Meaningful change in Russia is unlikely without defeat. Lessons from Germany show how accountability and reform follow war.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5554417

Nazi Germany confronted its crimes only after military defeat made denial untenable. Russia, by contrast, continues to equate victory with moral legitimacy. Without a clear and undeniable defeat, there is no sense of guilt—and without guilt, no basis for reflection or reform.

  • Skiluros@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    141·
    3 days ago

    This is what russian “liberals” don’t understand. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

    While Navalniy’s team nominally rejected support for the annexation of Crimea after the full-scale invasion, they continue to broadly support imperialism, albeit they tend to watch what they say when not speaking to other russians.

    That being said, this doesn’t always work.

    Navalnaya at an EU conference in 2024:

    Finally, there are those who advocate for the urgent “decolonization” of Russia, arguing to split our vast country into several smaller, safer states. However, these “decolonizers” can’t explain why people with shared backgrounds and culture should be artificially divided. Nor do they say how this process should even take place.

    And a “shared background and culture” is why you killed 5% of the civilian population of Chechnya, including a ballistic missile strike on a busy market?