You have to have a thick skin to talk geopolitics in the public agora

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You have to have a thick skin to talk geopolitics in the public agora

My chat with Andrew Napolitano on Judging Freedom 7 November has created a lot of commotion in the Russian-speaking world. Hours after the English podcast went live, one Russian platform on rutube already had a dubbed Russian version posted.  That did not stay active for long but was replaced by another, and then by still another.   Now finally a Russian version has been posted on youtube and my oh my what it shows!

At this moment the number of thumbs up are 10 or more times greater than the number of Comments which are, as usual, very ad hominem and very vicious.  These trolls are saying I am MI6 because I live in Petersburg close to a military helicopter base and have dinner with a defense industry ex-employee.  That is already a kind of reasoning, distorted but imaginable. Others talk about my dyed ‘brown hair’, the color of you know what.  That is more the gutter variety comment.  And then there is this utterly unconventional comment which tells me that I have hit pay dirt;

@vitusreihmer3136

5 hours ago

Россия устала от войны! Это Правда, от такой тягуче-клейко тянущейся Странной Военной Операции, когда стратегическая военная Авиация спит на Аэродромах или бомбит полигоны. Да, конечно, Россия устала от странной неодекватности (или предательства!??) Путина в этой.. Странной Военной Операции. Даже действия в Сирии, были более решительней и результативней.. Россия, устаёт от мелкотравчатых белоусовых, набибулиных, герасимовых, шойгунутых, лавровых и ещё ряда безвольных подпевал.. своего главнокомандующего, от которого они же и отрекутся и продадут по первой возможности (дело в цене) Россия, устала не от Войны, Войны за себя – но от странно-вялотекущей и какой-то выжидательной “войны”.

Here below is a machine translation rendering of this comment in English:

Quote

Russia is tired of the war, that is the Truth! Tired of such a lingering and sticky Strange Military Operation, when strategic military aviation sleeps on airfields or bombs firing ranges. Yes, of course, Russia is tired of Putin’s strange inadequacy (or treachery!??) in this…. Strange Military Operation. Even the actions in Syria were more decisive and effective…. Russia is tired of the small-minded Belousovs, Nabibulins, Gerasimovs, Shoigunutsy, Lavrovs and a number of other weak-willed supporters of its commander-in-chief, whom they will renounce and sell at the first opportunity (the price is the issue) Russia is tired not of the War, the War for itself – but of the strange and slow-moving and some kind of waiting “war.”

Unquote

I trust that the author does not live in Russia, otherwise he could expect a knock at his door soon.  But keep in mind that this whole Russian version came to my attention from the Search function of Yandex  (Russia’s Google) so it is freely accessible in Russia to anyone with VPN on their computer, and a lot of smart people have that so they can watch whatever they want.

Being in the public agora is not for the faint of heart

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025

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Published by gilbertdoctorow

Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write. Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975). After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.

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2 thoughts on “You have to have a thick skin to talk geopolitics in the public agora”

  2. Hmm, trouble is the fact some vehemently agree with a thesis or angrily rejected it. Isn’t a proof of validity or “pay-dirt”.

    Although it has been slow, Russia is on a clear path to victory & permanently breaking Ukraine. NATO can do nothing to stop this and are in a state of irreversible decline, under their present regimes.

    The commenter you cite comparing the SMO to the Syrian intervention. Is simply being foolish & histrionic. The two wars aren’t remotely comparable in nature.

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