Israel Shamir Wonders if Putin Is Up to the Challenge:
The Russian troops have gone home, but “in the last few days, the shelling of Donbas by the Kiev regime has actually intensified. Kiev troops have moved forward to the frontline separating the regime-controlled areas and free Donbas, and they brought with them more of their heavy weaponry. In Donbas, people are in a wretched mood: they feel abandoned by Russia, or rather have returned to the same hell of intermittent shelling they have lived with for years. They haven’t been allowed to join the Russian Federation as they had hoped. In Kiev, they think Putin blinked first. So say the Brits. Prudent Putin does not want war, but he may still get it.”
Except for the Russian desire to be part of the decrepit Western world, Russia is sane compared to the West. Shamir reports that Russia “is the only country in the world where masculinity is not toxic; whites feel no guilt; people eat meat and heat their homes so they are warm; despite the pandemic, theatres and churches are open; there is no #MeToo; Russian producers and directors can frolic with actresses; education and medicine are (largely) free for all. Outside Moscow, even parking is free, if you can find it. You can get vaccinated if you wish, for free, any day, yet nobody forces you to do it. There are no lockdowns, no covid passports, no mandatory masks. It would be a shame if such a country were destroyed.”
Why can’t we in the West have the freedom that Russians have?
Why do Russians want to join the West and lose their freedom?