Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'I Couldn't Just Stand By': Russian Fighters Explain Why They Took Up Arms Against The Kremlin
Radio Free Europe ^ | February 07, 2023 20:56 | Yauhen Lehalau

Posted on 02/13/2023 12:10:43 AM PST by Zhang Fei

"When Free Russia was formed, I applied, went through some background checks, and ended up here.”

The two men now form a mortar crew squaring off against raw Russian troops.

“Putin really raised the stakes with mobilization,” Tsezar said. “Earlier, we were fighting against the so-called ‘little green men’ and some Vasya was sitting in Saratov watching television,” he said, using a diminutive of the common Russian first name Vasily.

“Now Vasya has to get off his butt and crawl around a cold trench outside of Bakhmut while Tikhy and I fire mortars at him,” he said. “Vasya’s attitude is going to change. If Vasya really thinks about it, maybe he’ll join us and we’ll march together on Moscow.”

Despite taking up arms against the Russian military and government, Tzesar insisted he remained a right-leaning Russian nationalist who looks back nostalgically on the tsarist era.

“What are the Russian provinces?” he said. “Dirt, ruins, poverty, drunkenness. That is what we need to be working on, rather than expanding our prison to include Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Belarus. That is the kind of Russian nationalist that I am…. There is no sense in using force to hold people that don’t want to be with you.”

Tzesar remained confident in Ukraine’s ultimate victory, but urged Kyiv’s allies to provide more advanced weaponry.

“You saw how 20 or 30 HIMARS units changed the course of the war,” he said, referring to the U.S.-made multiple rocket launchers that helped Ukraine bounce back after the initial invasion. “And the West has hundreds more. And thousands of tanks. I won’t even mention aircraft.”

“If Ukraine had even a tiny fraction of these weapons, Tikhy and I would be celebrating our victory somewhere on a beach in Crimea,” he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: propaganda; putin; russia; ukraine; yauhenlehalau; zelensky
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

1 posted on 02/13/2023 12:10:43 AM PST by Zhang Fei
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: marcusmaximus; Paul R.; Bruce Campbells Chin; PIF; familyop; MercyFlush; tet68; BeauBo; TalBlack; ..

Ukraine ping

Russian nationals in Ukrainian formations are said to number 4,000 men. Some are settled in Ukraine and fighting for their adopted country. Others left Russia to fight for Ukraine, and to gain combat experience for what they say is an armed struggle for the future of Russia.


2 posted on 02/13/2023 12:11:50 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

I had to laugh that they use “Vasya” in place of the more traditional “Ivan”. Thanks for posting.


3 posted on 02/13/2023 12:21:15 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 (To the barricades !!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: All

BandarLog/License2Lie ping


4 posted on 02/13/2023 12:26:30 AM PST by ganeemead (Ukraine/Zelensky: Adding an element of chutzpah to ordinary Nazism...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

“Others left Russia to fight for Ukraine, and to gain combat experience for what they say is an armed struggle for the future of Russia.”

LOL. What future? Do you realize that nobody in Russia cares about such virtual groups?

The Americans are generally very naive, believing that there are idiots willing to ruin their countries for American interests.

It was maybe seldom true 60 years ago. Now there are no idiots who don’t know the game.


5 posted on 02/13/2023 12:35:57 AM PST by NorseViking
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

This:

“What are the Russian provinces?” he said. “Dirt, ruins, poverty, drunkenness. That is what we need to be working on, rather than expanding our prison to include Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Belarus. That is the kind of Russian nationalist that I am…. There is no sense in using force to hold people that don’t want to be with you.”


6 posted on 02/13/2023 12:42:22 AM PST by Sunsong
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

I suspect a man that decided to turn on his leadership & comrades would wisely choose not to boast about it.


7 posted on 02/13/2023 1:05:22 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

The Bolsheviks did a lot of boasting.

As did the US revolutionaries.

As did the participants in the Spanish Civil War - both sides.

You may want to examine your assumptions.


8 posted on 02/13/2023 1:11:49 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei
There are no “good guys” in this conflict.

There is no Truth in this conflict.

Both sides are being used as canon fodder.

My father was in Patch's 7th and Patton's 3rd Army. I have a youth size GI jacket that belonged to a Russian kid who acted as interpreter and interrogator for captured Germans in my father's outfit. "Little Joe", bunked with, ate with and rode in Jeep with the GI's. Dad planned to adopt the kid and bring him home to Texas. Dad had a bride waiting for him to return from the War. Dad's CO had already approved him to adopt “Little Joe”. As the war was ending, Dad was afraid that Little Joe was so traumatized by the war that he might have problems with him, and did not bring him to Texas.

War is Hell. Those loosing a War often go to hell.

9 posted on 02/13/2023 1:25:20 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: buwaya

Doubtful you can cite any references to the boasting you claim existed — and that’s not say it didn’t. But in my estimation, your motive doesn’t concern historical reality as much as it favors wishful thinking.


10 posted on 02/13/2023 1:32:57 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Texas Fossil

>> There is no Truth in this conflict.

Well said.


11 posted on 02/13/2023 1:35:53 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

The Bolsheviks/communists had a vast global propaganda system. They had allied party organizations in every developed country and many others besides, newspapers too.

This is history.

In the Spanish Civil War as well. For the activities of propagandists, you can look them up. On the Nationalist side check out Queipo De Llano, on the other try “LA Pasionaria”, Dolores Ibarruri.


12 posted on 02/13/2023 1:42:54 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Texas Fossil

But most do not go to hell, and countries rebuild. As far as I know no nation has been smashed back so far, in the 19th-20th centuries, that it was beyond recovery.


13 posted on 02/13/2023 1:45:10 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: buwaya

Structured propaganda is something quite different than the individual fighter declaring a shift in allegiance.


14 posted on 02/13/2023 1:46:21 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

Thanks.

I despise all who use outright lies to attempt destroying the USA.

They can go to hell, whence they came.


15 posted on 02/13/2023 2:03:06 AM PST by Texas Fossil
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

This sort of thing is a technique in “structured propaganda”. It can also be sincere. And both could be true at once.

You know, the voice of the “man in the street”, or in such cases, the trench. Maxim Gorky for one was a master of such things. There is tons of it in the Bolshevik/Soviet stuff.


16 posted on 02/13/2023 2:28:27 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

God bless Christian Russia for defending Christianity against the cabalists, globalists, plutocrats and pedophiles.

And God bless the poor Ukrainians, who live under a dictatorship dedicated to the rainbow flag, and who are being sacrificed to advance the cause of evil people who hate Ukrainians.


17 posted on 02/13/2023 4:11:08 AM PST by Gratia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

The admiration for Russia and the Russian military is the strangest aspect of this war. The Russia fans are a tiny minority of Americans.


18 posted on 02/13/2023 4:40:26 AM PST by popdonnelly (All the enormous crimes in history have been committed by governments.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

Yet we have plenty of pro-Putin “FReepers” who are unable to answer the simple question; “Say something nice about America”

And they loathe America and hate on us daily. Publicly.

What do you call such people?


19 posted on 02/13/2023 5:09:50 AM PST by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MeganC

“What do you call such people?”

I call them traitors,

And FR Admin thinks they are “Patriots” apparently


20 posted on 02/13/2023 5:12:07 AM PST by FreshPrince
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson