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"But let's not pretend they're good guys then." I did not. "> The russian soldiers also largely don't think they represent evil, they think they defend russia
by lukan 2y ago
"But let's not pretend they're good guys then."
I did not.
"> The russian soldiers also largely don't think they represent evil, they think they defend russia
Let's suppose this is true (I'm not convinced, in practice most of them are fighting because they don't have choice, so what they think doesn't matter that much anyway"
And are you aware, allmost no russian conscripts are involved in fighting?
It is a voluntarily army. Econonic reasons do play a role, especially for people from asian backwater provinces - but all in all they do fight, because they choose to.
So back to the main story - it is not just evil overlord Putin, that is the problem.
- benterix 2y ago> And are you aware, allmost no russian conscripts are involved in fighting? Actually I didn't know that, the reports from the beginning of the war stated otherwise. In any case, last time I read they said they managed to mobilize 300 000 people[0]. So what happened to them? It makes no sense to mobilize soldiers during the war and not send them to war. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_mobilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_mobilization
- lukan 2y ago"the reports from the beginning of the war stated otherwise" Not the ones I read. "It makes no sense to mobilize soldiers during the war and not send them to war." They can guard other borders (russia has lots of them) and replace the professional soldiers there, who then can be send instead to Ukraine. And 140 000 of those 300 000 you cite seem to be Ukrainians. And they do have to fight indeed. But russia really avoided forcefully drafting ethnic russians and sending them into the war zone - the few times it did - it created too much unrest.