They leveled Chechnya and finally had to cut a deal with Ramzan Kadyrov and his father to get him to switch sides in exchange for putting him in charge. I don't see a Kadyrov like figure popping up in Ukraine.
> this is Ukraine's real birth
Nestor Makhno would have probably disagreed with you.
But, hey, TIL: Makhno invented the Technical. Cool, thanks!
Yeah, Makhno was a really interesting guy.
Time will tell but much of the vaunted "Western" prosperity is a fading high from the now 70 year old post war era. It is not inevitable that America leads forever.
I wouldn't be too cocksure.
Also, things like population trends or nominal GDP are very changeable over the course of short decades. What matters is resources, land and will and unity of purpose.
I agree. At the same time, it seems fairly fundamental to me that people in a free functioning democratic society will always be more productive and able to outcompete those suffering under a dictatorship.
His victory is pyrric from a western, democratic point of view. From his point of view, it's a win - Russia is an authoritarian regime; the population (up to an extent) doesn't matter. People actually started to be jailed due to protesting already.
I don't think it's realistic that an insurrection will happen, but it'd be interesting to read opinions from Russian people.
On other hand every nation is born in blood and this is Ukraine's real birth. Likely the country will be smaller, lots of people will die, but this is the time it becomes a real nation(well it started in 2014). It is time to prepare for insurgency in the west Ukraine. It took Stalin 6 years to finish off UPA. But they were surrounded and without any help, plus they faced NKVD. Ukranian insurgency in the west with arms flowing through Carpathy will make Russian regret they were ever born. There will be nothing pretty about it.. but there will be no victory for the tsar this time.