Exactly. It’s either “you are lying” or “you deserve it anyway.” Don’t believe anybody who says Russian people don’t support the war. They are peeing themselves with delight.
When the corpses of Russian soldiers started streaming back into Russia in 2014, moms lined up for payouts and happily received them. Not a peep against the war from anybody.
People are naive and still don’t understand what they are dealing with here.
Clarissa's Blog 
I keep seeing hopeful things posted about the anti-war protests that have happened in Russia, but all of the pictures from Moscow and St. Petersburg show really small protests given the size of the cities. Two or three thousand people protesting in a city the size of Moscow indicates to me that anti-war sentiment is held by a tiny minority.
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A very tiny one. I so want to believe the opposite but. . . If I manage to gather more people to protest the war in a tiny town in Southern Illinois than a multimillion city in Russia, that can’t be a good sign. If millions came out in Russia, what would the authorities be able to do? Send the troops? Which ones?
But they aren’t coming out.
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“Not a peep against the war from anybody.”
So, I’m curious and it’s not a trick question, honestly.
What do you make of the “APPEAL OF THE PRIESTS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WITH A CALL FOR RECONCILIATION AND ENDING THE WAR” that I posted yesterday under your Today’s Orthodox Daily Reading topic heading.
Or of the 7000 Russian scientists, mathematicians, and academics who had, as of yesterday, posted an open letter of “strong” opposition to the war?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/7000-russian-scientists-strongly-protest-ukraine-war-in-open-letter-to-putin/
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This is a nation of 144 million people. And among all of them, this is the number of people who oppose? 0,004%? We have more people coming out in my tiny town in Illinois. And I mean coming out in person, not signing a piece of paper nobody will read.
If not even a majority but at least a sizable minority of Russians wanted to end it, the war would be over today. But 7,000 well-meaning mathematicians and a few more priests aren’t enough.
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I completely take your point.
But… context here is everything. You know better than most that any Russian – priest, scientist, whoever – who stands publicly against the war, can/will face the loss of their livelihood and their freedom and that such punishments are too frequently also extended to family members.
So I admire such Russians – a lot. They’re not nobodies to me.
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Let’s see if a single one of these scientists face any consequences. My guess is, they’ll be perfectly fine. Let’s check on these names in a couple of months and see how they are doing.
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“My guess is, they’ll be perfectly fine.”
Perhaps you are too optimistic and perhaps I’m too pessimistic. We’ll see.
I’m sure you are aware of the current harsh crackdown on dissent with 15 year terms threatened for spreading “fake news” about the military.
As for the priests and deacons who signed that statement, Patriarch Breguet doesn’t strike me as a ‘forgive and forget’ kinda guy. They and their families certainly have my prayers.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17622820
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These remind me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was just a pastor – a nobody – and was opposed by most of the clergy for not supporting the Nazi regime. He was quietly thrown in prison and executed for his meager attempts at subterfuge. Yet he did all he could to stop the siege. He was not nobody. God saw. There were many such people then and I agree, there are many such people now in Russia. Think of Corrie Ten Boom hiding Jews until she and her family were caught and thrown in concentration camps. She was not a nobody. Not to me. She is my hero.
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It’s one thing to hide Jews and another to sign a paper to avoid losing Western funding for your research. Russian scientists get no state support and live on Western handouts. Sorry to be cynical.
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Forgiveness Sunday
Little forgiveness for Russia on ‘Forgiveness Sunday’ in Ukraine: Ukrainian woman says her father in Russia refuses to believe how bad the war is
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-russia-war-forgiveness-1.6374803
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