Russia is unbelievably cartoonishly evil. I think when Russia failed to subjugate Ukraine in one fell swoop, Putin went insane and doubled down with stupid plans.
From my first hand experience when I visited last year, nearly everyone I spoke to had a hard time acknowledging there was anything wrong with what they saw as Russia reclaiming land that was rightfully theirs. There was often outright admiration for Putin for being brave enough to put the interest of his nation first and telling the West to go swivel.
No coincidence that India has similar feelings towards several of its own neighbours and parts of Kashmir are not too dissimilar to Crimea.
The reaction would be very different if China ever did the same in Taiwan though, because... reasons.
India's neutrality is due to several factors all aligning in the same direction:-
We need wheat, fertilisers and oil from Russia.
Most Indians, across the political spectrum, have a positive view of Russia due to all the things they did for us during the Cold War. Most Indians wouldn't know what a Ukraine is.
The Ukrainian police (and many citizens) attacked Indian students and workers trying to leave the country when the war began. They were also accused of using Indians and Africans as human shields. Ukraine and NATO are also supporting the Gaza genocide.
(I'm guessing there is also some schadenfreude, at least among some people, at seeing a European country getting colonised by a semi-Asian one.)
Also, India has a one-China policy and does not usually comment on the internal affairs of other countries.
No they aren't. They absolutely aren't. What we are doing in Kashmir is nothing short of colonisation. India is as imperialistic as the west is/was. It's just that we're terrible at it.
India should probably have given more aid to the Ukrainian people, and helped broker ceasefires or humanitarian pauses. But to destroy our relationship with Russia would be risking famine and economic collapse (see how the significantly richer EU has suffered from lack of oil).
Ironic you mention that Ukraine was unfair to Indians when the Russians are literally kidnapping them and forcing them to work.
The first happened two years ago; the second has only come to light recently. If the Russian state is found to have been complicit in the latter, public opinion will doubtless change.
Swiss here, believe me, the cowardice of our federal council hiding behind nEuTrALitY pisses me off to no end
I wish we would go all in in supporting Ukraine. Our neutrality does not extend to violations of international law. Acting like it does is a cowardly political decision supported by ultra rich motherfuckers who hope to continue getting richer and richer through trading with the mafia that is the Russian state
By way of clarification on my original post, it's only ever fair to make a statement (sweeping generalization) like mine about a state (ie: the policy/position of its leaders) and not it's people, so I want to make sure that's understood as my position here.
While there have been cases in history where a great number of humans being have been aligned along a "questionable" moral axis, I've never heard of a single case where every person was unanimous in anything, especially on extreme issues.
Such is the situation of unemployment here, people are forced to fight for another country and get killed without earning anything????? Two fascists ruined India and Russia
Not here to defend Russia, but afaik Russian soldiers earn about $2000/mo, which would be good for India if higher rank officers didn't take a huge portion of it to themselves.
Ukrainian soldiers earn slightly less - about $1600-1800, but I haven't heard about wage theft there.
Eh, your family will get compensated in the event of your death. It's not really sustainable long term, but Russia has dedicated quite a bit of budget to this. There's still fraud and whatnot, obviously.
The tragic thing is that, for some, it might be. Especially if they're promised that they will serve in a supportive capacity, far away from the frontline. Once you're there, these agreements don't really matter anyway.
To add a context here: since the start of the war, the poverty in Russia dropped from 22% to 9.6%. Of course there are both a factor of manipulation with statistics before the presidential elections and a lag between poverty metrics and inflation, but the number still blows my mind: more than 10 million people were elevated from the poverty.
But don't get tricked here: people were forced to poverty, and then the government gave away a few coins back.
Interesting conclusion. When I was half way through reading your comment I had just assumed the drop was caused by the poor being the ones sent to the trenches, dying as cannon fodder, and as such reducing the % of poor people across the whole population of Russia
reducing the % of poor people across the whole population of Russia
No, no, no. Even Ukraine estimates Russian casualties as 400k, and they include severely wounded, pov, and Ukrainians mobilized from occupied territories. Russia has 120-140m people (there's a conspiracy about how many people live there, but sociologists give this range). In the first COVID year the excessive deaths were about 1m. Hence the casualties, cynically speaking, is not that significant.
To add a context here: since the start of the war, the poverty in Russia dropped from 22% to 9.6%. Of course there are both a factor of manipulation with statistics before the presidential elections and a lag between poverty metrics and inflation, but the number still blows my mind: more than 10 million people were elevated from the poverty.
I have zero trust in that people were actually elevated from poverty
Not only do I not believe that people actually get that sum, but that their material conditions have actually changed for the better. They've made things better for their people during a costly war? Sure they have.
It's less that they've actively made things better for anyone and more that some of their currency is actually circulating to these folks in the first place. Think about the most dirt poor shithole town you can imagine in Bumfuck Kentucky, where there's no running water and barely electricity, and then make the place 30° and covered in ice for 8 months of the year. That's real life for some Russians. There's not any money to even make out there even if the effort was put into it. So being put in the army and paid a soldier's salary, even if half of it is being skimmed, is probably more money than some of these guys have ever seen in one place before. Add to that the requirement ability to travel through civilization, and they're suddenly living a whole new life they've never dreamed of before. I'd call that an increase in quality of life, even if you're only upgrading from Russian Peasant into Russian Soldier that's still a fairly significant boost in some cases. Right up until some Ukrainian high schooler drops a pipe bomb in your lap from a drone to complete his killstreak.
I find the idea that the idea that people from another country tricked into conscription would get this benefit. If they got to this point by trickery, what's to stop more trickery?
What's disturbing is that those soldier salaries are providing state money and purpose to Russian regions that never saw it before, so there lives are actually getting better thanks to the war. As opposed to the common belief here that Russians are suffering from war related restrictions, the majority is not, only privileged Moscow people may have their life impacted by international sanctions. Source: https://www.newsdirectory3.com/the-majority-of-russians-have-never-had-it-so-good/
While I agree that sanctions affected only the privileged minority as myself, there are subtle signs that Russian society isn't taking the war in a healthy way:
And Brazil. And the US. And Britain, but that's since a long time. And, well, most of Africa and South/Central America. But that was mostly the US, too. China, of course, but that could be argued was Britain's fault. Indonesia, Israel, most of the Middle East really, Turkmenistan, Hungary, Serbia, Belarus...
Can we agree that fascism maybe is not a good idea? Or are we gonna have to fight about it again?
