Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Cullis
I've always felt that the general population often doesn't support the actions of their government, and I shared the same view as some of those who commented below, surely most Russians must be more aware of world events and cynical about Russian government propaganda.
But then I read this article explaining the Russian psyche and world view. The ingrained views made me somewhat depressed. Even if Russia loses the UA war, how do you get the citizens to accept this?
It's interesting to note that apart from the 1st Tank Army and 45th Spetsnaz Brigade, most of the RU forces in UA are NOT from Moscow or other rather more enlightened areas. Instead RU is throwing in troops from the far east and the boondocks.
|
In my somewhat small personal survey of Russian conscript soldiers maning border posts in the west of Russia with borders to Estonia (they came from Far East Russia) and in and out of Mongolia and Kazakhstan to Altai (they came from Moscow and Kaliningrad: I could even speak German to them), it seems to be policy to send these young lads as far as possible from home (control/ divide and conquer?).
The same sort of poor lads who were/are sent as cannon fodder to fight highly motivated and dug in Ukrainian defenders who are on home soil and know the geography of their homeland?
An aside: In 2000 on my trans Africa bike trip, the Egyptian conscript soldiers on the streets of Cairo (quite far north in Egypt) all seemed to come from the south of the country. They also didn't have bullets in their guns (apparently reducing the likelihood of assassination attempts on their military and political leadership... Makes perfect sense to me  . )
|