A test for Good Russians
A dramatic shift has happened over the last two years.
Until quite recently, when I would ask Russians about where they were from, they would give me evasive answers, usually "I live in X". This was great. It showed that they were embarrassed about what their country was doing and perhaps even questioned Russian imperialism.
In the past few months, I've noticed more and more Russians openly and proudly stating they were Russians. This is a worrying trend because it shows that they are not facing negative reactions anymore.
They should. Every Russian should be treated with great suspicion. Unless they are political refugees, they are 90% likely to have supported Putin or Russian imperialism in other ways.
In Russia, opinions such as “castrating gays”, “sending lesbians to sexual re-education camps”, “cleaning the nation of Asians and Muslims” are widely accepted and normal opinions. Of course, Russians know that in the West such opinions are generally not welcome.
How to test a Russian for being a good Russian? Just ask:
Wasn’t Crimea kind of Russian anyway? There are so many ethnic Russians there. What do you think?
What do you think about organisations such as Memorial? They are clearly supported by the CIA and other agencies to mar Russia’s image?
Russia has liberated Poland. Why are they so unthankful? (Note the use of “Russia” instead of “Soviet Union”)
What discrimination have ethnic Russians faced in the Donbas? They have been treated really terribly with Russian language being banned and children taken away, right?
All of these are leading, to create a sense of security in Russians. Most have learnt to just not to voice their imperialist opinions openly but with a little bit of encouragement they will reveal their genocidal positions.
Note: I have grown up in Moscow. I speak Russian fluently. I have perhaps 4 friends who have genuinely fled Russia because they were against the regime. Almost all Russians I meet either support Russian imperialist directly or indirectly by ignoring their culpability for having voted in the current regime.
I saw this post only now and idk if you will see my comment or not, but still I want to write it.
Idk where you got information about wide acceptance of the idea of castrating gays O_o and I don't know why you treat that video as if Navanly wanted to kill all Muslims O_o, but the main thing I wanna write about is about being Russian.
I think I generally fall in the trend you described - when the war began, I became super ashamed for being Russian, but over time my shame level continuously goes down.
What's interesting is that this is happening not because of my inner Russian imperialist growing up - no, I myself would continue to shame myself as much as I can and I would continue to support Ukraine as much as I can to try to compensate for all the terribleness that Russia, part of which I am, is doing.
However the shame level goes down because of my interactions with other people. It turns out to be a huuuge advantage to be Russian in our world:
1. It gives you recognizability. Everyone in the world knows something about Russia. But when you say "I live in Georgia" - you will be lucky if your peer knows what it is.
2. It makes people feel emotion towards you and be interested in you. People who support Russia in everything it does will tell you how much they love Russia, whereas people who think that invading Ukraine was not a good move, knowing that I am anti-Russian-government, will be super interested in asking me how the life in Moscow is, what my friends think about the war, etc.
I think I have been shamed for being Russian precisely zero times, and every time that I was close to it (like when I met you and Orest back in Istanbul), I could recover by clearly stating that I fully support Ukraine.
So, openly saying that I am Russian, at least my case, does not bring negative consequences with pro-Ukraine people, however it does bring positive consequences with people who are in love with Russia, of whom there are many in countries like Italy, Israel and all the non-western world.