They're called mercenaries.
America came up with the stupid contractor term during their war on Brown people, I mean "terror".
As American mercenaries were running around committing atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mercenaries are illegal, contracted military isn’t
And it lets you commit war crimes without fault
"They banned mercenaries so we'll just call them something different"
Potato...
Typical military euphemism. It's not "war department", it's "defense department".
Mercs, PMCs, same old thing with a fresh new "friendlier" label.
Totally different, this one favours corporations not workers
But both are still getting paid as private. So, mercenaries either way. And it isn't like Russia hasn't committed war crimes brazenly.
The older I get, the more I witness Kafkaesque.
LOL, hire from where?
Poor countries you can exploit: Nepal, Kazakhstan, India, Usbekistan, etc.
Russia about to scam some more Indians by dumping them on the front with a rifle.
Modi will probably help ship them over
So when are they going to enlist some Somali pirates
popular support of the war
This baffles me
It shouldn't. Russia controls all of its media. To Russians, Putin is fighting a war to free their ancestral homeland from Nazis.
Russians aren’t all just nice people fooled by state media, either. They have their own version of MAGAt over there, and those dudes are saying “Ukraine is ours historically. The west can go fuck the selves if they don’t like it.”
This allows them to feel simultaneously strong in their local sphere and relevant on the world stage. These feelings are desperately needed by complete assholes who have almost nothing good about themselves or their country to point to.
Not only its own media, but almost all russian language media throughout the world is monitored and controlled by the russian government. If the only language you know is russian, it’s very hard to get unbiased information.
almost all russian language media throughout the world is monitored and controlled by the russian government
I am sure you have very credible sources for this conspiracy theory, because as opposed to those stupid Russians, you know English and are capable of critical thinking, so this isn't just something you've heard from totally different and very honest media and accepted to be true, so would you be so kind to share them?
If the only language you know is russian, it’s very hard to get unbiased information
Definitely, after all, it's a known fact that the most popular western social platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, Discord, Instagram and previously Twitter are very open and never ban people for speaking out things that don't agree with the current narration, as opposed to Telegram for example (where a lot of russian-speaking people communicate and get their news from), which is known to ban people based on politics. Or wait, is it actually the other way around?...
Also older generations that lived through the 90s know what a collapse of the Russian state means. For them it is a terrifying thought to have to live through that ... again.
To top that off, It is not as if they have any alternatives. Even Navalny was a right wing scumbag who though Crimea belonged to russia .. and he was considered the good guy.
At this point it's pretty obvious that all you need to make something popular is to have all the media repeat it in unison. Works great on our people as well.
Russians are pussies. Not like war is popular in any country, but if you're going to support it at least be willing to commit to it. In America we protested and they haven't done a draft in over 45 years and we still have plenty of 'patriots' still willing to fight our wars. Or just involve some proxy nation. With Russia, it's either you support it or straight to jail and few Russians have the balls to stand up en masse let alone leave the country.
Ridiculous comparison. The situation in the US is completely different and there is way more freedom of thought and assembly. In Russia, the smallest sign of resistance is squashed with extreme brutality.
It's not possible to organize a mass anti-war movement under these conditions like it was in the US.
I feel like the game “Civilization” understood the concept of “war weariness” but never took on the dynamic of proxy wars. It’s surprising because this is such a common way for things to get done today, and they’ve scoured that game for every dynamic they can add to it.
Just play EU, Victoria or a similar Paradox historical strategy game instead.
With Russia, it’s either you support it or straight to jail
With Ukraine it's the same.
few Russians have the balls to stand up en masse let alone leave the country
Ukrainians don't even have the options of leaving the country, they are imprisoned by the government, with the support from the USA. And almost nobody is talking about that let alone condemning it. After all, it's bad and is a violation of human rights only when countries USA doesn't like (North Korea, etc.) do it, doing it with approval of USA is totally okay and humane! Right?
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