According to two Russian soldiers interviewed by a pro-invasion blogger, if you wear a Russian military uniform on the metro in Moscow people distance themselves and give you dirty looks.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Mostly Wagner mercenaries

      For those who downvote: mostly doesn’t mean only, and Wagner mercs were criminals even before they became mercs

      • severien@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You deserve a downvote, because that “mostly” is just baseless guess/assumption.

        • uis@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Maybe it’s guessed because one returned merc killed old lady, other killed his wife and another two killed six people and burned their houses.

          Or maybe because drafted are not returning because Shoigu won’t let them go.

          • severien@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Maybe it’s guessed because one returned merc killed old lady, other killed his wife and another two killed six people and burned their houses.

            So, that’s “most” based on what data?

            Or maybe because drafted are not returning because Shoigu won’t let them go.

            They’re not let go, but they are being rotated.

  • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    “You go on the metro, and people stare at you because you wear a uniform. Again, I didn’t go voluntarily, I received a summons and came to the military enlistment office.

    At this point I had some sympathy.

    I didn’t run away or hide like you. I acted like a law-abiding citizen. But when I come on holiday, they point fingers at me,” the soldier said.

    And then he lost my sympathy.

    It’s like certain problems we have in the US, just with different players.

    When “law abiding” is placed before basic ethics, problems like these arise. It’s also, sometimes (maybe not here) a smokescreen people use to justify their unethical behavior.

          • SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz
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            10 months ago

            I am not in any way defending said people for being rapists, murderers and overall just nasty fellows. I would like to point out that Russia has been known to lash out on people’s loved ones to get them to fall in line, so running away may be just part of the equation. Now to what extent one’s attachment to one’s family forces them to do things is an interesting topic.

            Could a person that rapes and murders because they got a free pass be considered capable of genuine human affection towards their loved ones? Or are they using it as a generally accepted excuse ‘they were gonna harm my family if I didn’t amputate this poor fella’s arms in a dark dungeon!’?

            That being said, there were some recorded phone conversations circulating around a bit earlier in the conflict about some of them loved ones communicating to soldiers about ‘how many did you rape/kill?’ and ‘loot some shit and bring it home!’

            Obligatory not all people are the same and such.

    • Deestan@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, draft dodging means maybe losing your freedom and the ability to provide for your children, which is a shit situation to be put in.

      But the choice is between poverty and fucking murder. Your choice sucks, but you choose to be a monster. I spare my sympathy for those who choose to be not-murderers.

      • jarfil@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Would you rather kill your own children, or kill someone else’s children? At least they aren’t shooting refugees for refusing to rape each other, that’s the Saudis…

        Ain’t the world a nice place?

        • Deestan@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago
          1. That’s nowhere near the dillemma they are facing.

          2. Russians are already torturing, kidnapping and executing civilians so not even a valid whataboutism.

          • jarfil@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Having your children or parents/grandparents, starve or freeze to death, can easily kill them. Maybe it’s not 100% certain like shooting someone to death, but still, most people value their own people’s lives more than someone else’s.

            And it’s not whataboutism, just a qualification on a scale: I haven’t heard (yet) of Russians forcing civilians to torture each other, so they’re like a step less depraved than the Saudis.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I mean, I can have sympathy for any soldier that’s being forced to be a soldier. But the reality is, that sympathy dries up pretty quickly when it comes out that while being a soldier they’re rapists and war criminals. At certain point ‘just following orders’ is no longer a valid excuse… and you reach that point long before raping civilian women or PoWs. or… you know… you’re own troops while in a combat situation…

      • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        If a fascist hands you a gun and tells you to murder a bunch of people so that he can get wealthier and more powerful, you shoot him and ask those people for asylum. Anything else makes you a fascist too.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think there is 1:1 model of Russian prison cell somewhere in Netherlands. At least the type of cell where Navalny is held.

        On the other there are rumors about people who commited crimes only to be found guilty and not being drafted as result, but they are rumors.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      It’s also not a defence. They don’t have to follow orders.

      They can just turn up get recruited and then surrender to Ukraine at the earliest safe opportunity if they want to. Plenty others have.

      It is not patriotic to fight a unjust war, it is not patriotic to just do what you’re told without thinking.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Ehh, fatality is high. It’s better to not be drafted in first place.

  • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    The article below this is titled “Russian Soldier Proudly Admits to Killing POWs”

    You know, entirely unrelated…

      • severien@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        On average, you need just 3.5% of the population to actively oppose the regime to achieve a successful revolution. People can change things, but it looks like a vast majority of Russians are just fine with killing Ukrainians. More expensive iPhones are a bigger issue.

        • ruckblack@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          I don’t think demonizing the Russian populace is really achieving anything, people aren’t their government. The US has done some abhorrent things, and I’m not an evil person, nor am I just fine with killing anyone.

          • severien@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            The other extreme is treating Russians as poor innocent fellows being oppressed by Putin.

            • Syldon@feddit.uk
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              10 months ago

              Those poor innocent Russians will be lumbered with the cost of this war.

        • Aux@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          That’s just a bit more than 5m people. Russia has plenty of free space in GULAGs to house 5m people.

          • severien@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Russia doesn’t have a GULAG system.

            If 5m is too little, make it a 10% (15m) then. Most of the army/security forces are currently engaged in Ukraine.

            • Aux@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Not officially, but a lot of Soviet camps are still operational. Creating new ones won’t be a big issue. Russian government has plenty of experience.

              • severien@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Well, that would be a good opportunity for Russians to revolt. But I think they’re just fine with the current system.

      • nadram@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        THAT is the truth. They can love or hate the situation but there’s nothing they can do about it. So, no point in generalising and hating on Russians. Save it for Putin, the Russian gov and there butt-licking oligarchs

    • Syldon@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      The population in Moscow maybe doing that because of the bombing campaign being inflicted in that area. The outer cities are not seeing the consequences of war unless they loose someone.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Except this started way before bombing. Police and rosgvardia are and were seen same way.

  • cloud@lazysoci.al
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    10 months ago

    The day we all start to see military with disgust it’s the day wars will stop

      • cloud@lazysoci.al
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        10 months ago

        War is fueled by a system that has nothing human about it. Just like dogs humans are not violent by nature, they become mad when they are put in a corner. These days the average person would never hurt someone else directly and that’s why governments spend billions on propaganda to turn everyone against each other

        • Fades@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Dogs most certainly are violent by nature. You are explicitly talking about DOMESTICATED dogs which are man made and not nature

          You can also upset a dog without putting it in a corner. Approach a dog and it’s pup or a dog approaching another dog that is eating, violence easily can erupt both with strange dogs and known ones.

          You’re projecting your perception of your own humanity onto all dogs and it’s not working for you or your point.

          I do agree that the people are purposefully pitted against each other but that is internal to nations and doesn’t explain international war. Do you think Ukraine and the Russians pitted their peoples against each other to start this war? Or did Russian invade and cause it all by themselves?

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          so… just to clarify. you realize that violence is part of who we’ve always been? The reason our hands can make a decent fist at all is to be used as clubs.

          weapons are among the first, if not the first, forms of technology ever developed in prehistory. And probably not even by homo sapiens. We’ve never been not-violent. and you can see this in other primates like baboons and chimps and gorillas, which absolutely conduct their version of warfare.

          And like humans, dogs are also aggressive by nature. they are largely taught not to be as puppies. but left to their own understandings, they will be aggressive.

          • cloud@lazysoci.al
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            10 months ago

            Do you realize that a fist can be used to break a coconut and not smash someone head? Humans evolved to be smart not to be violent

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              You…. Ever try to, uh, smash a coconut with your fist?

              Curious how that went.

              “We evolved to be smart!”

              And most of the first tools we created are absolutely classified as “weapons”

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Literally the first widespread tool in human history was a fucking handaxe.

                Second was a spear.

                Dude is just talking pure nonsense.

              • cloud@lazysoci.al
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                10 months ago

                You should try to smash one with your head at last it would become useful for something

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Humans are absolutely naturally violent. They’re naturally selfish, violent monsters. We teach our kids to not be that way from a very young age (prior to 1 years old, generally) and reinforce it constantly and yet it is still very common to see children/young adults acting out violently.

          It’s absurd to me that anyone could assume humans are not naturally violent.

          • cloud@lazysoci.al
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            10 months ago

            Just because you are a monster don’t assume everyone else is

            • ANGRY_MAPLE@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months ago

              Seriously?

              Someone mentioned that humans have (historically) had a tendency towards violence, and your only take from that was to call them a monster? Are you just projecting, or what happened there?

              Gee, i guess we’d better tell all of the families of murdered people that their loved ones weren’t actually murdered. You know, since you seem to think that humans don’t have a natural capacity for violence, so there must have been some other reason (doubt it). We should also tell the starving people that it’s not greed keeping them hungry, it’s magic.

              It’s not like we’re mammals or anything. We’re TOTALLY immune to the same things that plague almost every species on this planet. Totally.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I really don’t like “it’s part of the human condition”, “it is human’s nature” and other BS. I recommend you to go out and watch how kids play. Suddenly you will see opposite of fairy tale told by militant pensioners.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          yeah, so anyone whose ever watched a couple toddlers playing together knows they have to be taught to share. When they’re learning, they’re absolutely violent little monsters. if you google all the advice given for how to deal with aggressive toddlers in day care… you’ll see that your little angels… really aren’t.

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I said about kids that play outside, most kids who play outside aren’t toddlers, but you decided to mention them. Well, counterclaim: toddlers chew everything just because, toddlers smash everything just because and toddlers yell all the time just because. It is not their intention to hurt another toddler.

            If this is how you think, it tells a lot about your ethics.

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I’m pointing at toddlers because they haven’t mastered the self control necessary to conceal and manage their aggression. In that regard, toddlers are the most honest appraisal of our instinctual inclination. Being not-aggressive is a learned behavior. the concept of “playing nice” is a learned behavior… children have to be taught how to play nice. they have to be taught what is fair, and to regulate their impulses. but those impulses remain there, and sometimes come back out as adults. Which… is kinda why there’s a shit load of violence in the world. and always has been.

              • uis@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                toddlers are the most honest appraisal of our instinctual inclination

                So it is their instinct is to lick electronics and destroy it? Chew things and destroy? Smash things and destroy? Well, ok, licking, chewing and smashing kinda is their instinct, but not smashing. Since you mentioned learning, all of this is learning. Basically when they are presented with new thing, their instinct is to learn it. “How it feels? Is it warm? Does it taste good? Can I eat it? What’s inside?”. Abstract agression is a mean to get attention, that also learned. “Wanted to eat, but thing that was held is not eadible, but after banging it I was fed? Do it again”. Same about directed agression towards peers and mentioned by you learning to share: “after moving arm towards that thingy I was awarded with toy? Do it again”.

                they have to be taught what is fair

                Yes and they also kids(that are “old” enough to talk) have much better sense of fairness than most adults do. Watch how THEY(kids who can communicate) play.

                but those impulses remain there, and sometimes come back out as adults

                Yes. In yong age it’s called being silly, when they get older it’s called learning, later called studying and when they are adults they call it doing scientific research.

                When adults are violent, they are not acting as kids. It is kids when violent are acting as adults.

                and always has been.

                What I will say you can use as argument too, but it hasn’t. Just century ago world was much, MUCH more violent.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Place for tanks is in museums,

      Let them rust in quiet,

      Even as toys

      They should be forgotten.

      My bad attempt to translate ELYSIUM - Tanks.

  • wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    I feel like Russia doesn’t even deserve an armed force. Someone else just take over. Someone besides China, since not one of their government employees deserves to even breathe.

    Just be good people. Don’t make the rest of the world wish you’d all suddenly die in an “accident”.

    • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Russian soldiers gladly admit to killing POWs

      Russian soldiers gladly admit to killing POWs

      Russian soldiers gladly admit to killing POWs

      Russian soldiers gladly admit to killing POWs

      • LoveSausage
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        10 months ago

        Kyievpost famous for making shit up. Remember the ghost of kyiev?