Longtime readers of my Russian Telegram channel may remember our debates with one particular figure — a “moderate vatnik” living in Crimea. He is actually Ukrainian, but in 2014, he switched sides and backed the occupiers, having decided that it was the more profitable and promising choice. Later, he went on to film various pieces of propagandistic trash about the occupied territories.
The type, you know: supposedly an intellectual. Supposedly someone who “understands everyone” and “feels sorry for everyone.” There is a whole segment of the Russian intelligentsia like this — people who want the war to end, but also want to keep the empire. Ideally, they would simply reset everything to 2022, so that life could go back to the way it was, with no one bearing responsibility for anything.
But that is not really an intelligentsia at all. It does not matter how impressively you furrow your brow or how many classics you quote. If you lack both principles and logical thinking, then all your knowledge is wasted, because you are incapable of drawing the necessary conclusions.
A year ago, this man was absolutely convinced that nothing threatened him, that everything was under control. When I told him, “Take your family and leave while you still can — Crimea is heading for disaster,” he did not believe me.
