Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Russian bots and sympathisers on twitter are already claiming the "Nazis executed their own" or it's a "false flag" operation and claim they can see one of the bodies moving and that they're "arranged too neatly for the cameras". Yup. That's the level of disconnect and denial lunacy we're dealing with.

IMHO JM that's wishful thinking. Now I'm certainly not one of those who reacts to the emotionals and calls for Death to the savages!! ballsology from the safety of their keyboard, because it's that bollocks that brings us to and perpetuates these horrors and always has done. Basically pick your side and shout at the other side and here we go again...

However I would be extremely surprised if a large percentage, if not a majority of Russian people do indeed support putin and most of all Russia in all of this. Especially Russia and that support has grown IMHO and will until a breaking point is reached. You would have had some who were dubious of putin and really dubious since he invaded Ukraine, but with each passing day are more supportive of Russia and her troops.

Look how easily people in this thread are led to "nuke putin!" reactions by seeing the horrors we've seen in the last 24 hours(and before), and we're free and able to view numerous sources on this war. Hell we can even dig around and find Russian sources, even though we quite naturally and rightly find them suspect at best. On their side your average Russian's sources are extremely curated by the state and putin. And yes they can VPN their way to outside sources, but they've been primed since birth and constantly that non Russian sources are to be automatically discounted. Merely suspecting them isn't enough. That non Russian sources are akin to an invasion of Russian minds and they've also been primed since birth that the "world" is against Russia and invasion of any sort is always a threat. And that's an easy sell to Russians. Their geography alone helps this sale. If you're in Moscow, look west. There are pretty much no natural barriers between you and your "enemies"*.

Hell, his very conflict, this invasion of Ukraine itself is an example of this. It's got eff all to do with "nazis" or "biolabs"(there are more of both in Russia) or whatever Kremlin bullshít excuse they've spun to their people, it's far more about this invasion paranoia that's been building since their buffer states of the former USSR one by one and in short order said eff of Russia you pricks. Now you and I well know it's all about control, resources power and money for putin. If any Russian bot or sympathiser brings up "nazis", a simple question is return is; if putin wanted to denazify Ukraine, why didn't he invade ten or twenty years ago when there were more far right groups with far more support and more actually in government? I've found they've no answer to that. But yeah this invasion threat is a large part of how putin is selling this to Russians and they're buying it.

*As an aside if you look at America they've got two oceans between them and any invasion threat, their southern border is their big worry and throughout the 20th century they've fought proxy wars and other nasty shenanigans that have killed tens of thousands in damn near every South American nation to assuage that worry. It wasn't a shock to me that trump's "Build a Wall!" rhetoric found such favour there. In Russia this geopolitical and historical threat has long been used by Russia's rulers as a way to keep fear in the back of the population's minds and control of that population.