The closer Russia's defeat comes, the more talk of reparations. I perfectly understand Ukrainians who talk about the guilt and responsibility of all Russians - it is not Putin who shoots at residential neighbourhoods, it is not Putin who rapes women, it is not Putin who loots.

 The closer Russia's defeat comes, the more talk of reparations. I perfectly understand Ukrainians who talk about the guilt and responsibility of all Russians - it is not Putin who shoots at residential neighbourhoods, it is not Putin who rapes women, it is not Putin who loots.

I understand perfectly the Russians who say - why us? We never voted for Putin, we never supported the war, we went to protests, we transferred money to FBC and OVD-Info. The whole world can't stop Putin, and what could we do?

Niels Bohr is credited with saying, "Predicting is very difficult. Especially to predict the future." Let's try to model the situation after Ukraine's victory.  It's difficult - the tree of scenarios is growing rapidly. Will Putin push the nuclear button? Will Putin retain power after defeat? Who will come in his place? Will he be an even more thuggish maniac or will he reconcile? Will the FSB be recognized as a criminal organization? Will Russia retain its nuclear weapons? Will war criminal trials begin? Will Russia start paying reparations? 

Let's go down this branch. It has to be understood that Russia will be able to exist under sanctions. Somewhere at the level of the mid-twentieth century. There is no question of any development of the country. Only decay and lagging behind the rest of the world is possible. How far behind? Forever.

So any government in Russia will inevitably face the question of lifting sanctions. And they will be lifted only after admitting defeat, return of all seized territories, disarmament, guarantees of non-aggression, trial of war criminals and reparations. 

But don't repeat the nonsense after Simonyan about the last janitor in the Kremlin being taken to The Hague. It is physically impossible to try 140 million people. A few thousand criminals will be tried - the whole top of power: the Security Council, the General Staff, the FSB, the GRU, the State Duma, the Federation Council, the Government, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor's Office, the Constitutional Court, the military who committed crimes in Ukraine, prosecutors, Kremlin propagandists. 

If it were up to me, I would definitely add to this list snitches, snitches, chairmen of election commissions who falsify election protocols, thieves in the law, officers of the FSIN, the top of the Foreign Ministry, the top of the Russian Orthodox Church, the leadership of all parliamentary parties.

If you are not one of these people, no one will judge you. Your property will not be confiscated. You will not be banned from your profession. But you will participate in reparation payments. There will be a separate tax and a separate line on every bill you receive for utilities - REPARATIONS. You will not die from this, but everyone will pay.

p.s.

There was a question in the comments about Mikhail Svetov saying that a Russian politician should not call for reparations. If you are interested, I can explain in detail where Mikhail is wrong and why.