Vlad tempers his insight with humility. He acknowledges both the parameters and uncertainty of events. He provides some understanding of the structures beneath the chaos. He distills things to their essence without oversimplifying.
A fantastic journey through political quicksand. Vlad's insights inspire me to do what I can to ensure the U.S. remains a democracy and how precious it is.
What a great conversation. You guys work so well together, and it’s great to go into depth and put words to what is happening, and what is so wrong with it.
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.~Carl Sagan
Thank you Jonathan Fink and Vlad Vexler for an excellent conversation on the mobilization. I find the topic of political passivity amongst the Russian population very interesting, because it causes a paradox in my head in a way that I’m not sure if it’s right to hold them responsible for the war in Ukraine. Or if it’s right to even expect them to do so, because generation after generation, it’s basically been dangerous for them to hold any political ideas dependent of whatever they have been told by their oppressive government to think. How can I expect people in such situation to think about any personal responsibility for what your country does, if you have no say in it and are banned from thoughts or speaking about anything that might be an independent thinking, regardless if it’s wrong or right? I remember as a teenager during the Cold War, thinking what it would be like if I couldn’t speak my mind freely and my conclusion then was I would likely not survive very long. In retrospect now, I think about how important it is to have free speech and say the wrong things and be wrong, if for nothing else than to exchange views and develop complicated cognitive ideas and thinking about the world. I hope I’m somewhat clear about what I am saying. It’s hard for me to understand how the mind of the regular Russian mind works, because it’s a mind that has in a way been on gag order for over a century now. I think: Who would I be and how would I think, if I had been born in Russia and lived there my whole life, instead of the west and the USA? This is a complicated topic for me to contemplate, but I do.
For that matter, so many Russians suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome and poverty. Those conditions aren't exactly conducive to strong executive functioning.
@@tarazieminek1947 That is terribly sad to hear. I think it is very sad that the only perceived “entertainment/relief/outlet/“ or even a change in daily drudge is alcohol, even for pregnant women. Something I could not have imagined doing when I was pregnant with my son. That’s devastating.
Vlad. A wonderful piece. I've known several polymath and polyglot folks in my 59 years. I class you worthy of that virtual happy hour. One thing I see is that there is what I would call an overload - for that's what it is. The brain is working hard to retain so much - language, history, music ; in the case of our thespian geniae- plays asunder. I can only say that, as with your self- deprecated view here, that it is inevitable you will overload from time to time. However THIS interview was not one of those times. Stimulating piece and thank you both.
Even when I totally not agree with the view on the upper level cause of a realistic geostrategic miss, I value very much inner political analysis of RU with his humanity and humility
Thanks gentlemen for sharing your thoughts and shining your sincere light on what is sometimes not quite comprehensible for the little man in the streets. That tone and voice of Vlad, mysterious and mesmerizing... sometimes undeliberately misleading, he sometimes sounds like he is reading aloud a fairy tale... fascinating.
Truth and reason may sometimes speak in a low tone, but they remain. Journalism is dead, but it doesn't stop. I also oppose the populists and the radicals, and having someone sum up and make sense of what is happening is very welcome.
Ever so thankful for this brilliant and slowly putting things in the right boxes. I follow Vlad Vexler, and his clearheaded and nuanced explanations. But in this role, he’s even better. Your interview here, succeeded because of you and the intervieweds great kompetences. Oh would this be the format of the mainstream medias… 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I live next to Russia and this war made me a racist towards Russians in general. I can't even finish a book which I started to read pre-war because its written on Russian, it feels like a defensive mechanism. Does all racism grow out of fear? I wonder did Hitler feel same hatred towards Jews or it had a different origin. I found out that over time I started to rationalise my disgust and apply Russian history to not sound irrational which is easy because it's full of imperialism.
Hatred grows of application. When we let one or two voices define an entire population. It is easy to say "these are their leaders, the people they have chosen". But did they really? What is the effect of propaganda? What do the Russian people see, know and believe? That belongs to the individual Russian. Doestoyevsky warned of this two centuries ago... Is he complicit? Hatred comes when we ascribe a small subset of actions to an entirety, but do you believe the average Russian wants this? As an American who's watched my government do horrible things I don't agree with and who took to the streets to protest I do not. I believe, even now, in the goodness of the Russian soul. And I believe it should be delivered from evil. By man or God.
Impressive honesty. I think it must be very difficult to separate Russians from Russians when military representatives of the culture are on your doorstep with guns or raining missiles down on you. Hard to consider Vlad Vexler as one of the "bad Russians" though. So, his very existence argues that people are individuals.
Well directed insights. Even in representative democracies, we experience levels of this ‘informal contract’ - but we are able to vote them out, peacefully. Power enjoys distraction among the less powerful… once focused, the ‘less powerful’ have more agency than the ‘leader’.
Peacefully voting out representatives (and replacing them with new representatives, who in actuality are really not substantially different from the old ones, and certainly not over any appreciable amount of time encompassing the terms of multiple representatives in a row) simply happens to be the preferred distraction in representative democracies...
In the last Russian revolution my family learned the hard way that a violent revolution doesn't help their situation given that their goal was for Russia to become a nice socialist constitutional democracy (something like the Netherlands or Canada which are where we escaped to). A violent revolution just puts the people with the biggest guns in power. In today's situation a violent revolution might actually be useful if it averts a nuclear confrontation with NATO, but it won't produce an enlightened government, you need stability and evolution for that.
Teenagers and students had protested for democracy since 2014 in Asia. Sunflower movement, Umbrella movement, Thailand, Myanmar now Iran. Russians men are fleeing for themselves. Very sad state for Russia.
I strongly agree with the point that "What comes after" needs to be asked and ideally answered. I suspect that even those who see the flaws and cracks in the regime cannot believe, are conditioned not to, any alternatives. So it's not "bad Putin" vs Something better, it's "bad Putin" vs a void. That's terrifying, so a coping mechanisms is to pretend that it's not *That* bad. The "There's a plan" fits into this; an unknown plan by a flawed leader is still better than the percieved Nothing. Particularly if this leader is *strong*.
At the risk of a cheap type of historicism, is it the case that the Russian population have not yet overcome the legacy of serfdom? That any level of autonomy is so far beyond their cultural frame of reference that they're not able to operate outside of an extremely rigid chain of explicit authority? If I'm stretching here, it's only because the level of Russian institutional dysfunction, political and military, never ceases to astonish me.
On the surface it's an attractive theory, but how could it accommodate the vastly superior organizational skills of the Ukrainians? I'm sure there were significant differences in their experiences of serfdom, but you'd need to spell it out for me very explicitly. The Cossack legacy?
It's not just the cossack legacy, bear in mind that half of the country has been in the habsburg empire, political parties and all, free and mandatory schooling since maire therese and so on. It is the reason ukraine resented and reacted to becoming a part of the soviet union, the reason ukrainian partisans fought both the germans and the soviets afterwards after the end of the ww2. Don't know for ukraine exsactly, but people here in cro exited the serfdom relatively early thru military service, eastern parts both in the north and south were called vojna krajina, krajina, ukraine has the same meaning of some end part, we had that military end of the empire status due to the ottomans and serfs massively joined the military, often even changed their names and ultimativaly changed their destiny and social status by being a nation of soldiers. On the other hand yeah in russia your lord that made the decisions for you on everything was replaced by the party beareauocracy that did the same, so they for sure have the different mindset and most important different levels of tolerancy.
Excellent discussion. Insightful. A smorgasbord of food for thought. I look forward to seeing more from your channel. I've been following VV for quite some time. He's a great guest to have, but allow me to say, well interviewed!
So key takeaway: Universal suffrage is a responsibility not a right. it is never acceptable to say you are not-political. TO be a citizen is to engage with the discourse...No citizen can abrogate their political responsibilities.
OMG....awesome conversation. Sometimes i get so frustrated with the current situation but this gives me a bit of confidence in the future. I was born in the former GDR thats why i hope and wish russia find a good way to find a new vision for the country same as we germans. Thanks.
The Large Majority of the Russian People are probably terrified right now.💔 I feel very sorry for the people. It’s scary enough when we know what time it is but imagine not even knowing anything except that they’ve been Lied to. Have Mercy On Those People. I know that we are all going through a very difficult time right now but Their Whole World has been turned upside down!
Majority of the younger generations use VPN for news, games and TV. There are many Russian with youtube channels and plenty with dual citizenships. They knew what was going on. Some older and poor people are lied to. But the fleeing ones are from richer regions where they can afford cars, bikes, and plane tickets. No mercy on Russians, they didn't care when Ukrainians are getting murdered and raped. They are responsible for feeding Putin. They supported Putin with their tax dollars. They don't care for humanity so why should anyone care for them?
@@VladVexlerChat Really!? I respond with long, involved questions and I get nada and all I have to say is "well done" to get a response! 😉 JK, I love your stuff (but one of these days I would love to have a dialogue or hear your arguments re: historical contingency, etc.!)!
Some really brilliant points made here gentlemen. Its so sad that what is going on in Russia is so patently base and vacuous. I love to see your genius at work and thank you very much. I sincerely pray this second Stalin is given as short a lease on life as the 20th Century equivalent was given a long one.
Brilliant chat guys. Sitting in Malaysia I was fortunate to be chewing on a beer for the duration of the chat. Almost felt like you were here with me. Yes ..my round. Vlad you were on form so I poo poo your view. Great collaboration...
Near the end, you talk about leadership and vision. I am worried about people to fill the institutions, to not only do the job but do it informed, critically, dodging established corruption and so on, even people to populate the opposition. At least there are still remnants of oppositional press, and not least I think the now exiled layman vloggers may prove valuable. (I am increasingly fascinated by the interplay between governments, institutions and people. The importance of Institutions are often underestimated, it seems.)
Yep, great discussion re: 'local' impact of Russian control & propaganda, and you always ask the right questions, and nicely 'steer' the discussion along... thx Jonathan! Vlad makes a good point re: the Putin regime's lack of a coordinated 'bureaucratic' apparatus. Which also contrasts dramatically with, say another authoritarian state like China....with a nationwide network of literally millions of loyal Party Members to implement any 'objective'... plus the benefit of near-universal video surveillance, complete with Image Recognition, and cross-referenced links to every citizen's criminal, medical, employment, and social media records (aka, "The Golden Shield").
Vlad Vexler, a philosopher and a man who appreciates classical music. Sometimes when he talks about Navalny what I hear is Antonio Vivaldi. Is it the storm? I need to draw myself back into the conversation because that is not making any sense. Oh. How could I have been so distracted. He recommended Werner Herzog's Of Walking on Ice. I bought it on Amazon. Two day delivery. You know the type of reading that have pages. I used to be a passionate reader, books. To pick up one now and flip through pages, to turn pages takes a lot of effort. Only through page 9. I will detach myself from this extension of my brain, at least that is what Elon Musk would tell you. Oh heck, we might as well merge, something like the cyborgs. Neuralink. See, can you fault me for misunderstanding, Vivaldi or Navalny? I hate to say this but this is a man who orchestrates, only expresses that he wants a normal country. That is not it, he's just the opposition of Vladimir Putin. I would rather escape in the solitude of music than prison. Holy s*** did I not get distracted. I love how Vlad's eyes roll up, sideways. It's almost if he is searching for the answer. I have yet to understand the neurological issues he has had, has. His brilliance was restored. Oh I've been so totally off subject
wow, that story about the tube station in st petersburg is horrendous, even back in the 90s. just simple things like that makes one appreciate the freedom we have elsewhere.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results. Putin, Lavrov, Shoigu and their minions are slow learners.
The Russian population think they live in a just society. and the regime have been fine with that because it have made happy citizens. Big problem if you think you have the rights of Americans when you live in Russia.
A valuable PoV on the psychological repercussions that this mobilization brings. I was thinking similarly that when body bags start coming home in combination with the ineffectiveness of mobilization in respect to the zeal of the Ukrainians, that this would fracture Russian society to such an extent it will threaten social stability and existing power structures.
The massive challenge that occurs, with anything more than simply removing Putin, is the centuries of Russia being culturally speaking, a regional force, a long lineage of strong men leaders, as that martial law leaderships oligarchy, and police states are still likely to be the outcome. And after a massive turmoil of confrontation, and violent reorganisation.
"The rate of change itself is changing, it's accelerating. There's mounting complexity, and we couldn't even handle our previous levels of complexity. - Alan Moore
Correction: Putin's draft is not daft. He's EXCLUDING St. Petersburg and Moscow. Whereas the folks from the sticks are being 'recruited' like poverty stricken Scots and Irish in the olden days. Amusingly, the boys in Moscow and St. Petersburg freaked out first -- and the most. Heh.
The description of the Putin's regime is eerily similar to the slow collapse of Fascism in Italy between 1940 and 1942. The diaries of Ciano (Foreign office minister and son in law of Mussolini) charted the same breakdown between the working and middle class and the regime, once the latter placed impossible demands on the former due to the failures of the war.
It's almost as if Russia has returned to the old feudal social and political structures of the Russian empire. Moscow demands and the distant regions fulfill the quota as they see fit. How true was (if true at all) this during the USSR?
@@jaybee9269 if you are correct, then I suspect that it may be due to the large geographical space the Former USSR, Russia Today, and the Russian Empire of the past, all occupied. Such a vast geographical space may require that local political and governmental actors be given a larger amount of autonomy then those of us the in the West might have imagined.
and if this is true, what does it say about the ability of local power centers in Russia and their ability to push back against Moscow. Though they don't seem to be doing so now (at least overtly), how does this factor into Putin's decision making process if at all.
Why would people talk about protesting rather than about organizing? An organized network can hold a protest whenever holding a protest becomes advisable, but having a bunch of disorganized people show up on the street is unlikely to accomplish anything in most circumstances. If I were giving advice to Russians who want to oppose the regime but see no effective way of doing so, I would say to find a bunch of people that you play card games with on Mondays, another group that you play chess with on Tuesdays, and so on, and start figuring out who should be introduced to whom so that the people you talk to who seem likely to oppose the regime (but aren't admitting it yet) are linked not only to each other but also to other people you don't know who seem similarly likely.
I have a family member in Petersburg who is very much in support of Russia... but not Putin or the war. His best strategy for helping Russia is doing anything that could help bring down the imperialist regime, including removing himself from Russia.
I picture Putins regime as a wheel with spokes. Putin is the hub and his inner circle as the spokes. His inner circle is connected to Putin but not connected to each other. A wheel can remain somewhat functional with a few broken spokes but if you remove the hub the whole thing collapses.
There are many other scenarios which could have happened on Feb 24. Ukraine could have blown up all the railway and road crossings right at the border, refusing all access for the Russian military to enter the country. If that happened, the most Russia would have done is use rockets and aircraft to attack. That long forlorn column on its way to Kiev would not have been formed. Russia would not have made a massive investment in Ukraine and would have been able to sustain that limited action for years. What happened instead, Russia spent massive amounts of military capacity, Ukraine held a strong moral high ground, the west became unified against tyranny.
"Support and encourage a conversation" - maybe that's the elusive effectiveness of the heroic Russian protesters who get sent to prison or to war or both.
Video of the conscripted trying to be lured from their rooms by throwing the fire alarm. But forgetting that the security camera system is revealing the subterfuge
Yeah if he had a prominent successor, he might have gained too much power too early and removed him, the roman empire syndrome, so no he doesn't have one and cares about it to extremes as not to have one in the slightest.
So glad to see Vlad. He is one of my go to guys on line to hear the truth on a deeper level.
🌻
@@VladVexler It is this Vlad that I need for my sanity. It is just on a different level, a level far above an algorithm.
@Vlad Vexler, I appreciate your ethical depth in reporting information I often know to true as I follow Russia for family reasons.
Thank you 🙏
@Vlad Vexler But don't wear yourself out though mate, it's it's busy few weeks but do take a break - you'll get the benefit further down thr road
I appreciate VV's analysis, but I wouldn't describe it so much as "truth" as much as I would describe it as a valuable PoV.
Vlad tempers his insight with humility. He acknowledges both the parameters and uncertainty of events. He provides some understanding of the structures beneath the chaos. He distills things to their essence without oversimplifying.
Thank you soooo much!
Totally agree! He comes across as knowledgeable, sincere, and frugal
Vlad is such a brilliant mind. Has really helped put into context things that confused and perturbed about the Russian situation.
Vlad understands.
Vlad is such a treasure of a human being and literary the dictionary definition of a wonderful person.
Love to you Nikolay!
like most russians are but a few
A fantastic journey through political quicksand. Vlad's insights inspire me to do what I can to ensure the U.S. remains a democracy and how precious it is.
Made my day to hear Vlad for over an hour. Thanks to both of you for this in-depth conversation. 🙏
What a great conversation. You guys work so well together, and it’s great to go into depth and put words to what is happening, and what is so wrong with it.
Thank you both for the in-depth discussion.
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan
power over you, you almost never get it back.~Carl Sagan
When your digging your own grave you stop digging?
Carl Sagan, another atheist “scientist”, talking about his bambozzling”.
@@alcoholfree6381 You should start drinking again.
@@Anarcath lol... yep, though I hope this isn't one of them 'mean' drunks!
Need to say it again. This guy is one of the best.
I so enjoyed this conversation. Thank you.
Thank you Jonathan Fink and Vlad Vexler for an excellent conversation on the mobilization. I find the topic of political passivity amongst the Russian population very interesting, because it causes a paradox in my head in a way that I’m not sure if it’s right to hold them responsible for the war in Ukraine. Or if it’s right to even expect them to do so, because generation after generation, it’s basically been dangerous for them to hold any political ideas dependent of whatever they have been told by their oppressive government to think. How can I expect people in such situation to think about any personal responsibility for what your country does, if you have no say in it and are banned from thoughts or speaking about anything that might be an independent thinking, regardless if it’s wrong or right?
I remember as a teenager during the Cold War, thinking what it would be like if I couldn’t speak my mind freely and my conclusion then was I would likely not survive very long. In retrospect now, I think about how important it is to have free speech and say the wrong things and be wrong, if for nothing else than to exchange views and develop complicated cognitive ideas and thinking about the world. I hope I’m somewhat clear about what I am saying. It’s hard for me to understand how the mind of the regular Russian mind works, because it’s a mind that has in a way been on gag order for over a century now. I think: Who would I be and how would I think, if I had been born in Russia and lived there my whole life, instead of the west and the USA?
This is a complicated topic for me to contemplate, but I do.
For that matter, so many Russians suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome and poverty. Those conditions aren't exactly conducive to strong executive functioning.
@@tarazieminek1947 That is terribly sad to hear. I think it is very sad that the only perceived “entertainment/relief/outlet/“ or even a change in daily drudge is alcohol, even for pregnant women. Something I could not have imagined doing when I was pregnant with my son. That’s devastating.
Vlad. A wonderful piece. I've known several polymath and polyglot folks in my 59 years. I class you worthy of that virtual happy hour. One thing I see is that there is what I would call an overload - for that's what it is. The brain is working hard to retain so much - language, history, music ; in the case of our thespian geniae- plays asunder. I can only say that, as with your self- deprecated view here, that it is inevitable you will overload from time to time. However THIS interview was not one of those times. Stimulating piece and thank you both.
A day without Vlad Vexler's analysis is like a day without sunshine.
Fascinating conversation so insightful.
Thank you Nicole.
This conversation has great lasting value. Thank you!
"Beware of apathy - for one day it may turn into a monster that will devour you....!" Author unknown
Excellent video!
Absolutely fascinating interview. Putin's inner circle and the ramifications of regime collapse.
Fascinating Vlad, thank you. The draftees don’t “want to think about it” how true, how true!!
Thank you for this video
Even when I totally not agree with the view on the upper level cause of a realistic geostrategic miss, I value very much inner political analysis of RU with his humanity and humility
Thanks gentlemen for sharing your thoughts and shining your sincere light on what is sometimes not quite comprehensible for the little man in the streets. That tone and voice of Vlad, mysterious and mesmerizing... sometimes undeliberately misleading, he sometimes sounds like he is reading aloud a fairy tale... fascinating.
Truth and reason may sometimes speak in a low tone, but they remain. Journalism is dead, but it doesn't stop.
I also oppose the populists and the radicals, and having someone sum up and make sense of what is happening is very welcome.
Vlad is the best❤ thank you for the talk
Via Vlad I have now expanded to this channel - thanks to both of you Gentlemen (in all senses of the word).
This would have to be one of the most intelligent and informative discussions on this entire conflict. We’ll done gentlemen 👌🏻
That’s so kind of you! Vlad is extraordinary, isn’t he!
@@SiliconCurtain you both are, thank you❤
Outstanding analysis! Thank you both!
💙
@@VladVexler look into 'russian bloggers', even if IT isn't your expertise, its actually SCARY.. please mate and stay safe
Ever so thankful for this brilliant and slowly putting things in the right boxes.
I follow Vlad Vexler, and his clearheaded and nuanced explanations.
But in this role, he’s even better. Your interview here, succeeded because of you and the intervieweds great kompetences. Oh would this be the format of the mainstream medias… 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Thank you. That’s so kind. We also hugely enjoy these discussions, which I hope comes across!
Delicious food for thought! Thank to both of you!
Very fascinating and illuminating conversation.
Vlad is really amazing.
Thrilled to catch this moments after its release. 👍
Wonderful conversation, thank you.
I live next to Russia and this war made me a racist towards Russians in general. I can't even finish a book which I started to read pre-war because its written on Russian, it feels like a defensive mechanism. Does all racism grow out of fear? I wonder did Hitler feel same hatred towards Jews or it had a different origin. I found out that over time I started to rationalise my disgust and apply Russian history to not sound irrational which is easy because it's full of imperialism.
Hatred grows of application. When we let one or two voices define an entire population. It is easy to say "these are their leaders, the people they have chosen". But did they really? What is the effect of propaganda? What do the Russian people see, know and believe? That belongs to the individual Russian. Doestoyevsky warned of this two centuries ago... Is he complicit?
Hatred comes when we ascribe a small subset of actions to an entirety, but do you believe the average Russian wants this? As an American who's watched my government do horrible things I don't agree with and who took to the streets to protest I do not.
I believe, even now, in the goodness of the Russian soul. And I believe it should be delivered from evil. By man or God.
@Apsoy Pike it was. Communists and Jews were to blame according to Hitler. How ironic that Russia now blames the same people.
Holy shit based
Amalur. It's not okay to be racist toward anyone. Try to disconnect the Russian peoplelanguage/culture from the current Russian government.
Impressive honesty. I think it must be very difficult to separate Russians from Russians when military representatives of the culture are on your doorstep with guns or raining missiles down on you. Hard to consider Vlad Vexler as one of the "bad Russians" though. So, his very existence argues that people are individuals.
You can tell he gives some serious thinking when responding to questions and comments when his eyes look up and right, before and while he speaks.
Great guest. Please bring him back.
Vlad has to be one of the smartest men I've ever heard speak, he's also got such a cool name. Vlad Vexler sounds like an ally you'd have in deus ex.
Great discussion, loved it.
Compliments to both chaps.
It's so interesting to get insight into to the Inigma that Churchill always struggled to understand..
‘I am easily satisfied with the very best’ Churchill Go Vlad
Well directed insights. Even in representative democracies, we experience levels of this ‘informal contract’ - but we are able to vote them out, peacefully. Power enjoys distraction among the less powerful… once focused, the ‘less powerful’ have more agency than the ‘leader’.
Peacefully voting out representatives (and replacing them with new representatives, who in actuality are really not substantially different from the old ones, and certainly not over any appreciable amount of time encompassing the terms of multiple representatives in a row) simply happens to be the preferred distraction in representative democracies...
@@coyoteblue4027 It's better to have the option than not to...
I love the thought experiment of Putin’s alternative announcement on 2/24.
In the last Russian revolution my family learned the hard way that a violent revolution doesn't help their situation given that their goal was for Russia to become a nice socialist constitutional democracy (something like the Netherlands or Canada which are where we escaped to). A violent revolution just puts the people with the biggest guns in power. In today's situation a violent revolution might actually be useful if it averts a nuclear confrontation with NATO, but it won't produce an enlightened government, you need stability and evolution for that.
Teenagers and students had protested for democracy since 2014 in Asia. Sunflower movement, Umbrella movement, Thailand, Myanmar now Iran. Russians men are fleeing for themselves. Very sad state for Russia.
I strongly agree with the point that "What comes after" needs to be asked and ideally answered. I suspect that even those who see the flaws and cracks in the regime cannot believe, are conditioned not to, any alternatives. So it's not "bad Putin" vs Something better, it's "bad Putin" vs a void. That's terrifying, so a coping mechanisms is to pretend that it's not *That* bad. The "There's a plan" fits into this; an unknown plan by a flawed leader is still better than the percieved Nothing. Particularly if this leader is *strong*.
At the risk of a cheap type of historicism, is it the case that the Russian population have not yet overcome the legacy of serfdom? That any level of autonomy is so far beyond their cultural frame of reference that they're not able to operate outside of an extremely rigid chain of explicit authority? If I'm stretching here, it's only because the level of Russian institutional dysfunction, political and military, never ceases to astonish me.
On the surface it's an attractive theory, but how could it accommodate the vastly superior organizational skills of the Ukrainians? I'm sure there were significant differences in their experiences of serfdom, but you'd need to spell it out for me very explicitly.
The Cossack legacy?
It's not just the cossack legacy, bear in mind that half of the country has been in the habsburg empire, political parties and all, free and mandatory schooling since maire therese and so on.
It is the reason ukraine resented and reacted to becoming a part of the soviet union, the reason ukrainian partisans fought both the germans and the soviets afterwards after the end of the ww2.
Don't know for ukraine exsactly, but people here in cro exited the serfdom relatively early thru military service, eastern parts both in the north and south were called vojna krajina, krajina, ukraine has the same meaning of some end part, we had that military end of the empire status due to the ottomans and serfs massively joined the military, often even changed their names and ultimativaly changed their destiny and social status by being a nation of soldiers.
On the other hand yeah in russia your lord that made the decisions for you on everything was replaced by the party beareauocracy that did the same, so they for sure have the different mindset and most important different levels of tolerancy.
I watch Vlad and learn how to understand all of this.
Excellent discussion. Insightful. A smorgasbord of food for thought. I look forward to seeing more from your channel.
I've been following VV for quite some time.
He's a great guest to have, but allow me to say, well interviewed!
That’s very kind, thank you.
A friend of Vlad, is a friend of mine! Subbed!
🌻
Me too
Indeed. Me three.
I like how Vlad can put himself in the Russians shoes, and then explain how the "group consciousness" will split off into multiple trajectories.
He IS Russian
So key takeaway: Universal suffrage is a responsibility not a right. it is never acceptable to say you are not-political. TO be a citizen is to engage with the discourse...No citizen can abrogate their political responsibilities.
Everybody should remember this in the west!!! Next time there is voting, please lets be political and vote!!!!!❤
It's amazing how decades of systematic neglect to an education system can erode thar sense of engagement.
Vlad is great.
OMG....awesome conversation. Sometimes i get so frustrated with the current situation but this gives me a bit of confidence in the future. I was born in the former GDR thats why i hope and wish russia find a good way to find a new vision for the country same as we germans. Thanks.
The Large Majority of the Russian People are probably terrified right now.💔 I feel very sorry for the people. It’s scary enough when we know what time it is but imagine not even knowing anything except that they’ve been Lied to. Have Mercy On Those People. I know that we are all going through a very difficult time right now but Their Whole World has been turned upside down!
Majority of the younger generations use VPN for news, games and TV. There are many Russian with youtube channels and plenty with dual citizenships. They knew what was going on. Some older and poor people are lied to. But the fleeing ones are from richer regions where they can afford cars, bikes, and plane tickets. No mercy on Russians, they didn't care when Ukrainians are getting murdered and raped. They are responsible for feeding Putin. They supported Putin with their tax dollars. They don't care for humanity so why should anyone care for them?
I agreed❤ but…… russians are lied to. Ukrainian children are raped and killed by russians. I feel sorry for all of us humans. Dark times😢
Excellent! Looking into the tea leaves of what we cannot fully understand Vlad spoke with some common sense.
FYI new interview coming soon!
Well done.
thank you!
@@VladVexlerChat Really!? I respond with long, involved questions and I get nada and all I have to say is "well done" to get a response! 😉
JK, I love your stuff (but one of these days I would love to have a dialogue or hear your arguments re: historical contingency, etc.!)!
Some really brilliant points made here gentlemen. Its so sad that what is going on in Russia is so patently base and vacuous. I love to see your genius at work and thank you very much. I sincerely pray this second Stalin is given as short a lease on life as the 20th Century equivalent was given a long one.
Thank you so much Vlad!!!♥️
Good point, piecemeal resistance works.
awesome thank you.....gogol and the furious troika never ceases
Brilliant chat guys. Sitting in Malaysia I was fortunate to be chewing on a beer for the duration of the chat. Almost felt like you were here with me. Yes ..my round. Vlad you were on form so I poo poo your view. Great collaboration...
Near the end, you talk about leadership and vision. I am worried about people to fill the institutions, to not only do the job but do it informed, critically, dodging established corruption and so on, even people to populate the opposition. At least there are still remnants of oppositional press, and not least I think the now exiled layman vloggers may prove valuable. (I am increasingly fascinated by the interplay between governments, institutions and people. The importance of Institutions are often underestimated, it seems.)
Great dialog!
Yep, great discussion re: 'local' impact of Russian control & propaganda, and you always ask the right questions, and nicely 'steer' the discussion along... thx Jonathan! Vlad makes a good point re: the Putin regime's lack of a coordinated 'bureaucratic' apparatus. Which also contrasts dramatically with, say another authoritarian state like China....with a nationwide network of literally millions of loyal Party Members to implement any 'objective'... plus the benefit of near-universal video surveillance, complete with Image Recognition, and cross-referenced links to every citizen's criminal, medical, employment, and social media records (aka, "The Golden Shield").
I’m definitely going to do some episodes on China soon!
Vlad Vexler, a philosopher and a man who appreciates classical music. Sometimes when he talks about Navalny what I hear is Antonio Vivaldi. Is it the storm? I need to draw myself back into the conversation because that is not making any sense. Oh. How could I have been so distracted. He recommended Werner Herzog's Of Walking on Ice. I bought it on Amazon. Two day delivery. You know the type of reading that have pages. I used to be a passionate reader, books. To pick up one now and flip through pages, to turn pages takes a lot of effort. Only through page 9. I will detach myself from this extension of my brain, at least that is what Elon Musk would tell you. Oh heck, we might as well merge, something like the cyborgs. Neuralink. See, can you fault me for misunderstanding, Vivaldi or Navalny? I hate to say this but this is a man who orchestrates, only expresses that he wants a normal country. That is not it, he's just the opposition of Vladimir Putin. I would rather escape in the solitude of music than prison. Holy s*** did I not get distracted. I love how Vlad's eyes roll up, sideways. It's almost if he is searching for the answer. I have yet to understand the neurological issues he has had, has. His brilliance was restored. Oh I've been so totally off subject
wow, that story about the tube station in st petersburg is horrendous, even back in the 90s. just simple things like that makes one appreciate the freedom we have elsewhere.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results. Putin, Lavrov, Shoigu and their minions are slow learners.
The Russian population think they live in a just society. and the regime have been fine with that because it have made happy citizens. Big problem if you think you have the rights of Americans when you live in Russia.
A valuable PoV on the psychological repercussions that this mobilization brings.
I was thinking similarly that when body bags start coming home in combination with the ineffectiveness of mobilization in respect to the zeal of the Ukrainians, that this would fracture Russian society to such an extent it will threaten social stability and existing power structures.
It is hard to understand why Russians with so much intellect can be for this war. Even the unthinking masses cannot vote for their own demise.
The massive challenge that occurs, with anything more than simply removing Putin, is the centuries of Russia being culturally speaking, a regional force, a long lineage of strong men leaders, as that martial law leaderships oligarchy, and police states are still likely to be the outcome. And after a massive turmoil of confrontation, and violent reorganisation.
"The rate of change itself is changing, it's accelerating. There's mounting complexity, and we couldn't even handle our previous levels of complexity. - Alan Moore
Correction: Putin's draft is not daft. He's EXCLUDING St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Whereas the folks from the sticks are being 'recruited' like poverty stricken Scots and Irish in the olden days.
Amusingly, the boys in Moscow and St. Petersburg freaked out first -- and the most. Heh.
The description of the Putin's regime is eerily similar to the slow collapse of Fascism in Italy between 1940 and 1942. The diaries of Ciano (Foreign office minister and son in law of Mussolini) charted the same breakdown between the working and middle class and the regime, once the latter placed impossible demands on the former due to the failures of the war.
It's almost as if Russia has returned to the old feudal social and political structures of the Russian empire. Moscow demands and the distant regions fulfill the quota as they see fit. How true was (if true at all) this during the USSR?
Pretty true.
@@jaybee9269 if you are correct, then I suspect that it may be due to the large geographical space the Former USSR, Russia Today, and the Russian Empire of the past, all occupied. Such a vast geographical space may require that local political and governmental actors be given a larger amount of autonomy then those of us the in the West might have imagined.
and if this is true, what does it say about the ability of local power centers in Russia and their ability to push back against Moscow. Though they don't seem to be doing so now (at least overtly), how does this factor into Putin's decision making process if at all.
When a society is not based on the rule of law, cynicism and paranoia flourish, and personal values give way to pragmatic self-preservation.
Why would people talk about protesting rather than about organizing? An organized network can hold a protest whenever holding a protest becomes advisable, but having a bunch of disorganized people show up on the street is unlikely to accomplish anything in most circumstances. If I were giving advice to Russians who want to oppose the regime but see no effective way of doing so, I would say to find a bunch of people that you play card games with on Mondays, another group that you play chess with on Tuesdays, and so on, and start figuring out who should be introduced to whom so that the people you talk to who seem likely to oppose the regime (but aren't admitting it yet) are linked not only to each other but also to other people you don't know who seem similarly likely.
On accepting Russians escaping mobilization: 1. Is it moral? 2. Is it humanitarian? 3. Is it a smart thing to do???
I have a family member in Petersburg who is very much in support of Russia... but not Putin or the war. His best strategy for helping Russia is doing anything that could help bring down the imperialist regime, including removing himself from Russia.
stimulatingly interesting, what next
Повестка - is the notice for mobilization?
I picture Putins regime as a wheel with spokes. Putin is the hub and his inner circle as the spokes. His inner circle is connected to Putin but not connected to each other. A wheel can remain somewhat functional with a few broken spokes but if you remove the hub the whole thing collapses.
Please leave links for good channels. I am unable to spell them for searching. Thank you
I am very interessted in the realities of all russian provinces on this matter
There are many other scenarios which could have happened on Feb 24. Ukraine could have blown up all the railway and road crossings right at the border, refusing all access for the Russian military to enter the country. If that happened, the most Russia would have done is use rockets and aircraft to attack. That long forlorn column on its way to Kiev would not have been formed. Russia would not have made a massive investment in Ukraine and would have been able to sustain that limited action for years. What happened instead, Russia spent massive amounts of military capacity, Ukraine held a strong moral high ground, the west became unified against tyranny.
Does anyone have a link to the "Mark Fagan" or similar referred to in this dialog?
His interviews are pretty much in Russian - ua-cam.com/users/FeyginLive
@@SiliconCurtain thanks!
Vlad what you said about the successor to Putin (42:00 min) would you come to the same conclusions if "Yevgeny Prigozhin" took over? 🇨🇦
What I'm hearing sounds like China also, but there must be more important differences. So what are they?
😍
"Support and encourage a conversation" - maybe that's the elusive effectiveness of the heroic Russian protesters who get sent to prison or to war or both.
follow vlad hes a smart cookie
Which youtube channels were redommended?
Vlad, is not present Russia much like pre-February 1917 Russia,i.e., losing Tsarist Russian stability without a new stability building in the wings?
"If't chance
Some curs'd example poison't near the head,
Death and disease through the whole land spread."
From The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster.
What is the UA-cam program they are referring to? 38:24 I can't find that channel
However there's smartphone videos of 10 miles of traffic jams at borders
Video of the conscripted trying to be lured from their rooms by throwing the fire alarm. But forgetting that the security camera system is revealing the subterfuge
Systemic resistance is done underground in authoritarian regimes, its difficult to gage their size
Is there an established order of succession in Russia? Does Putin have an heir?
No and no
Yeah if he had a prominent successor, he might have gained too much power too early and removed him, the roman empire syndrome, so no he doesn't have one and cares about it to extremes as not to have one in the slightest.
No - and that’s a big part of the problem!
Spoiler alert: the mobilization won’t work out. It will fail miserably.
Agreed. But what comes next if failure is inevitable?
@@jacquescolmenero7760 that’s up to the Russian people.
Combined IQ in this video is off the roof 🤯
Only if you are from Russia.