20 Comments

Great article, will continue to read as they come along.

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Thanks, there's a lot more interesting stuff coming which a lot of people probably don't realize about Russia.

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Brilliant work!! Keep it coming Charles!!!

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Good length article

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Not too long. Thank you.

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We are Russian Orthodox Christians in the USA. We perceive the complexities of the current circumstances. We pray for Orthodox Russia asking the intercession of the Holy Tsar Nicholas I I.

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At some point I hope to get to writing about the meaning of that saint. That is something very few people in the West understand, and it's a very big deal here.

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Don’t forget. America has Rear Admiral Rachel Lévine commanding the USS Harvey Milk. All nations tremble before us!

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Weren't you the editor of Russia Insider? What happened to it?

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Myself, I enjoy the long articles. This series has been extremely informative. By the way, gang, the Schutzman family just came out with a new video. It seems that the place to go is going to be Nizhny Novgorod: https://youtu.be/HKLTJL0k4-Q?si=CsJg6G6tgJSHmG1Z

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Yeah, very much recommend following him. He is a friend here and has an amazing story, and family.

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Great article. Thank you. One caveat, however. You contradicted yourself in this paragraph: “Much is made of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, but I’m skeptical. Even in all-out war, the logic of mutually assured destruction holds, and it is not at all clear that going nuclear would make any sense to Russian leadership if faced with defeat on the battlefield. They like to threaten for political points, but pulling the trigger is another matter entirely. The main value of nukes, and it is a huge one, is to deter anyone else from using theirs against you.” There is nothing to be “skeptical” of. Russia has not threatened “for political points.” Russia’s nuclear capabilities are the deterrent not only against another country’s nuclear arsenal, but against a non-nuclear long-range missile attack that threatens Mother Russia’s very existence as well. Having said that, Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield. Not today.

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Thank you… not too long.

Would love to see Russia move towards having a 2nd amendment like the US.

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At some point I'll explain the rules about guns here. Russia has a very strong gun culture, gun stores, hunting culture, etc., but with more restrictions than in the US. Bottom line, you can still own and enjoy guns here, but no 2A. The biggest gun show in the country takes place in Moscow in mid-October, so def plan to check in there and share what I find.

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We don't need it. I am an arms-living person myself, but I can bear not having one if I know that criminals will barely have any either. Our gun control and police are much better than in the US, that's why we don't need to protect ourselves with guns. I've never heard of a person robbed at gunpoint in big cities of Russia through last decades, for example. How many people are robbed like this in NY or wherever else in US?

The only places where guns are used in crime are large-scale robberies or terrorism, but those can't be 100% prevented...

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There's just much less petty crime here in general. I can't remember the last time I heard of someone being mugged.

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I wonder what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would say about that?

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And look how well 2A played out for the US of A. The idea of citizens bearing arms to keep their government in check is all but dead at this point, while crime is thriving.

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I think its still very important, and a major deterrent to a full-on police state in the US.

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And that was the intent of the 2A in the US… not hunting like leftists like to say.

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