Comment by hollerith | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hollerith | Hacker News Reader

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Russians decided that the tsar would be overthrown in 1917, that the Bolsheviks would take power, that Lenin would be replace by Stalin, Krushchev, . . . , Yeltsin, Putin.

The US, Britain, France and Japan actually invaded Russia (circa 1918) to try to influence the outcome of a transition of power without success.

None of the transitions I described depended on which leader or which faction had funding from outside Russia. I expect Russian self-determination to continue. Nationalism is a very potent force in most countries, Russians seem more nationalistic than average, and the Russian ethnicity is firm in control of the country, which increases stability and nationalism.

Just because Russia has declined in influence relative to the great powers doesn't mean it will break up or stop exercising self-determination.

> I expect Russian self-determination to continue.

I’d say that this is how every country should be. Unfortunately, there is no self-determination in Russia. Yeah, most people do support Putin, though it’s not as overwhelming as they would like you to believe, so they rig the elections. The problem is there’s no real alternative. There like four parties, only one of which does something other than show up and vote for whatever bullshit new law they’re trying to pass, and they’ve invented some new ones recently, which I believe are also all puppets with different branding.

There is also nationalism, of course, feeded by a metric shit ton of propaganda. Will it help keep Russia from breaking up? I don’t know. As a Russian, it’s not up to me, and honestly, I don’t really care about the borders at all. My nationalism does not extend to the state terrorizing my people.

IMO there is alternative, just repressed for now by extreme state apparatus measures to remove it from the public eye. I see it as a situation similar to Eastern European red bloc countries right before 1989, where communists have seemingly successfully repressed all the dissent, until the Velvet Revolution brought up many different parties that took power.

By "self-determination", I didn't mean democracy. I meant Putin's successor will be determined mostly by Russians, not Chinese people, Americans or Central or Western Europeans.

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