Source https://feddit.org/comment/8644755
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Whenever NATO has military bases somewhere in the world, at least it’s done officially and in the open. Russia tends to do things covertly using fake online personas and government-issued fake IDs (see the Skripal poisoning or other GRU activities). In other cases, it’s done in obvious ways but with a degree of deniability, like when the men without insignia occupied Crimea, when they shot down the MH17 plane, or when Wagner tortures people in Syria or Africa. This degree of deniability allows to operate outside any legal framework, while the Russian propaganda networks like RT and the likes of tankies who buy into it get to dismiss anything they do.
I mean, NATO economies and secret agents (and, these days, corporations) do plenty of influence campaigns too, but I get the sentiment.
It’s the mind boggling lack of self awareness that drops my jaw more than any actual politics. Justification doesn’t even matter.
Like all that finger wagging about a century of ‘imperialist wars’ in one breath, then defending the Ukraine war the next… Even if the invasion is totally justified, which it’s not, do tankies not see the history!? And how hilarious it is to obsess over western exceptionalism then insist ‘this war is different! It’s totally going okay!’ like apologists straight from the Vietnam era?
Meanwhile, Russian Telegram channels with millions of users are sad about not killing more Ukrainians.
The ISW has some great observations about such Telegram channels in their reports. It seems like the Kremlin balances them on a knife’s edge: they “allow” the independent Telegram war influencers to exist. But if any get too critical of Putin’s government, they get reigned in. Too militant at the other extreme, which is a thing, believe it or not, and they get reigned in too.
It all paints the picture of Putin balancing not only internal anti-war dissent, but also voices and actors even more militant than him.
There are a lot of parallels with Trump’s government too, such as how influencers will criticize Putin’s subordinates, but almost never attack Putin directly, even when something is obviously his fault.
…Anyway, where I’m going with this is:
This is no accident, and the Kremlin is not unaware.