Here we see the same modus operandi that Moscow used to subvert all the major nations of eastern Europe after WW2. They and their surrogates suppress opposition by threats, arrests, deportations and murders until they can "win" a vote, then beat their breasts and claim "democracy".
It fooled the Allies right into 1948, until they murdered the sitting Czechoslovak foreign minister. They tried it in Greece but failed, thank God. They did it Crimea, deporting native Tatar populations as far back as 1944 and substituting Russians. They did it Donbass in 2014, deporting native Ukrainians into exile in the "Mother Country".
This Muskovite practice was the reason that NATO had to be formed in 1949. And it's being repeated today, which is why previously neutral nations are joining NATO. Only propagandists and their useful idiots deny this.
>> Only propagandists and their useful idiots deny this.
Quite a few of both here, unfortunately. The sad part is demoralized western conservatives rooting for Pootin, like he is some kind of liberator from the woke.
He would nuke us if he knew he could do so with impunity.
When Moscow resorts to “active measures” against our infrastructure, when things finally do go kinetic, will those same people be still rooting for our enemies?