Why not just talk to some normal everyday Russians? I have Russian friends, and you can find many on www.vk.com It is the Facebook Russian counterpart, but better than Facebook, if you ask me.

Interesting, yet no real surprises. The Russians have always had a huge propaganda machine and the poor everywhere have become cannon fodder.

I saw a piece in the NY Times that talked about Russia using hypersonic missiles that Ukraine had no defenses for. So many lives taken or in shambles for nothing.

Per Google: "Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 300,000 Russian citizens and residents are estimated to have left Russia by mid-March 2022, at least 500,000 by the end of August 2022, and an additional 400,000 by early October, for a total of approximately 900,000."

I've heard it's now more than a million, and many are the brighter, tech-savvy Russians. Also, many western companies have shut down. Russian casualties in Ukraine are at least 200,000. As Putin continues to search for soldier material, more will leave or be conscripted for the war.

Going into the war, Putin ordered a halt to anti-semitic propaganda so that it would clash with the Nazis-in-Ukraine storyline. However, with the Azov Battalion mostly killed off defending Mariupol, the Nazi story has been exposed. Putin has withdrawn the order against anti-semitic propaganda, and it has returned as a propaganda talking point in the state-controlled media.

I’m curious, too. I imagine those that hear from “Voice of Europe”, on social media and radio, and therefore hear some truth, are simply afraid to speak out, because powerful men who have done so are falling from buildings to their death.