Russia - threadbanned users in OP

No its not a cop-out. From birth, they are indoctrinated into the system, step out of line, and you will pay the price. Any , ( even perceived ) deviation, never mind full blown protests, are met head on with brute force. You will have seen it before, when there were protests about Putin rigging elections etc. What else do you expect when the country is ruled by thug? Maybe at some point it will reach critical mass ( especially if the military mutiny ) but we are not there yet. Would not surprise me if Putin sent his police / military to shoot his own people if the protests threatened him.

"There is new evidence of the atrocities of the occupiers against the civilian population, the Rashists admit that they are shooting Ukrainian women closely. They do this with special cynicism, releasing several bullets even in the breathless body of their victims.

The SBU intercepts such conversations of the invaders and documents their crimes – so that in the future no one guilty will go unpunished.

This "hero", who was mobilized by the Russians in the so-called "LNR", tells his friend about the brutal murder of a Ukrainian woman by his colleagues: "...there is some woman lying there, ...her head shot out, lying there, twitching. There was a hole in her head... They called for more, he shot her again, she was still twitching, he shot her again... That's it, I said, she was fucked".

As it turned out, the wife's only fault was that "...she had, like, a brother in Azov, and she started talking some bullsh*t.

The soldier allegedly resents the behavior of his fellow soldiers, but in no way prevented this war crime. Only advised at least to bury the murdered.

This is what Russian "mastery" really looks like!"

Due to sovereignty issues, it's seems clear that all these war crimes will go unpunished, despite all the toothless blather about being held to account, brought to justice and trials. I'ts all a load of impotent nonsense as Russia will never hand anyone over.

It was suggested a countries funds, if frozen, are legally immune from later seizure. Whatever international law that enables that immunity needs to be changed so that all Russia's foreign assets are fair game for reparations and to be held hostage to be used as incentive for the handover of individuals wanted for war crimes prossecution. Something like a €100m fine from frozen funds for each person not extradited when asked for.

No

Ukrainians have been reporting that in those areas, the Russians have been forcibly conscripting all males they can find, including children, the over 65, invalids and handicapped, and sticking AK-47s in their hands, and one presumes, another in their backs.

I have been rather wondering why some of these don't frag their Russian overlords. Perhaps this might be related to unhappy conscripts.

Have you known any Russians or Soviet bloc citizens who grew up in the 60's and 70's? I think they'd have issue with your 'reliable and a lot cheaper.' Ladas were junk as were Pobodas. My old friends are always amused to see photos of them in use in places like Cuba (old ones), held together with spit and bailing wire, like in Russia. Also, there were bread lines and extreme privation by western standards (e.g., 1 toilet base in an apartment building with everyone having their own family seats that they brought with them.)

And, you do have to ask exactly how the laborers on the Soviet-era public projects were compensated and how many were compelled to labor.

A good friend who was from Moldova told me the first time they got to leave and go to the Czech republic, they were stunned by the availability of food, clothing, basic staples like toilet paper. They really did use copies of Pravda in the loo. To this day, he can't stand the smell of coconut because of cheap Cuban laundry soap scented with coconuts that was all that was available growing up. It's also obvious he was malnourished as a kid, too.

Out of choice, the Soviet union compelled this onto their population. They were isolated because their leadership was happy with it. Their people suffered by design, just like under the Tsars. "Animal Farm" is a pretty accurate allegory.

I regularly see black Hawks fly into the Ukraine.

They never show up on flight radar.

But posters on here think otherwise

"Military medic Olena Kushnir has died in Mariupol"

Extremely sad. She was a doctor. RIP

A fascinating collection of photos of Russian history here 67 Old Colorized Photos Reveal The Life Of Russian People Between 1900-1965 | Bored Panda

"Production of Russian air defense systems on pause, factory workers are sent on vacation or to war

📌 The production facilities of the Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant (JSC UMZ, Ulyanovsk) have actually been stopped. UMZ" is a manufacturer of radars and air defense equipment of the RF Armed Forces (Buk, Kub, Tunguska ZGRK).

📌 The reasons for the critical state of production are the use of a large number of components and electronic components in the manufacture of military products.

According to employees, the plant is not able to continue production on its own.

Currently, the plant's management is looking for opportunities to bypass sanctions and establish supplies through third countries (in particular, Kazakhstan). But such schemes lead to a significant increase in the price of components due to the need to pay for services to intermediary countries.

Employees are given a choice: go on unpaid leave or sign a contract with the armed forces to participate in the war in Ukraine."

Good to see sanctions are working and will eventually have an effect.

People can and do act in hundreds of thousands. France would be a good example of a nation with a history of organised mass protesting.

A closer, albeit not identical, example to Russia would be Serbia in the 90s.

There were constant protests against Milosevic in the 10s of thousands in Belgrade, but these were ignored and never reported on by the state controlled media; the minister of information at the time being none other than Aleksandar Vucic, now Leader for Life in Serbia.

It was only when the numbers reached 200,000 in 1996 that Milosevic came under enough pressure to make some concessions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%931997_protests_in_Serbia

He was finally overthrown in 2000 when between 500,000 and 1 million people marched on the capital.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87

By then, Milosevic had lost the support of rural Serbia which was his power base for 10 years and who had limited access to outside information.

There are many parallels between Serbia then and Russia now.

Sanctions had a crippling effect on Serbia and still do to this day. Corruption increased massively and people who could source stuff across the borders became important and rich very quickly. The 'work hard and work for each other' socialist ideology of two post war generations went out the window almost overnight and it was everyone for themselves. Those who had connections to the ruling class did well. This had always been the case, ever since WWII, but nearly everyone was a member of the party then, so things were more equal. The sanctions in the 90s meant that a much smaller group of people did well. But sanctions didn't turn the masses against Milosevic; sanctions turned the people against the West.

Bombing Belgrade very effectively stopped the atrocities in Kosovo in 1999. But that didn't turn the masses against Milosevic, bombing turned the people against NATO.

What turned the masses against Milosevic was the clandestine funding by the US of media outlets such as B92 and protest organisations like Otpor (Gotov je) such that a sufficient percentage of the population finally turned against him. Unfortunately for Russia, and as already said by others, Putin has clamped down harder and earlier on any form of protest. There is little chance of the US funding a viable media/protest organisation. There also doesn't seem to the be the same appetite for protesting in Russia as there was in Serbia. Students in many countries are often among the first to protest, but that doesn't seem to be the case in Russia.

I don't see a way out of this for them.