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Adrian915 t1_ja2hph2 wrote

Reply to comment by heavy_highlights in EU slaps sanctions on top Russia officials, banks, trade by BrandYearg525

I don't think people expected for russians to have nothing over night (though I have to admit, I would have preferred a full embargo starting last year - even though that is indeed a harder approach). What you are describing is the intended effects: replace western stuff with chinese so money stops coming in/out of russia. Which is the right thing to do. People in russia still need to live and people in the west do need to minimize trade until better people come into power over there(ones that don't genocide their neighbors).

Of course Russia becoming reliant on China is gonna become a whole different issue, both for russians but also for the west. Given that China now dominates the markets there and has access to resources at a premium price, who knows what they are capable of in the future. Let's hope they are satisfied with turning Russia into a client state for the moment.

Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now the war must be stopped with Russia retreating behind their borders.

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heavy_highlights t1_ja2kit7 wrote

This is an incomprehensible and hopeless situation for people who do not want to get into politics (yes, many will shout on reddit that YOU SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS). But understand a simple thought - if no one taught you this and did not put this knowledge into your brain, how should you get to this? What should the cash desk do in a city with 300k population?

She hears all her life that the West is bad. She works 10 hours a day for $500 a month. (go tell an avid gamer that you need to take care of your health, eat right and not sit at the computer for 8 hours a day - unless I'm trying to offend gamers :) I'm trying to give at least some example that it's hard to take and change your life, people don't want to change.

With such success, one could say - in ancient Egypt there was no Internet simply because they did not want it. I had to take it and do it. Well, that's not how it works.

No, you should not expect a 6 year old child to be able to calculate the mathematical formulas of a university professor.

What I want to say is that the country is 30 years old (Russia), which spent 10 years in dark times (90s).

You should not expect that overnight people will stand up and begin to understand politics, express their opinions competently, and so on. Now this is all a judgment in hindsight.

Sorry for this confusion, it's just that I often read here the call "Russians get up and solve your problem."

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Adrian915 t1_ja2miv7 wrote

My country was communist 30 years ago, with everything that implies. There was death, there was misery, there was pain. People rebelled and the dictator was shot and so was the country free to pursue freedom and democracy.

I think what I and many don't understand is how Russians accept the political apathy and how they accept their situation. Yes, we saw a lot of them leave, we saw the protests, we saw that two battalions of russians are now fighting in Ukraine with the UA military. But considering the country's size and population, the resistance is still underwhelming.

You could say, yes it's the propaganda, but even that should have limits. How can people believe the whole west is bad and wants to destroy them, when you can just simply talk to them? How can they believe that the war is still justified, given that the reasons for it have changed several times now, with now admitting they simply want back 'historical lands'. How can people live with being arrested and beaten in police stations by expressing anti war opinions? This isn't advanced math, this is simply reactions to endless lies and manipulation by your own government. You literally have less rights than the UN universal charter of human rights says you should have and that's not because of the west.

I don't know man, I personally don't blame you or people that want no part in it. I just hope the russian public wake up and do something before we start WW3, because Russia (the largest country in the world by land mass) STILL wants more land mass at the expense of murdering innocent people.

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Shurqeh t1_ja2ih2d wrote

This kind of decoupling from the West is the kind of Decoupling the West wishes they could pull off from China

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Adrian915 t1_ja2ixnl wrote

Yep, thanks to profit obsessed markets, here we are. Manufacturing jobs are returning to the EU though so that's great.

Regardless, as opposed to China, Russia did weaponize our dependency in order to try and manipulate our politics which made them the bigger threat. I as a european, want absolutely nothing from them anymore, regardless of the price. The fact that they invested huge amounts of money to buy off some of our politicians, have an imperial agenda and have no issues with genociding people as close to them culturally as possible, makes them a way bigger threat than China could ever be right now.

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heavy_highlights t1_ja2kl2o wrote

Can't make it fast

And the war will not be able to end quickly, as we all would not like it here.

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