Thread by @kamilkazani

Let's be honest, what Yeltsin did in 1991 certainly had an *element* of military coup, to say the least. Yeah, it's kinda nice he had crowds on his side. But the fact that a few army regiments and lots of KGB joined him didn't hurt either. Peaceful protests are hugely overrated

https://twitter.com/SofiOksanen/status/1561624973143408640

In fact, it was the coup element of 1991 that determined the face of the Russian army leadership till around 1996. Upstarts with no relevant experience, credentials or network heavily dominated the military command. Why? They just happened to switch to Yeltsin in August 1991

I see why media and academia tend to wildly exaggerate the power of peaceful protests. But honestly I'm sick of that BS. For a regime change to happen you need at least few regiments to switch sides. If that doesn't happen, regime not gonna change. Army always beats the "people"

That's one of my problems with post 9/11 narrative. Peaceful protests have no effect in authoritarian countries. Meanwhile, anti-government violence is delegitimised and labelled as "terrorism". Any meaningful resistance to Putin for example would absolutely qualify as terrorism

So when you are calling for Russian people to rebel, you must be aware you are spreading the terrorist propaganda. Because you are calling for political violence (=terrorism). Non-terrorist behaviour would be just sit at home and write sad posts in Facebook. Very commendable