An authoritarian way of thinking shapes the Russian mentality, which is all about conquering, destroying, raping and killing. In the XX century, Europe not once experienced the brutality of Russians: in 1956 on the streets of Budapest, with 2500 civilians dead, in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, with 72 people killed and hundreds of citizens left injured.
Later, a coup in Afghanistan 1979, invasions of Georgia, Moldova, Ichkeria (Chechnya), massacres in Syria during the 1990-2010s. There is a long history of Russian warfare to be reminded of. Every war Russia covers with a thick pile of white lies and complete disregard for human life on either side. As Barbara W. Tuchman in her famous 1962 book “The Guns of August” has pointed out: “Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.”
Russia has also been sneaking overseas in peaceful times, conducting countless smaller acts of terror. Since the beginning of the XX century, numerous Russian forces — NKVD, KGB, FSB, GRU — have been hunting alleged “threats” with guns, missiles, explosives, and poisons to assassinate people opposing the authoritarian regime. Just to remind you of a few: Stepan Bandera (Munich, 1959), Georgi Markov (London, 1978), Dzhokhar Dudayev (Chechnya, 1996), Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev (Doha, 2004), Alexander Litvinenko (London, 2006), Umar Israilov (Vienna, 2009), Maksym Shapoval (2017, Kyiv) Zelimkhan Khangoshvili (Berlin, 2019). There have been many assassination attempts inside and outside of the Russian state.
Now, Russia is openly and blatantly focused on the assassination of the entire nation - the Ukrainians. The Western world desperately seeks a peaceful solution, being frightened by the possibility of World War III. Germans refuse to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine because “it might provoke Putin”. Americans are hesitant to provide long-range rocket launchers fearing that they might escalate the situation and prolong the conflict if Ukrainians will use them on Russian territory. French President Emmanuel Macron spends hours on the phone with Putin, pacifying him and trying to reason with him. But all of them, people with the Western civilized mentality, have lost their sense of what Russia really is. That Russians will never stop advancing unless the greater force stops them. There never has been a point in talking to Russians. They understand and respect only brutal force. And now is the chance — don’t let them knock on your door one day.
