Protests work: if they are large enough.

That's sort of a no true scottsman. Occupy wall street resulted in nothing, BLM protests were huge to no lasting effect, massive anti war protests in the early 2000's resulted in a couple decades of war. What ones recently were big enough? Million man march? That was just LBJ buying votes if you ask him about it privately.

> BLM protests were huge to no lasting effect

Accountability for criminal homicide of Black people, especially by law enforcement, has definitely increased since BLM became a force. Whether that's a lasting effect is, of course, too soon to say, but it's not to be casually dismissed as you have.

> Accountability for criminal homicide of Black people, especially by law enforcement, has definitely increased since BLM became a force.

Especially by law enforcement, or only by law enforcement? Criminal homicide of blacks is way up since BLM.

None of those resulted in crippling the country, which is the level you need.

Without Russia propping him up Lukashenko would be out by now.

Think Solidarity, not BLM and get the whole country to grind to a halt. That will make a difference. By the time the police and the army have to decide if they want to open fire on their family it can be won. But for that to happen something major will have to change in Russia first.

In Canada they just had protests that crippled the country, they just took food and the ability to bank or heat themselves from the protestors until they gave up. No change. Imagine if Trudeau had a gulag.

That was a few hundred people at best. Anyway, I can see that you believe strongly that protests don't work, I've been eyewitness to protests that did work and that changed the direction of a country (in fact, multiple countries) in a massive way.

Those instances are rare, but that's an existence proof that you can't deny (and there are, historically, more examples).

Note that the support for those Canadian protests amongst ordinary Canadians was minimal.

I'd assume support for those anti war protests in a time of war is probably lower than the support for the truckers in canada (which wasn't that low, 30-40% of the population). Does that make anti war protests in russia illegitimate ? Especially since appearing to undermine a war effort is usually universally despised once a war starts. Even the iraq war started with 90% of americans rallying behind bush and supported the war, so the legitimacy of the war itself does not seem to matter a lot.

> Does that make anti war protests in russia illegitimate ?

According to the Russian authorities, yes. According to me: those people are real heroes, right now it is far more dangerous to join such protests than when the numbers are higher, especially in places like Russia.

Virtually every Canadian province has dropped vaccine passports or is in the process of doing so. This was not the case before the protests began. While it's possible that this would have happened anyway (and not even the purview of the federal government), it seems likely that protests accelerated things.

Of course, I'm not sure there are many parallels here to the situation in Russia/Ukraine.

protests worked in russia in 1917

Wasn't it an armed uprising?

Unless I'm misunderstanding the request here that is what folks are truly asking the Russian population to do. Someone must physically cast Putin down within Russia itself. I agree peaceful protests inside the country will not work.

This incredible high brow view is a stain on what is happening in Russia. I’m in America and I am not at all surprised that our private company’s are in the pocket of our government interests, once again. This would feel like ANOTHER provocation, if you are a Russian official. I wonder if we will see Americans realize that (at least in part) this Russian aggression is a retaliation to how the USA / EU policies have put the Ukrainian people in incredible danger for their own political motives.

To be clear, against all war and what is happening in Russia is also equally unacceptable.

> ...how the USA / EU policies have put the Ukrainian people in incredible danger for their own political motive.

Please excuse my ignorance but how did the US and EU put the UA people in danger?

I want to preface this by saying that I 100% disagree with the war in Ukraine and the Russian infiltration and my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. Also, please feel free to correct me or argue these points! A few ways: 1. NATO is largely an anti-Russian coalition. With many of its boarder neighboring countries being part of it. You can google the map and you will see the strategic position of those countries. In the West, only Belarus and Ukraine have not been added to this list of Russian neighboring countries. The USA & EU has been running military drills at those locations for many decades in an act of intimidation. 2. Sanctions are effecting mostly the everyday people of Russia. This is gathering more support internally for Putin’s aggression. 3. The Ukraine has a major movement toward the west in the last decade. Making Ukraine NATO would be another enemy at the boarder and this would be unfavorable for the Russian’s. Again provoking conflict in the region. 4. There has been no attempt by the USA to work with Putin or the Russian officials. Even using Russia as a scapegoat for the Wikileaks dump in 2016. And of course so, so much more anti Russian sentiment in our media ahead of this. 5. Biden and his sons involvement in the Ukraine (as reported on in 2020 by some of the US media) shows the constant strain that the Ukrainians are under. A pawn between the USA and Russia. Open to thoughts and opinions by everyone!

Thanks for sharing that perspective. I'm curious if those NATO members bordering Russia were pressured into joining by the US/EU or felt compelled by other outside influence.

The third option: they were asking pro actively to be allowed to join.

This is pretty well documented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO

Maybe Putin's Russia should not exist in its current form?

Russian people are infested and brain washed with decades of propaganda. I hope this war and sanctions will cripple the country back into 1990s and Russian state cease to exist in its current form, regime, and borders.

Russia is seriously sick and must rid itself from Putin first

> 1. NATO is largely an anti-Russian coalition

Factually incorrect, the word 'Russia' doesn't appear in NATO's charter, it is first and foremost a security pact. That Russia ends up in the position of the main party to worry about is in principle unrelated to that, but obviously it is the reality, as Russia has proven beyond any doubt now.

> You can google the map and you will see the strategic position of those countries.

Those countries were and are where they always were, and they were happy to join NATO precisely because they feel threatened by Russia, which is not without reason, they were under Russian occupation for decades.

> In the West, only Belarus and Ukraine have not been added to this list of Russian neighboring countries.

You missed Sweden and Finland.

Belarus is a vassal state of Russia, and does not have a functioning democracy. Ukraine has asked to join but this has to date not happened. The fact that it just so happened to be Ukraine that is attacked seems to lend credence to the fact that being a NATO member has its advantages and that those countries made the right decision.

> The USA & EU has been running military drills at those locations for many decades in an act of intimidation.

No, you run military drills to ensure that if and when you ever need them they will work, if you need to figure that stuff out - especially with multiple nations operating together - when you need it then you have already lost.

FWIW Russia does exactly the same thing.

> 2. Sanctions are effecting mostly the everyday people of Russia.

Yes.

> This is gathering more support internally for Putin’s aggression.

You have cause and effect reversed.

> 3. The Ukraine has a major movement toward the west in the last decade.

Which they were entirely free to make. Russia needs to 'stay in its lane'.

> Making Ukraine NATO would be another enemy at the boarder and this would be unfavorable for the Russian’s.

Note that you want to see NATO as 'the enemy'.

> 4. There has been no attempt by the USA to work with Putin or the Russian officials.

The USA is not involved in this conflict. China hasn't attempted to work with Putin or Russian officials either. And FWIW those Russian officials that were worked with were lying through their teeth, which is on the record.

> Even using Russia as a scapegoat for the Wikileaks dump in 2016.

Which has nothing to do with Ukraine.

> And of course so, so much more anti Russian sentiment in our media ahead of this.

'our'?

> 5. Biden and his sons involvement in the Ukraine (as reported on in 2020 by some of the US media) shows the constant strain that the Ukrainians are under.

Not relevant.

> A pawn between the USA and Russia.

In your mind, perhaps, but not in the mind of Europeans or Ukrainians for that matter, who mostly just want to get on with their lives, which a deranged dictator has now made impossible. This confrontation is on Russia and Russia alone, and any kind of attempts to whitewash it or to paint some alternative story is so much bs.

> Open to thoughts and opinions by everyone!

If anything the EU and the US should have done more, not less to arm the Ukraine, but they were under the mistaken impression that that would trigger a Russian response, if they had known then what we know now I'm fairly sure the situation would be completely different. But we're on to it now, and those that still aren't will wake up soon enough.