So not a lot different than the US then.

>>47017
People who criticize the government and have their own opinion in pidoRusiya are in real danger. Show me who has been killed or imprisoned in America for words.

>>47018
>killed or imprisoned in Russia for words.
This is a good topic on the other hand. It isn't discussed much and little light on it. Please do share cases as many as you can. That way this thread will actually serve a purpose, instead of just shitposting.
I know about the bridge shooting, Nyemtsov or how he is called. Although I dunno why he was killed.

>>47018
You don't have to kill your opposition to suppress them.

>>47019
It's common thing here but you can't gather and public such information in POCCNR. I saw before one site that did it and now can't find it, guess why.
Only big and popular figures are discussed, while ordinary people suffer by the thousands in the shadow of Mordor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

>>47017
I'd definitely rather be in US or here than in Russia right now.

>>47021
Impressive list. Definitely suspicious.
How about the average person. I hear there are demonstrations all over the place. Media here makes big thing out of it so it may appear larger for me than its actual importance.

>>47020
>>47025
Just watched the latest vid of NFKRZ (or who), on how he left for Georgia, and many Russians try their luck abroad now. In other countries too like Serbia, or Armenia.

cry more whore

>for words
latvia has just detained one of its citizens (ethnic russian) for posting pro-russian videos
get fucked

>>47030
Even in the US they blame people with pushing Russian propaganda just because they dare to say otherwise how mainstream media depicts things. Now American conservatives have to condemn Russia even harsher before they say anything to cover their asses.
Also there are these fucks in the West, civilians who think they can play the village sheriff, take matter into their own hands, and punish those who they deem to "support" Russia. Like that idiot dev of node-ipc, who thought he can wage his own private war against people who dl his crapware via Russian and Belarusian IPs.

>>47019

Political murder wasn't so common in Russia contrary to popular opinion, because there were plenty of ways to suppress people. It was not only about just politics, but mostly about combination of politics, money and crime, often on local level.

Typical example: governor of large region built a villa and grabbed territory around it pretty unlawfully (built fences near water and closed access, it is forbidden), some local activists gone to police and court and get nothing, and when started to act in media, were beaten and investigated by police as suspected criminal.

Local police almost always work as defense for local government and rarely goes against it even when government officials are going openly against the law. And local government mostly composed of mix of businessmen and criminals (often both). Kushchyovskaya was a most known example of that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushchyovskaya_massacre but there are many of similar cases that didn't get media attention.
Of course there are examples when commoner won against state force, but they are rare, and mostly include internal conflicts inside state and related entities (i.e. some mayor had enemies and they've used situation against him). While being against the state on words was tolerated, acting against the state was pretty hard, even if your actions are conceptually pro-state (i.e. going against stealing and corruption for patriotic reasons). Western media often concentrates on "anti-Russian" opposition but there were plenty of "pro-Russian" people who were against government and also suppressed.

On higher political level, criticism was suppressed mostly by soft force. There were no purely opposition media, even famous "liberal" entities were controlled by different state actors and had clear limits about what they can say. It is very fun to watch how "patriotic" people hated "evil pro-western Ekho Moskvy" that was owned by state-controlled Gazprom, or similar "Novaya Gazeta" that is owned by Rostekh.

Although everything I wrote is about pre-war situation. Now situation is completely different, and it is hard to describe it in short. I guess it may be illustrated with that news item from random local news site: https://www.ivanovonews.ru/news/1137076/

>>47052
And I assume it is easy to create and pass laws fitting for specific situations to illegalize or even criminalize certain activities and speech and suppress those.
>Western media often concentrates on "anti-Russian" opposition but there were plenty of "pro-Russian" people who were against government and also suppressed.
This is a thing, confusing the government/political leadership with the country or the people. Especially when the leaders repeating over and over that they are for the people/country and the interest of those. This modern democratic system "helps" too, because they get elected by the people to represent them, and enact their will. Despite this I can like a country, but despise the leaders. I can be a Hungarian who wants the best for my country and my people, and disagree with the parties in the parliament (the opposition too) and the government. I can have opinion that the leadership might find dangerous - for various reasons, eg. it undermines their authority, etc. - but still aligned with the interest of the country.
In fact rebels often grow to be fine conservatives as time passes. While rebels are dangerous for the current order, and even can be used by foreign powers to create disorder, most of them their rebellious intentions doesn't roots in malice but in love for the country and people, because they see or honestly think that the current order isn't actually in their best interest, that the current leadership only acts for its own selfish reasons.

>>47016
>This shithole should not exist.

Then what would you rather see instead of Russia then bernd?

>>47104
And more importantly: where would we store all the Russians?

>>47113
There's a spare Russia.

>>47073
>This is a thing, confusing the government/political leadership with the country or the people.

Another interesting moment that westerners rarely understand political situation here. People here aren't subjects of politics, and don't want to be. Majority of Russians support government, but this majority is very passive and have complex doublethink from birth. Like people sincerely saying "yes, we need to crush that evil West, go Putin!", but then running to shop to stockpile food because same people don't trust any word from government (who says that everything is good and will be better). So this isn't situation like people suffering from evil dictator, nor situation when people support glorious leader, and not even middle. For all 20th century Russians had only ~20 years of relatively comfort life, and experienced few pretty serious genocides (revolution/civil war, WW2), so people subconsciously understand how things really work, and easily change their mind when it is about survival.

Good example of modern Russian mentality was 1991, when almost everyone didn't want USSR to fall but literally no one ever tried to save it, even by just going to street protest. There was referendum before and 77% said that USSR must be saved in new form, but only few old generals tried to make a coup that quickly failed.

And some naive westerners also think that Russians need to gather and overthrow the regime, and sanctions would help to move people to streets. But there was recent example from almost similar country: Belarus. It is small country that has less population than Moscow, and they've had protests on almost revolution level, with street fights, terrorism (both from police and from people), very large amount of protest supporters in population, and... nothing changed. Government used hardcore repressions and protests were crushed. Situation in Russia isn't different, there are huge amount of loyal police and paramilitary force that wouldn't surrender easily but can do any inhumane act without remorse.

>>47127
I know what you write.
It's literally an inherited helplessness, impotence. Like riding on rollercoaster you have no control of.
I think many people in every nation, country, culture have this, but depending on historical circumstances as we're going from west to east it is characteristic to larger and larger portion of the society. In the US where the American Dream exists (existed?) a lot more people have a "can do" mindset and they are more willing to changing their own fate, and they believe more that they can influence larger things outside their own lives. In UK where the entrepreneur spirit exists since liek Henry VIII, the birthplace of capitalism, the country which influenced global changes in the first time also have this.
But arriving to the continent it is less and less, actually in both direction, from west to east and north to south. Central Eastern Europe, the last 500 years, it's one failure after another (mostly talking about Hungarian history, but noone here had more bright fate), individuals long tied to the feudal system, bloody and unsuccessful struggles to reach nothing by own effort, but then the central authority reached down and gave certain freedom. Little democratic changes in the end, but then the two world wars destroyed everything and we found ourselves again under the thumb of tyranny.
But then we reach Russia, where communism followed feudalism directly, offering very little for the individual to feel that he can be master of his own fate. They only learnt to live in a way where others deciding what they can do and cannot. When all the people around made to watch each other so they don't do anything against the system. People don't know how to change themselves, and how to join forces with the others. In this system only those can be independent thinkers and doers who are really psycho/sociopaths, and even these will be just roadkills for those who are in the right position to do so. Being in the right place or knowing the right people is not enough however, most of these can only be yes men for a very few guys on the top.

>>47116
I don't think we can fit all of Russia there doe

>>47179
Spooky. Can mods verify what this is?