Something to think about for people in the West who hope for a magical “Deus Ex Machina” type change in russian society.

Lets not forget that Gorbachev, widely perceived in the west as some sort of liberal reformer did not want to end russian occupation of independent countires that were part of the USSR and he supported the annexation of Crimea. Not to mention that the impetus for the end of USSR/Warsaw pact came from countries such as Poland, the Baltic nations and Ukraine, not from russia.

And what of current russians liberals? Reading Vladimir Kara-Murza’s latest article in Washington Post would make you think that the issue is putin and not russian society:

Putin’s anxiety is understandable. The Kremlin knows that public opposition to the Ukraine war is much greater than what its propaganda would admit.

And yet Kara-Murza, the darling of the west, also said the following (in an address for the French senate no less):

There is another reason why the Russian Defense Ministry recruits so many members of ethnic minorities [to fight in the war against Ukraine]: as it turns out, because it is psychologically really difficult for [ethnic] Russians to kill Ukrainians. Because we are one people. We are very close peoples, as everybody knows. We have nearly the same language, the same religion, and centuries of history in common. But if it’s someone from another culture, allegedly it’s easier [for them to kill Ukrainians]. I hadn’t really thought about it before. I thought the reasons were primarily economic. But after what [a colleague who spoke about the Buryats] said, I started thinking about it too.

And this is a Western educated russian “liberal”. Can you imagine what goes through the head of the vast majority of russians?