[Paleo Conservative]

When I was in Odessa last year a couple of Ukrainians I talked to said that Russians are barbarians.

[pierrem15]

As far as I can tell, that opinion is shared by every neighboring people who have suffered centuries of depredation at Russian hands.

I'm not just talking about the inevitable consequences of military aggression, but wanton acts of theft and destruction, such as the seizure of the books and paintings from the public library in Warsaw after the Third Partition of Poland (the first public library in Europe) and their transport to the Hermitage.

Murder, theft, and rape have all been official instruments of Russian public policy for centuries.