Russia suffered enormously at the hands of nazi Germany - Poland and others did as well- but I see no justification for the view that Russia has suffered more than most from foreign invasions. During the last centuries Russia has been an imperialist power active occupying Poland for ages - and reinvading it alongside the nazis in 1939- invading the Baltic republics, trying to invade Finland in 1940, and controlling Eastern Europe until the late 1980s.
The US Secretary of State, Blinken, Putin filesâŚ
The idea that Russians have a special soul that somehow sets them apart from the rest of mankind, with the added implications that Russians are little better than animals in need of a strong, masculine, bare chested leader is paramount to benevolent racism. I donât deny cultural differences, but none that could possibly justify Putin being good enough for Russians, especially when they canât even express their support or lack thereof due to lack of democratic guarantees.
Basically the west now puts up a weak front against its colonial past, sexual politics, identity politics, decline of christianity, demographic change, dealing with crime, minorities etc. Western liberal democracy is basically taking everything lying down because standing ground against progress towards reconciliation of all matters is politically incorrect. No elected representative wants to stand down an organized mass of any size. But in russia the western liberal institutions that are responsible for this progressive process are not established. I think what we saw during trumps presidency was the beginning of a shift of the american right to favor russian conservative institutions including the strongman.
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My like is for the second half of the comment. 
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Dont get me wrong the first half of my comment is not a criticism of western liberal democracy. Im a liberal in most ways and think the progress we are making in canada is positive. But if you look at canada the only real major organized group that was recently countered was the proud boys and it was only done because there was a path through law for outlawing them.
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I donât want to talk about political things but I must admit that Biden is my favorite President from abroad.
I have reason to think so, but I think that some European leaders should take inspiration from the current American presidency.
I will not go further.
People want the certainty that they are progressing and doing right. They want leaders who have an unshakeable belief in themselves. Such leaders usually do well for a while, but it always ends in disaster. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung all had an unshakeable belief in themselves, and they also inflicted enormous suffering on the world and their own people. The average person, the person in the street, is prone to be taken in by such leaders. One time I was in the army, and I mentioned Adolph Hitler in a disparaging way to a friend of mine. He responded that itâs good to have a person in charge who wants to change the world, and who just changes it. My friend wasnât a bad person or a stupid person. He was very competent at his job and he didnât bother people who werenât bothering him. But he was very foolhardy in his political beliefs. People want certainty. They donât like the doubt that comes from questioning political issues, but the price they pay for not questioning is far worse. All three of the tyrants I mentioned caused enormous suffering for their people. Itâs better to question. Doubt is good.
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