So, this guy cropped up in my YouTube feed today, and what he has to say here is interesting, to say the least:
Of course, the Russian official media version of things is at odds with reality on so many levels. Here’s what Niki, the guy from above, recorded on the streets of St. Petersburg yesterday:
Anti-war protests are on in Russia. This isn’t new; we’ve been hearing sporadic reports of them ever since the war began in February. The protests were larger earlier on, too, and the crackdowns on them apparently more severe. This one looks to have been a few hundred people, and they fled when the cops came out in their big white vans. No telling how many protesters, if any, were arrested at this time. (Here’s hoping they all got home safely. There have been reports on CNN and other western outlets that anti-war protesters have been conscripted and sent directly to the military!)
From what I can gather, there’s no shortage of skepticism on the ground of everything to come out of the mouths of Putin, Shoigu, Lavrov, et al. The war-mongering, anti-Ukraine propaganda on the official state media channels is so obvious that it’s a wonder anyone believes it. And the fact that ordinary Russian people aren’t letting it go unprotested (or undocumented) is very heartening, too. Especially now, as Ukraine’s resistance actually seems to be paying off…or starting to.