#belarus elections

[odinsblog]

One of these things is definitely not like the others:

Russia and Belarus are authoritarian states that haven't held fair, free elections in decades.

Vladimir Putin is a dictator who maintains his power through intimidation, political assassinations and sham elections.

And Putin's puppet, Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, literally described himself as "Europe's last dictator."

And anything bad you can say about Ukraine goes quintuple for Russia and Belarus — except for the fact that the Ukrainian army isn’t bombing & mass murdering innocent civilians, and they haven’t invaded another country; and they aren’t committing mass rapes in the cities of their adversaries; and the Ukrainian army also is not abducting thousands and thousands of Russian children and placing them into filtration camps to “reeducate” them into a foreign culture; and and and

Ukraine was not in NATO nor was it applying for membership when Putin invaded. And God help you if you’re dumb enough to believe Putin invaded because he wanted to “denazify” Ukraine. JFC. Do you believe George Bush invaded Iraq because he wanted to find WMDs and spread democracy too?

If you can just hand wave & excuse away all of those Russian war crimes because “communism” or “NATO expansion” or “America bad,” then maybe you should re-examine your priorities.

[goldenstarprincesses]

One thing I never will understand about canon Hetalia is why 99% of the nations are written in a way that clearly is showing that they are not personifications of their government. But that they represent their people/an idea

Yet Belarus is pretty much just a copy paste of the Russian puppet government

[maadilin]

serious post

i made this twitter post raising awareness of the current shitfuckery of countries so called "democracy" and i'd like to raise more please :)))

much of this info comes from @thejuicemedia's honest government ads.

please like, share, and rt!

[trendynewsnow]

Belarus Election Commission Approves Limited Candidates Ahead of Presidential Elections

Belarus’ Election Commission Approves Limited Candidates for Presidential Elections The election commission in Belarus announced on Monday that it has permitted only seven politicians loyal to President Alexander Lukashenko to begin the process of collecting signatures in opposition to him for the upcoming presidential elections. Lukashenko, who has been at the helm of Belarus for over three…

[thoughtlessarse]

Lawmakers in Belarus on Wednesday set the country’s next presidential election for 26 January. The vote is almost certain to extend the three-decade rule of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has suppressed almost all political dissent. Lukashenko, who has been referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” had already said he would seek what would be his seventh consecutive term. Having first come to power in 1994, the president’s last victory came in a 2020 election, which was denounced by the opposition and the West as fraudulent. A staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko confirmed his intention to run during an interview with Russian state television on Wednesday. He is currently in Moscow for the BRICS conference. Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya swiftly denounced the upcoming balloting as a "farce."

continue reading

An election in Belarus? Ooh, I wonder who will win.

[huseyintr24]

“Russian #disinformation could skew EU election results.”

The statement by Ursula von der Leyen — President of the European Commission on May 17 of this year once again encouraged me to continue looking into the topic of #disinformation

Surprisingly, when I paid attention to this topic, I immediately began to notice a lot of information on the subject.

In the article it is stated that the President of the European Commission, if she manages to hold the same post for another term, will first of all pay attention to strengthening the EU’s defense against malicious disinformation coming from Moscow. She emphasized that this is top of the agenda in Brussels and across the bloc, with the European Parliament elections less than a month away and hostile actors using sophisticated tools such as generative AI. The article even suggested that Russian #disinformation could skew the EU election results.

It brought up images from my childhood, when everyone was afraid of the 80 Olympics in Moscow because they were expecting terrorist attacks from the US. And then I asked myself: why the whole world is divided into two camps in “their” beliefs:

1) that the threat comes from Russia

2) that the threat comes from the United States

Which category do you fall into?

Doesn’t it surprise you?

I think everyone has such “their” point of view in their heads. Until recently, I too thought that I soberly and critically perceived all information in the media. BUT! I’ve recently learned that #disinformation

comes from KGB agents who have been secretly operating since 1993. The main threat from the KGB is the destruction of democracy around the world.

Hydra is what the respected E. Cholakyan called the KGB. Because they act absolutely secretly and unnoticed through the introduction of negative images into people’s consciousness, which later lead to wars, conflicts, revolutions and eventually to a totalitarian concentration camp.

Yes, but I wonder why most of humanity believes that the threat is coming from Russia. And the answer is on the surface. The fact is that on the territory of the three countries of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus the KGB positions are the strongest. And the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians suffer most of all from the actions of the KGB…..

When I heard that Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, said that it is necessary to fight against Russian disinformation, I realized that through Ukraine as a bridge to Europe, this KGB Hydra is already reaching the United States. And as it is known, the USA is the stronghold of democracy in the whole world. And having undermined democracy in the USA, all people of the planet will become a prisoner in a digital concentration camp for the KGB.

#EgonCholakian said that: “According to our data in this operation, the enemy does not limit themselves in their choices. For the sake of achieving their goal, they are ready to sacrifice both human lives, political figures and their former territories. They are even willing to allow a full-scale nuclear conflict if it suits their long-term strategy. We must take this information into account in our

strategic planning and preparation for the defense of national security.”

Let me remind you once again that the KGB’s influence on people’s minds is through the introduction of negative thought patterns that gradually lead to the undermining of human rights, freedoms and the values of democracy around the world.

Be careful and attentive to any information.

#narrative #artificial #cyberspionage #cybersecurity #disinformation #confidential #elections #EU elections #EU #EU #European Parliament #hacking attacks #state #anticultism #I #EU elections #2024 #video report #KGB #hydra #image #EgonCholakian #consciousness #USA #Russia #Ukraine #Belarus

[dserwer1]

Stevenson's army, August 22

– NYT sees trends in recent elections in Ecuador and Guatemala. – FT’s Gideon Rachman sees East Asia hitting a demographic wall. – Both NYT and WaPo see trend of state legislation against China – WaPo sees cluster bombs helping Ukraine – OMB has released new Circular A11, tells agencies how to prepare their budgets [be careful, it’s 1,070 pages] – State has warned Americans to leave Belarus…

[ammg-old2]

Mr. Lukashenko has tried to position himself for greater things since he rose to power in 1994. In the late 1990s, he helped create a union-state — a confederation of sorts — between Belarus and Russia, which he must have eventually hoped to head once the ailing Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin, departed the scene. But Mr. Yeltsin’s successor turned out to be Mr. Putin, who had no intention of playing second fiddle to the head of a minor European state. Instead, as he accumulated power, Mr. Putin exploited Belarus’s deep economic dependence on Russia, especially on heavily subsidized energy, to peel away its sovereignty. Instead of heading a major world power, Mr. Lukashenko found himself trying to fend off a suffocating Russian embrace.

After Russia illegally seized Crimea in 2014, Mr. Lukashenko’s saw his most promising chance to assert himself. Taking advantage of the estrangement between Russia and the West after the invasion and Russia’s backing of a rebellion in eastern Ukraine, he promoted the Belarus capital, Minsk, as a “neutral” venue for East-West dialogue. The city became the place where the warring parties and Russian and European leaders convened to hammer out a deal to end the crisis. The ensuing deals, christened the Minsk Agreements, spelled out provisions for a cease-fire and the reintegration of the rebellious regions into Ukraine, but were never carried out.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lukashenko had demonstrated Minsk’s potential as a meeting place. In 2018 Mr. Lukashenko inaugurated the Minsk Dialogue Forum, which brought together American, European and Russian foreign policy experts for debates on global issues and provided him a invaluable platform to present himself as a statesman uniquely qualified to ease tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Mr. Lukashenko’s second opportunity to reduce its reliance on Russia came in the form of Belarus’s booming tech industry. Since the mid-2000s, it has been a key driver of Belarus’s economic growth, accounting for 7 percent of its total G.D.P. by 2020. It was also an important export sector, sending much of its product to the West, and a magnet for Western investors attracted by Belarus’s well-educated population and low wages. The economic dividends helped provide the funds to transform Minsk itself into a comfortable European city, which enhanced its appeal as an East-West meeting place.

But Mr. Lukashenko’s good fortune came to a screeching halt after a few short years — and fully as a consequence of his own actions. His flagrant rigging of the 2020 presidential elections, in which he brazenly claimed to have won with 80 percent of the vote, touched off a huge nationwide protest movement. Mr. Lukashenko’s government detained tens of thousands of citizens. Hundreds were reportedly mistreated or tortured in custody, and dozens of websites were blocked. With his political survival at stake, Mr. Lukashenko turned back to Russia, which was only more than willing to help at the price of his country’s autonomy.

Mr. Putin stepped in to the rescue, backing Mr. Lukashenko’s harsh tactics. He approved a $1.5 billion loan to ease Minsk’s debt burden, sent in “media” experts to help discredit the protesters as pawns of foreign powers, and announced the formation of a Russian “police reserve” that could be deployed to Belarus should the situation further deteriorate.

The crackdown prompted tech workers, who had been at the forefront of the protests, to flee the country in droves. It also made Minsk off limits as a meeting place, as the West levied sanctions and isolated Mr. Lukashenko diplomatically. The situation only grew worse as Russia began using Belarus as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Mr. Lukashenko, now totally dependent on the Kremlin in his bid to cling to power, was in no position to resist.

Now he has agreed to give refuge to Mr. Prigozhin and some unknown number of his infamous mercenaries who will go to Belarus with him. Mr. Prigozhin cannot feel safe in Belarus knowing the fate of others who have drawn Mr. Putin’s wrath. Mr. Lukashenko won’t benefit in any way from Mr. Prigozhin’s demise on his territory and probably hopes his sojourn is brief. Despite this uneasy arrangement, Mr. Lukashenko will likely not be able to resist the temptation to embellish his role; he’s already claimed to have offered Mr. Putin advice on how to handle the situation. He will endeavor to play the great statesman for as long as he can.

[txttletale]

driving around the usa iwth 144 'not my president' bumper stickers entirely covering my car bearing images of the current presidents of albania, algeria, angola, argentina, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, bangladesh, barbados, belarus, benin, bolivia, bosnia and herzegovina, botswana, brazil, bulgaria, burkina faso, burundi, cameroon, cape verde, central african republic, chad, chile, colombia, comoros, costa rica, croatia, cuba, cyprus, czechia, djibouti, dominica, dominican republic, democratic republic of the congo, ecuador, egypt, el salvador, equatorial guinea, eritrea, estonia, ethiopia, fiji, finland, france, gabon, gambia, georgia, germany, ghana, greece, guatemala, guinea, guinea bissau, guyana, haiti, honduras, hungary, iceland, india, indonesia, iran, iraq, ireland, israel, italy, ivory coast, kazakhstan, kenya, kiribati, kosovo, kyrgyzstan, laos, latvia, lebanon, liberia, lithuania, malawai, maldives, mali, malta, marshall islands, mauritania, mauritius, mexico, micronesia, moldova, mongolia, montenegro, mozambique, myanmar, namibia, nauru, nepal, nicaragua, niger, nigeria, north macedonia, pakistan, palau, palestine, panama, paraguay, peru, philippines, poland, portugal, republic of china, republic of the congo, republic of korea, romania, russia, rwanda, sao tome and principe, senegal, serbia, seychelles, sierra leone, singapore, slovakia, slovenia, somalia, south africa, south sudan, sri lanka, suriname, syria, tajikistan, tanzania, timor leste, togo, trinidad and tobago, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, uganda, ukraine, united arab emirates, uruguay, uzbekistan, vanuatu, venezuela, vietnam, zambia, and zimbabwe and i have to update them every time theres a presidnetlai election anywhere

[lucrezianoin]

Trump let it slip that he has a little secret for just after election

They are going for the Russian book of stealing elections and installing a dictator. Just like in Belarus, Georgia and Venezuela.

Good luck, USA, you'll need it

[alwida10]

Ugh. I hate getting political, so have some bullet points.

- Putin laments the fact that the Soviet Union has vanished. One of his major goals is to re-establish it. This has been said openly.

- the Soviet Union included regions young people from today know only as autonomous countries, including Armenia, Aserbaidschan, Estland, Georgia, Kasachstan, Kirgisien, Lettland, Litauen, Moldawien, Tadschikistan, Turkmenien/Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Usbekistan, Belarus. (Countries in bold are the countries I remember evidence of Russia has tampered with. Might be more, since my memory sucks.)

- to ensure the comeback of the Soviet Union, Putin (Russia) uses war tactics to destabilize, control and manipulate the countries to make it more likely to re-unite with Russia. Remember how Belarus’s elections have been tampered with and the bloody crushing of the protests? Moldavia has been calling for help regarding the Russian troops in their country. If you haven’t heard about Ukraine, this post isn’t for you.

- if you are able to read Russian, it’s easy to find the war plan Russia has developed to ensure this goal, including the annexation of Ukraine, Moldavia up to attacks on Poland and east-Germany.

- the biggest problem for Russia to reach this goal is the NATO, and that mostly because the USA had the NATO’s back.

- as long as the nato stands together it’s almost impossible for Putin to reach his goal.

- “devide and conquer”

-by now it’s well documented that Russian involvement led to Trump’s victory.

- the same people, who organized Trump’s campaign, later campaigned for the pro-Brexit side.

- Trump (being right wing) wanted the US to leave the NATO. Brexit has weakened the cohesion in the EU.

- the right wing parties have been growing in Europe. Italy and Netherland have already elected right wing parties as their leadership. The right wing party in Germany is most likely the second strongest party in the eu elections right now. (Yes, the modern day Nazis. Yes, Nazis.)

- right wing parties are more likely to say “what do I care about my neighbors getting bombed? I’m caring about MY people.” They support getting big (hence powerful) positions such as the NATO getting divided into smaller, easier to beat fractions. Poland does not stand a chance against Russia on its own. The NATO does.

- both Iran (because of the conflict in the Middle East) and China (because of their intend to annex Taiwan) love and support Putin’s tactic to divide and weaken the NATO. The USA are madly powerful, but not even they are able to take on three nuclear powers at the same time.

——

k, why am I talking about this?

-> if you come across anti-Biden, anti-EU, anti-democrat, pro-segregation posts or opinions you NEED to ask yourself if this might be political manipulation to weaken your country. It had been the young voters who put Trump out of office. It’s the young voters Russia and other manipulative powers have on their radar now. YOU are the target to reach their goals.

-> yes, this includes pro-Palestine messaging if it leads into a “don’t vote for Biden” narrative.

[trendynewsnow]

Social Democratic Party Leads in Lithuania's Parliamentary Elections Amid Political Turmoil

Social Democratic Party Leads in Lithuania’s Parliamentary Elections The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, declared on Sunday that her party is currently leading in the polls for Lithuania’s second and final round of parliamentary elections. Voters are making their way to the polls amid a backdrop of strict COVID-19 measures imposed during the pandemic, political…

[thepentagonaltrapezohedron]

IT IS CURRENTLY FAR TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

The election could easily swing just far enough to end American democracy, and to end the nations of Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Nepal, and South Korea, and to end the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people, who may now be doomed to suffer under totalitarianism.

PLEASE if you can still vote, VOTE while we still can.

[mariacallous]

BRUSSELS — While no European leader or bureaucrat has threatened to deport 20 million people or ban Muslims — except, perhaps, former President Donald Trump’s favorite European, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán — the European Union and Trump are closer on the issue of migration than words may suggest.

EU countries have individually pushed to crack down on migration after substantial surges in support for anti-immigrant parties in various European elections this year.

While they mostly eschew the racist, xenophobic rhetoric Trump uses to describe immigrants, in the cold, hard light of policy their positions are not all so different. At a meeting in Brussels, EU leaders spent hours discussing migrant processing centers, speedier deportations and “hybrid warfare” by hostile powers using migrants to destabilize EU countries.

“A new wind is blowing in Europe,” said the Dutch anti-Islam, anti-immigration populist Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders in Brussels on Thursday after a meeting of far-right leaders.

Migration has been at the forefront for Europe’s politicians since 2015, when more than a million migrants, many of them Syrians fleeing war, made their way to the bloc.

In the ensuing decade, the EU collective has shifted from the “we can do it” stance of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to trying to shoo new arrivals away from the EU border altogether. In 2023 fewer than 300,000 people made it to the continent; this year the EU’s border agency, Frontex, estimates about 160,000 migrants have reached Europe.

In recent months, nearly a dozen European countries have instituted some form of border restrictions in an attempt to deter migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

Poland this month announced a temporary halt to processing asylum requests from migrants arriving from neighboring Belarus, invoking a security threat. Germany’s Olaf Scholz instituted border controls this summer to stop undocumented migrants from crossing into Germany after a Syrian man stabbed eleven people, killing three. Six other countries, including Italy, France and Austria, have introduced border checks. 

Some analysts say if Trump were to return to the White House, it would put more wind in the sails of those who have matched and mirrored his administration’s ambitions on migration.

“Certainly, many member states that have pushed for a restrictive approach to migration will be watching the American elections very closely. This will give [EU countries pushing for more restrictions] further bargaining chips to push for their preferences both in the U.S. as well as in the EU,” said Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, head of European migration and diversity at the European Policy Centre.

Returns and deportations

The vague terminology around “return hubs” and “processing centers” mirrors Trump’s “Migrant Protection Program.” The initiative, colloquially known as “Remain in Mexico,” took effect in 2019 and forced tens of thousands of non-Mexican migrants back across the U.S. border to Mexico to await migration decisions there.

In a letter to leaders this week, Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s executive branch, endorsed the idea of what she called “return hubs,” buildings to detain migrants in non-EU countries. (Spain’s prime minister, a relatively lonely voice on the matter, on Thursday rejected the idea after the EU leaders met.)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has inaugurated “processing centers” in Albania where people headed to Italy will be transported — echoing Australia’s policy of sending asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea to have their claims processed.

Meanwhile, France is pushing to change EU law to facilitate deportations to third countries. And the EU already has thousands of kilometers of physical fencing at its external borders — a setup that far exceeds Trump’s ballyhooed but abortive border wall with Mexico.

Some experts argue that the mainstreaming of hardline rhetoric is leading to policy changes that favor Europe’s right.

“If you listen to Orbán and Meloni at times and others like [France’s far-right leader Marine] Le Pen over the years, the rhetoric has been as harsh and as virulent as what we hear from politicians like Trump in the United States,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 

“There is an intent to make it sound like it’s legal, like it is in line with international law.”

The policy changes have similar aims to those of Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance: Reducing the number of new arrivals and sending people back to their countries of origin, even if those places are potentially unstable or unsafe.

“We have to recognize the current solutions don’t work,” said one EU diplomat who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the conversation.

That is something Trump and many EU leaders would agree on. 

What’s in a word?

The major difference, though, is in style and tone. Europeans tend to tiptoe around contentious issues.

Take the d-word: “Deportations.”

For Trump, who has vowed to deport between 15 and 20 million people from the U.S. if re-elected in November, using the word “deportation” is a badge of honor. 

“Under the Trump administration, if you came in illegally, you were apprehended immediately and you were deported,” the Republican presidential hopeful crowed at a rally in July. “That’s why, to keep our family safe, the Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”

For European leaders and officials, though, the d-word (which is linked, for many in Europe, to Nazi deportations to death camps during World War II) is almost taboo. The bloc’s officials speak gingerly of “returns” or “return hubs” to describe the enclosed camps or detention centers they’ve set up outside the EU.

And when it comes to describing how migrants reach its borders, EU leaders tend to tread carefully again. 

While Trump has no qualms about qualifying some migrants as “illegal” and decrying “illegal immigration,” in the EU migration that doesn’t come via airports or other official routes is officially described as “irregular.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the one EU leader to buck the trend, doing away with European niceties and fully embracing Trump-style rhetoric, and straight-up villainizing migrants with his right-wing nationalist stance. The strongman leader vowed earlier this month to bus migrants to Brussels, copying a similar vow by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who sent migrants in his state to Martha’s Vineyard, a posh vacation spot in Massachusetts.

“I have been chest-deep in the bloodbath of the migration debate for quite some time,” Orbán recently told a press conference in Brussels, channeling Trump.

Forging ahead

But it’s not all smooth sailing for Europe’s migration hardliners — some leaders are facing setbacks in real time.

This week, Meloni proclaimed Italy’s migration policy “a model for Europe.” But on Thursday, while she gathered with other European leaders in Brussels, her offshore detention centers in Albania hit their first hurdle. 

Four of the 16 migrants sent to Albania have already been put on a boat back to Italy because they were children or were considered vulnerable (only male adults who are not considered vulnerable can be taken to Albania after a screening at sea under Italy’s own rules). 

Opposition groups and NGOs immediately called the project a failure.

“It will have very real consequences on people around the world, potentially, because those other countries look at what the EU is doing to them and say, well, you know, why should we guarantee people’s rights?” said Sunderland from Human Rights Watch.

The bigger concern, for some critics, is that harsh rhetoric and measures on migration will open the door to other policies.

“Migration has really become a Trojan horse for conservative forces to then push an agenda that goes beyond migration,” said the European Policy Centre’s Neidhardt.

[valcaira]

Another parliamental election is coming up in Belarus. It'll be rigged in Lukashenko's favor again.

I feel hopeless. Four years ago the streets were filled with protestors among which was my uncle. People were locked up, beaten, raped and murdered by the military. Even still anyone who dares to utter anything against the dictator is going to be silenced one way or another.

I don't think there is going to be another wave of protests again. Maybe a couple fringe groups of people will stand up but Lukashenko has shown us one thing: He is a tyrant and will use any means necessary to keep Belarus tightly in his iron fist.

I doubt that even the media will pay any attention to the elections. The slacktivists definitely won't. It's going to be another silent sweep of rigged elections, oppression of any opposition and Lukashenko the swine escapes the consequences again.

I wish someone would finally kill the bastard.

I'm angry and sad.

[dontforgetukraine]

"I want to say a few words about the new "it's only Putin" discussion, which is not fact-based in any way. Unfortunately, the imperialistic mindset is widespread in Russian society. This is also true for large parts of the Russian opposition. There is even a faction within the "opposition" that is more radical than Putin (and no, I'm not trying to downplay Putin). They advocate for more efficient killing of Ukrainians, argue that Ukraine should be subjugated more quickly, and claim that the inefficiency of the Russian military is slowing down or even endangering the rebuilding of a Russian empire, Soviet Union 2.0, or whatever they envision.

These people are so radical that they criticize the government in ways that put them at risk of imprisonment. Igor Girkin is one of these people, but there are many others. There is also a large network of radical NGOs that fully support the Kremlin's imperialistic agenda and the war, with some even asking, "Why did it take so long?" These people act voluntarily, not because they are coerced—they genuinely believe in what they are doing.

Not resisting is one thing—we all know what happened to Nemtsov—but actively supporting the imperialistic agenda, supporting the full-scale invasion, and going the extra mile for the regime is something else entirely. Ukrainians experience this mindset daily when ordinary Russians tell them they don't exist, that they should be subjugated, or that they should all be killed. These are not troll farm accounts but real people with account histories going back 15 years. Many Ukrainian families have relatives in Russia, and what those relatives told them on the phone was also "the extra mile" of regime support: "We came to liberate you," "No, we did not attack," "There is no war," "You are Nazis," and so on. Their imperialistic, propaganda-brainwashed mindset was more important to them than their own children. How could anyone forget that? When parents don't believe their own kids, even when they are under shelling.

Ukrainians expected a lot more from ordinary Russians in February 2024 but were hugely disappointed by what they saw and heard, even from people they had known for many years.

I remember what real Russians in real life told me in 2014 and 2022 about Ukraine, about Ukrainians—how they spoke, how much hate there was, how much imperialistic mindset and conspiracy theories... what happened on Russian social networks...

Not to mention all the supporters of the regime, not just Putin’s inner circle, but the "Z civil society," calling the FSB when a neighbor is "suspicious."

I’m sorry, liberal Russian opposition, I respect every real oppositionist who resists the regime, helps stop the war, and exposes Russian imperialism, but no, no, no, it is not only "Putin's war." Saying that is nothing short of a provocation. Get rid of the imperialistic mindset, and respect that Ukraine has a right to its internationally recognized borders. Good luck getting rid of Putin, but Ukrainians will not subjugate to another Russia—whoever is president. The time of subjugation and "brotherly nations" is over.

Realize that Putin has huge support among his people. No, Russia is not like Venezuela, Belarus, or Iran, where the regime faces widespread resistance from people who think completely differently. Russian elections are manipulated, unfair, and non-democratic, but we have all the evidence that Putin has significant support. As one speaker from the Russian research center Levada once told me: "I am sorry and ashamed to say it, but our numbers are not wrong; it is what it is."

—Dietmar Pichler, disinformation analyst