[Skybird]

Those who still believe after Putler's speech today that "after the war" there could be a "return to normal relations", or an "after Putler's departure", are beyond help. Because what became clearer to me today than ever before is that Russia is not Putler, but that Russia is Russia, with or without Putler. His narrative is believed by the majority of the population, the media power of state propaganda is omnipresent and total, the role and chances of opposition forces in Russia have always been completely overestimated in the West. The spiritual legacy of Putler will outlive his stay in office, because it was never Putler's legacy, but something that was there before, that roots deep in Russia and Russian society and culture and history and that used Putler merely to give itself a new expression. Putler is not the root of the problem, but its expression - with Russia itself being the root of the problem.

And I don't see any chance that this could change. Not in my life time, and not in the forseeable generations. They say the Russian soul is deep and grim and without fathom. Today I understood how damn true that really is, but it is a hopeless realisation, a grim one, a dark one. It means that karma creates karma, and bad karma creates more bad karma.

Its like in a Lovecraftian horror story, with the hidden evil never having been away, just having hidden under the surface, during the day.