The tragic story here is that I genuinely believe that Russia belongs IN Europe. They're a European country.

And despite all the massive problems they had during the 90's, with the piratization of the soviet monopolies and the rise of the oligarchy, it seemed possible for a few years.

I think the younger generation can see it and aspire to it. The old generation longing for the Soviet Union are irredeemable and we will have to wait for their natural demise, as we will have to wait for Putin's more likely than not natural death to maybe see some change.

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Russia does belong in Europe. Except perhaps for the poor bastard Siberians they steamrollered and of course the large chunk of China they stole when China was weak.

But Europe, TBH has never been an oasis of love. It's always been a battleground, and pretty much between blocks from Lithuanian Empire blocking the Mongols onwards, until finally after WW2 we agreed we had had enough. Well, all the bits outside the Iron Curtian. They jumped over in 89/90.

Hopefully a future Russian leadership will give a damn about their people and become decent too. But this leadership, isn't.

Is stealing from a thief stealing though...?

More seriously, my personal believe as a market anarchist with a georgist heart is that the nation-state is evil by nature and that any polity that goes beyond a few hundred thousand people is a hellish aberration that can only be upheld by massive violence.