Today I was talking to @MthrSuperiorBen. She's one of the most brilliant people I know. She came from Ukraine to US to face what US is now.
I rushed in a Space as a person living under the reign of a psychopath for 25 years. I had three pieces of advice but only gave two.

https://twitter.com/MthrSuperiorBen/status/1841142000600461633

The first one was simple and nice. Gather around.
These deranged egomaniacs hate institutions. They hate the sheer possibility of something stronger than the will of a powerful man. They hate that the fabric of a strong institute is designed with change in mind.

The portrait of an american Vatnik.

I made a tweet that went viral. More than a million people saw it and quite a lot of Trump voters got upset enough to react. I'd say, hundreds - even by counting the replies where they tagged FBI, you can see quite an impact. Who are they?

https://twitter.com/betelgeuse1922/status/1895530408265281971

I picked the derogatory term used for "russian patriots" for a reason. Their American compatriots share the same inconsistent naive worldview, they are very homophobic and, I'd say, childishly cruel.
But there are differences and it was interesting to explore.

It's gonna get worse, as they will lie twice as much about things we remember ourselves. So I will recap.
Three years ago my home country, Russia, invaded Ukraine. It was a bloody and brutal escalation of the war that began with Crimea annexation. Nobody provoked Russia to do this, hardly anyone thought such a war was even possible. Russia did it by itself and gave the laughable excuses that didn't fool anyone. Denazifying a country with a Jewish president was a gesture of nihilistic disregard.

I was crying my eyes out. Then I decided to 'real-politic' myself out of this. I will not mumble that "any peace is still better". Let's leave it to political analysts who took the anal part of their title too serious. But hopefully, together we can breathe in and breathe out. 1. We see Trump for what he is most of the time with an exception. When it comes to war we act like Donald is not a lying egomaniac piece of conniving cumsnot. People start perceiving him as a human being who takes death of thousands seriously (for once). That's very wrong.

Hey, Elon. So there was a boy, a founder of an IT company, who got really rich selling cars. He quickly understood, that money is not the only asset. Very soon he started to use his business ventures as an instrument of political leverage. Politicians understood they need him at their side. He got very famous for his flamboyancy and unprecedent business practices.

In the moments like this we see media, smart experts and random people screaming :"We crossed the line, Putin is escalating and we are on the brink WW3".
It's easy to fall for that but we know the real answer:
RUSSIA DIDN'T DO ANYTHING REMOTELY NEW Dropping missiles on Ukraine? Every fucking day. Using extensively dangerous weapons? Sure. Causing unprecedented nuke-like damage? Kakhovka dam.
Threatening NATO with new nuclear doctrines? Once a month. Claiming this is the war against America and Europe? Oh my dude.

I just finished my annual Politkovskaya articles binge. Every year I can't help but compare her - one of the best human beings, who died on October 7th, with the pathetic coward, Vladimir Putin, who was born on October 7th, Every year I find another little thing that shows how polar these two are.
She was born in New York, he was born in Leningrad. The main thing left after her was a computer, while Putin can't understand what an iPhone is 25 years later.

So there is a book Vladimir Putin REALLY doesn't like. It's his official biography. You can hardly find it online. It was not published for more than 20 years.
There are reasons. Putin was inexperienced and was not expecting to rule for 20 years so he provided some fun details. Secondly, he was not an avid reader, so he didn't take books into account.
Well, he does now and my rule of thumb is to do anything that can hurt Volodya. This book can be useful, as we see from multiple journalist investigations in Russian.

Most of these people don't even know what a cinematic experience it was, because if they did, there would be way more burning cars. The movie begins with a Santa...

https://twitter.com/TWMCLtd/status/1833632558040363438

It's New year in Moscow and a Ukrainian from Donetsk arrives to work as a Santa Klaus to make kids happy. Oh, by the way he came for a vacation to see his family. He came from Ukraine, where he fought on the side of a Russian army.
I am not tripping, that's the beginning.

Due to recent Durov-related events, I had way more communication with fellow Russians online than usual. It was not pleasant and I've noticed a mindset shift, that was pretty much expected. It can be described as:
- I am tired of acting like I care. Only the most disgusting "patriots" used slurs and wished death to Ukrainians during the first year of the war. It wasn't acceptable. Until now.
The new mindset of the liberal-ish Russian emigration opinion leaders looks pretty much like Trump's "America first".

Durov's arrest:
Elon's crowd - Attack against free speech.
Ru Opposition - Biggest gift given to Putin
Weirdos - Europe falling into socialistic authoritarian delusion.

None of these takes look even remotely true or make sense. Durov made an extremely ergonomic and cozy platform for all sorts of criminals. Drugs, children pornography, people trafficking - everybody enjoys the privacy and versatility of Telegram. Choice to leave it that way, and ignore authorities is neither heroism nor principles.

The comment by @BeRuzzia is a bit inaccurate and the truth is way more infuriating. The video is from 91-92 when Sobchak was a major, while Putin was his International Affairs deputy. Sobchak truly needed a special IA guy at the time...

https://twitter.com/BeRuzzia/status/1826674987962696037

Leningrad (later Saint Petersburg) was in a very tough spot. A huge megapolis heavily relied on imports of food. However, after the Union collapse, there was no regional funding or government subsidies, as Moscow didn't have enough budget. What could be done was legislation.

Sometimes it seems there was so much cruelty, that we begin to forget how much.
2022
February 24 - Russia attacks Ukraine but if it's not enough from the very first day they raise radioactive clouds above Chernobyl.
February 25 - Russia shells a kindergarten March 1 - at least 40 civilians die after 8 blocks are shelled in Borodianka
March 4 - Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is being attacked
March 6 - Vinnytsia airport is destroyed completely
March 9 - Mariupol hospital airstrike - it's a children's hospital and maternity ward

OK, judging by likes, it appears you don't know about that movie. So... It's the "Wedding in Malinovka" thread. I promise you will shit bricks.

https://twitter.com/betelgeuse1922/status/1820505094678253927

1967. Ukrainian filmmakers create amazing movies. Dubravka - a kind and gentle coming-of-age story by Radomir Vasilevsky. Kira Muratova's "Brief Encounters" is completed and banned by censors. But that's not how we will remember Ukraine's representation that year. And I am sorry.

"Come on, Denis, don't be dramatic - people in Crimea live just OK, without any torture or whatever else you try to imply".
"There are even more Crimean Tatars than there were before occupation"
"It's fine, we are fine, everything is fine".
Well, no. My thesis: "Soft annexation" is a propaganda construct. Every territory occupied by Russia is in danger and requires liberation. It faces:
- Direct violence;
- Forced deportation;
- Cultural erasure.
Crimean Tatars experience exactly that.

One day of heavy criticism and voila!
Now Ilya Yashin:
- doesn't call for peace negotiations;
- says that Ukraine shouldn't give up any of its territory;
- mentions that the best way to help the opposition is to support Ukraine;
- speaks about the torture of Ukrainian POWs. That is the reason why you shouldn't blindly follow politicians but stay critical and always keep your bucket of dicks nearby. I deeply respect Ilya for his willingness to correct and admit his mistakes and it's certainly a step in the right direction.
Next stop: Supporting ZSU.

Press conference:
Check Ukrainian Twitter, and you will see that the post-jail press conference by russian opposition was a trainwreck.
Probably, even the pessimists had at least some tiny hope for some sense. Well, fuck us all. Now, I feel betrayed, furious, and hopeless. As a pro-Ukrainian activist, I feel betrayed because these guys probably forgot how to pronounce Украина so decided not to mention it at all. It all looked like there is no genocidal war ravaging the lives of millions.

"Sanctions don't work" - everybody yelled. Now we know that sanctions DO WORK but take some (a lot of) time to show the result. Right now russian economy is fucked in a very gangbang bukake fashion. Let's continue our dick joke session with the word "stagflation" which sounds very much like sucking off Rudolph the rednosed deer.
The latest Central Bank press conference was all about that happening. Well, stagflation is not exactly correct in Russia's case.

What made me think so? Well, for the first time, allies reacted the way they should.
Old Poo: - Look I am so nuclear!!! TOXIC HELLFIRE IS WAITING US ALL! I am craaaaazeeeey!
The world: - Oh, right, ok.

https://twitter.com/betelgeuse1922/status/1799902257758314518

It received no attention even when he decided to play the Caribean crisis. Putin's actions? Quote:
They came up with the idea that Russia wants to attack NATO. You've gone completely crazy, haven't you? Dumb, like this table. Who came up with this? This is nonsense, bullshit.

The topic of Gaza is polarising and complicated, so many people (including me) choose to remain silent. This contradicts my incentive never to turn a blind eye to cruelty. So I will at least try to speak. Honestly and calmly. I feel shitty about the extremely ignorant pro-Israel tweets I made - not because you can’t be pro-Israel but because at the moment I had no information at all. Later I learned that no matter how much you read it doesn’t get any less convoluted and intricate.

What’s the most important Russian book for the Russians themselves?

It’s not War and Peace. As monumental as Scorsesse’s “Taxi Driver” it was destined to become a book everybody claimed to like but never read. It’s not Crime and Punishment. It's is a great glimpse into the hive mind of the early urban population. Sadly, it’s written terribly and works better in Bakhtin’s analysis.

There are two candidates for a prime ‘Russian’ novel: “Dead Souls” and “The Master and Margarita”.