There are growing calls for a mass boycott of the World Cup, to be held in Russia this summer ..
https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...-international-boycott-spy-nerve-agent-attack
From the article .. Ian Austin, another Labour MP, said: “I am very concerned that Putin will use the World Cup in the same way that Hitler used the 1936 Munich Olympics, as a public relations exercise for a brutal dictatorship.”
Brutal dictatorship ? Obviously, Mr. Austin has never been to Russia. I've been to Russia many times, since 2002, and I've never seen a "brutal dictatorship". In some ways I feel safer there, than here. Anyway. Russia is a vast country, whose citizens enjoy many freedoms they did not have under the USSR. Russia's cities are not unlike those in the US, in St. Petersburg, for example, there are lots of bars and night spots you can hang out. There also seems to be more of a community focus there.
The upshot, I think Putin is going about it the wrong way. But the west is not giving him many options. There is a huge misunderstanding going on between the west and Russia. Surprisingly, Trump seems to be the only one that understands this.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...-international-boycott-spy-nerve-agent-attack
From the article .. Ian Austin, another Labour MP, said: “I am very concerned that Putin will use the World Cup in the same way that Hitler used the 1936 Munich Olympics, as a public relations exercise for a brutal dictatorship.”
Brutal dictatorship ? Obviously, Mr. Austin has never been to Russia. I've been to Russia many times, since 2002, and I've never seen a "brutal dictatorship". In some ways I feel safer there, than here. Anyway. Russia is a vast country, whose citizens enjoy many freedoms they did not have under the USSR. Russia's cities are not unlike those in the US, in St. Petersburg, for example, there are lots of bars and night spots you can hang out. There also seems to be more of a community focus there.
The upshot, I think Putin is going about it the wrong way. But the west is not giving him many options. There is a huge misunderstanding going on between the west and Russia. Surprisingly, Trump seems to be the only one that understands this.
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