Mass anti-Putin protests are supposedly taking place in Russia right now. Anyone have any insight in what's going on?

submitted by PeddaKondappa from self.debatealtright

Mass protests are supposedly taking place in over 120 cities and towns across Russia. The cause of the protests seems to be the arrest of the opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. I can't read Russian so I'm mostly in the dark when it comes to Russian domestic news and politics. Anyone have any insight?

I personally am extremely suspicious of what's going on, as it seems to be a bid by liberals to increase their influence in Russia. Putin doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would embezzle billions for personal mansions (which is what some people are claiming). He is very serious and strategic, and would understand that such actions would hurt himself and his own administration.

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[–]NeoRail 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Putin is an effective politician, but he is in all likelihood, very corrupt. I doubt he is corrupt enough to steal billions from his own country, though. A mansion or two or even three for him and a few of his cronies would be nowhere near that expensive. It is impossible to steal that much without introducing financial difficulties, especially given the precarious situation of the Russian state right now. As far as I can tell, he is a corrupt politician, but his corruption is exaggerated by his opponents who don't even care about it all that much and just want power for themselves. It's important to keep the liberal track record in mind, especially in the Russian case. If there is any difference between Putin and the liberals, it is that Putin does more for his country and takes less. Just over ten years ago, Boris Yeltsin, that veritable colossus of Russian liberalism, had reduced the country to unimaginable poverty and anarchy. The politicians themselves benefited from this by cutting deals with the mafia and NATO in order to prolong this state of affairs for as long as possible. Putin was the first person who tried to change things. It's easy to understand how corruption is unavoidable when you are dealing with a mess like that, even for the most idealistic people, much more so for someone like Putin whom I could hardly describe as an idealist. I doubt Putin is a good guy, but he is a good statesman. People like Navalny are neither. There is a reason why hostile states want them in power. For what it's worth, they are very unlikely to actually succeed - Russian liberalism has an unrivalled history of total failure in every respect. If there is a liberalism that can survive in Russian conditions, it looks far more like "Putinism" than whatever it is Navalny wants to do.

[–]literalotherkinNorm MacDonald Nationalism 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Anatoly Karlin who blogs over at Unz is a good place to start. Mostly our guy but he's been very balanced as far as I can see and is definitely no Putin lickspittle.

BTW as Karlin points out the protests are relatively minor and made up of mostly student useful idiots like all of these stupid 'protests' in Eastern Europe. I also saw a video of them in Moscow I think dragging an anti-Navalny protestor to the ground and kicking the crap out of him so they're not entirely peaceful.

It's been funny to watch the Western press ascribe a basically divine significance to a few thousand idiots protesting in Russia mere days after they declared the protests in Washington the darkest day in American history. As always I admire the sheer gall of propagandists.

[–]ifuckredditsnitches_Resident Pajeet 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yet another failed CIA color revolution. When was the last time the west succeeded at overthrowing a country? Ukraine? Even that might've backfired long term since it's potentially fueled the rise of a white militant movement.

[–]EthnocratArcheofuturist 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Biden is just president and he's already attacking Russia.

[–]Minedwe 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Putin is based, don't get me wrong, but he is admittedly corrupt in some fashion, probably a few different ways. But I doubt he'd go to this length and in such a blatantly obvious way.

The circumstances are just too, well, circumstantial: Biden, the big tough warmonger anti-Putin fuckbag gets elected, Syria is now going to go very hot very quickly, and the other superpower in Syria just happens to have large amounts of unrest back home that the liberal media elsewhere can simp for to turn opinion even worse. Sounds like WW3 waiting to happen.

[–]user97533 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for posting this. I've seen a few longer interviews with Putin and always felt that he is a real intellectual, a real professor. Not surprising, because when he was once asked to name the foreign politicians that he most enjoyed talking to and developed a pleasant relationship with, he named those exact qualities as the ones he liked in the French politician he named as his favorite. I don't doubt he's far from perfect (I assume it would be impossible to make it to his position as a perfect person in Russia, someone else would have seized the job, so being someone who is perfect but has no chance of actually ever winning isn't all that ideal either), but I also see him as very serious and strategic, and unlikely to do what they're claiming as brazenly as they're claiming it. Not saying the guy is great or not or anything else; I don't know enough to make that claim, but I can only judge based on what I've seen, and that's my impression.

After reading the linked threads on Reddit about the massive protests and apparent poisoning attempt, I definitely felt like I was reading propaganda, intended to manipulate public sentiment. I also watched the 2-hour long palace video, without knowing much about Navalny beforehand. To put it lightly, I immediately began to feel like I couldn't trust this guy, and started to doubt the full details regarding poisoning narrative offered by Navalny - at the very least that it was ordered by Putin. I'm not alone, as the majority of the Russian population doesn't believe the full details of the narrative he offered, based on a poll I read on a site linked on here. I don't doubt it happened - when you attempt to assasinate the charachter of the richest, most powerful people in a country like Russia (he doesn't just attack Putin, but a laundry list of the most powerful in Russia) - it's not surprising that someone would attempt that. And overall it seems like the government is mostly following the law with regard to their treatment of him and his family.

That palace video felt dirty to watch, clearly a character-assassination hit job. Filled with half-truths, willing to use any detail unfairly to paint the narrative they want. What do you expect? This guy's is his political opponent. They're both going to do some dirty stuff. Then again, in fairness, if he feels that person put an attempt on his life, you'd expect that type of irrational, unfair anger. Obviously, I don't expect the average person to even be capable of putting this type of thought into the matter, much less wanting to.

With regard to the protests, I was also skeptical about them and felt that the huge Reddit threads 'supporting the Russian people in their quest for freedom' were thinly veiled propaganda - based on what I read on Unz, my feelings were mostly right. Just as I expected: relatively small crowds of useful idiot college students, degenerates, outcasts, and losers. Kind of like the summer protests over here.

I'm glad you posted this. I thought it would be nearly impossible to get some actual insight into the realities of the situation over there. But your post definitely helped.