - it was a blunder.

And yes - they are counting on useful idiots in the west now, but that wasn't the plan, it's russians trying to save whatever they can after that initial blunder. You can know that by looking at how long it took for russian propaganda targeting the west to catch up after the start of the invasion in 2022. Usually they prepare the western audiences. This time they didn't bothered because it was supposed to be a quick thing and it was secret even for many russians in the government.

Also - useful idiots are in many countries, not just in USA. EU is hugely important in this war, especially Germany, and they were ruled by useful russian idiots for last 30 years. I'm not sure they stopped being them even now.

> The only reason Russia started this war is because they believed their useful idiots in the West will save them

This is just wrong.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#32
post #29

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

Russia and US were political enemies. > Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Russia and US stopped being political enemies. > I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Russia and US started being political enemies again. > Russians are considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. It's not really clear but I think I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Correlation is not causation. Russia’s political decisions have a great influence on both geopolitics AND the decisions of individual Russians on whether they stay in the country.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#33
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a major blunder On the contrary this war is Putin's multiyear bet on Russia's useful idiots in the West. US Republicans overwhelmingly supported US military aid to Ukraine in the beginning of the war. However Tucker Carlson and other populists spend the next 12 months lowering that support to less than 40%. The only reason Russia started this war is because they believed their useful idiots in the West will save the…

> They are yet to be proved wrong. I'm confused. Hasn't the US and EU given incredible military aide to Ukraine?

More "some" than "incredible".

But the result is yet to be seen.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#34
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing Russia is known to be such a welcoming environment for people of colour.

The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Further the Russians tend to sympathise with subjects of racism as they for the most parts of the previous centuries were subjected to racism by countries to the west of them.

> The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin.

Wiki says his great grandfather was black. I am not sure how you jumped to the conclusion that Pushkin was black.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#35
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a major blunder On the contrary this war is Putin's multiyear bet on Russia's useful idiots in the West. US Republicans overwhelmingly supported US military aid to Ukraine in the beginning of the war. However Tucker Carlson and other populists spend the next 12 months lowering that support to less than 40%. The only reason Russia started this war is because they believed their useful idiots in the West will save the…

> They are yet to be proved wrong. I'm confused. Hasn't the US and EU given incredible military aide to Ukraine?

Realistically this war will continue for two more years. Russia's useful idiots are hard at work lowering Western popular support for Ukraine.

Will the West still be giving military aid to Ukraine in 2025?

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#36
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Russia's reputation is in shatters in the west, I'm not sure if this is true for India, China, Pakistan and other countries. Also Russia's Wagner troupes are currently kicking out European ones in Africa, so I wouldn't be surprised if the reputation of Russia will be good enough for immigration in Africa either. This might very well be a solvable problem for Russia if they really want to.

If all you require a warm bodies to do menial tasks or low- to no-skilled labor? Sure, Pakistan and Africa will be happy to provide these. If you are trying to rebuild your high-tech industry, however, you require educated people. And why would these go to Russia if they can go to Europe or the US? Immigrating to Russia with possibly be easier, but it’s still Russia…

> If you are trying to rebuild your high-tech industry, however, you require educated people.

If Russia makes it easier with visas and the salary is good enough, many Indians would happily move there.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#37
post #29

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

Russia and US were political enemies. > Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Russia and US stopped being political enemies. > I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Russia and US started being political enemies again. > Russians are considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. It's not really clear but I think I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Yeah one of the two is constantly brutalising its neighbours, while the other is busy building tech and defending smaller, but freedom loving, countries. Our grandparents told us stories about the russian army that many found hard to believe. And here we are proven that they were right all along.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#38
post #8

You can vote yourself into authoritarianism, but you cannot vote yourself out. And when that authoritarian you love so much makes a major blunder, invading Europe for example, he takes everyone with him, and that's by design.

Romania voted out their authoritarian ruler with a firing squad back in the mid to late 80s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu

Russia has become totalitarian, not just authoritarian. That’s an important distinction, totalitarian societies have much less capacity for independent action.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#39
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing Russia is known to be such a welcoming environment for people of colour.

The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Further the Russians tend to sympathise with subjects of racism as they for the most parts of the previous centuries were subjected to racism by countries to the west of them.

Is this a joke in Russia, i.e. people referring to him as black in order to lessen the view of Russia's outlook to foreigners? I've never heard people refer to Pushkin as being black (and his parents indeed aren't), besides his great grandfather.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#40

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

[flagged]

90ss Russia I grew up in wasn't pretty, it was indeed dangerous. But still less dangerous than current Russia. It was free, full of hopes, developing.

By 00ss we got to much better life.

Last 10 years, while regime got worse and worse, people started to do interesting and succesfull projects in many areas. It was not just copy west as before, something unique started to happened.

So yes, USSR before it's fall was stagnant, hopeless swamp of misery. And it's gravitating to the same direction now.

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