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Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
All of this I agree with but that was kind of my point, for most Russians it seems like they dont actually care that their country is destroying and capturing other countries, killing tens of thousands of Chechens Georgians Syrians and now Ukrainians, as long as it doesnt affect them, my analogy to the Germans in the 1930's was specific, the Germans loved taking Austria, the Sudetenland, etc etc Hitler made them feel great again, they didnt start to have doubts until allied bombers were blowing their homes up, it had nothing to do with right or wrong it was just self interest
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It's worth remembering that there were anti-war and anti-nazi movements in pre-war Germany too.
As for Russians, I would argue that their "cardinal sin" isn't so much a tendency towards authoritarianism or a love for imperialism, it's apathy and cynicism.
Feeding this cynicism has also been one of Putin's main strategies in holding on to power. For two decades he's been supporting all sorts of crooks and crazies in Russian politics and generally encouraged an idea that there are no good alternatives.