what made you think it was *only* the perversion? that's just the cherry on top

- the welfare states, and the distorted marketplaces and jobs prospects, and high unemployment rates (it's not as bad in the balkans as in the west, by far, especially non EU members like bosnia and serbia)

- the high taxes, and the terrible food rules and enforced exporting of stuff such that you can't buy the actual products of the country you live in (this is really bad in bulgaria, where they make the best cheese and wine, nope... all sold at the most elite supermarkets in northern and western europe

- on that point more... what they feed cattle and how they treat them, the nearly absence of beef from the market, the disappearance of lamb and mutton, the sheer mass of horrible processed foods dominating the supermarkets, full of garbage like maltodextrin and artificial sweeteners that actually make you get diabetes faster

it's not hard to notice that russians aren't bloated whales like so many in europe are now, it was a shock to me after living in sarajevo and varna getting to cambridge and every third person is a straight up whale, and exactly the same in madeira

must be terrible food in russia if they aren't ballooning up and getting diabetes and heart problems, really

and they arrest nearly 10x as many people in the UK for "hate speech" than in russia, and russia is about how much bigger? like, a bit smaller than USA, maybe 5x as many people so actually per capita 100x as many people are being prosecuted for hate speech

idk what to say man, the propaganda in especially baltics and central european countries against russia seems to be very effective, i see this all the time for years now, i don't think you are even aware how distorted it is

yes, russia is fucked up, but so is the whole fucking world these days, except where the population density is lower, and by this i mean, i'm glad i'm here in madeira instead of alentejo or setubel let alone porto or lisbon