(no subject)
I remember I was a teen living at the Russian embassy in 1998 and then Kosovo war happened. For some reasons I remember two things - first I was afraid my family would be send back to Moscow and I would have to leave my high school boyfriend, and the second thing is the sense of pride that was projected from Russian TV1 when it was discovered that Russian tanks somehow got to Yugoslavia before US formally announced airstrikes. It sounded so cool and funny, to trick Americans like that, I remember I was proud too. Then Yeltsin gave a medal to a guy that commanded those troops to the border overnight without telling anyone above him about it. Then the whole Russian economy collapsed, and everyone (honest working people) in the motherland lost their live savings yet again. We were lucky, we were in the USA and we had ours in a US bank. So I know there are many Russian patriots among my friends, and I always thought that is it very easy to be a patriot and love Putin and Russia while holding a USA passport, living comfortable in a country where things are relatively stable, and you know what tomorrow more or less brings. Well, I am not a Russian patriot anymore, and I am not laughing. All I feel is a sense of profound sadness for my homeland and its citizens, robbed of rights, opportunities, chances of being tried in a court of Justice were verdicts are not dictated from above. So to those smart Russians comfortably living in America and loving Putin I have one question: why don't you send your kids to grow up in Russia, like you grew up in the USA, let them attend Russian schools, go to mandatory Russian Army. Then, one day your little boy will be send to next Chechnya, Kosovo, or Crimea, but your loving president won't formally confirm it, so when your little one is shot and killed, no one will take responsibility because there were, formally, no Russian troops in a zone of conflict.