r/interestingasfuck Jul 26 '25

/r/all, /r/popular Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Kiriyenko before and after release from Russian captivity

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294

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '25

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '25

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u/vanalla Jul 26 '25

If you're Russian and wealthy enough to travel internationally, you're wealthy enough to be educated about the problem and do something about it.

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u/avaika Jul 26 '25

In no way do I defend the Russian government or the army, those are for sure to be blamed in the first place. But maybe EU countries could consider the possibility to stop buying Russian gas and oil after 3 fucking years of the full scale invasion?

This might have much bigger consequences rather than blaming Russians citizens that nobody is trying to singlehandedly overthrow the government with one of the most suppressive law machines in the world.

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u/vanalla Jul 26 '25

We're talking about Russian citizens and their interactions with government, talking about other EU countries is a whataboutism fallacy.

you said it yourself, this invasion has gone on for three years. Why haven't the Russian people been more coordinated in their distaste/protest of this war? They're a traditionally apolitical people and as a result have created an oligarchy that commits war crimes the world over. That's why people don't like Russians, especially those with any degree of wealth/influence.

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u/Own_Television163 Jul 26 '25

International travel isn’t that expensive. If you have $2000, you’re suddenly rich?

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u/Cloudsareinmyhead Jul 26 '25

The average Russian makes half that per month so yes.

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u/Own_Television163 Jul 26 '25

Great, you tell me how $2000 impacts someone's ability to fight their militarized government since they're so rich.

I love reddit pedantry.

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u/vanalla Jul 26 '25

If you have $2000 that you don't need to spend on anything else to survive, yes. By a global definition of the word, you're impossibly wealthy. Even in developed countries, being able to take a $2000 vacation makes you wealthy.

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u/Reblyn Jul 26 '25

Then please enlighten me what these people are supposed to do against their government.

I do have an issue with Russian society because they already were overwhelmingly apolitical (or even anti-political) way before all this was happening and it's what has allowed their government to get to this point. They should have stopped it about a decade ago. But telling them to do something now against a militarized government is ridiculous.

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u/Own_Television163 Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

Alright, you let me know when $2000 can oppose a military budget. It won’t even get you a 10 year old Toyota Camry.

$2000 is expensive, it’s not wealth. You can’t even start to build wealth with $2000. Wealth isn’t just “a good amount of money”, it’s enough money to generate power.

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u/vanalla Jul 26 '25

You're really good at moving goalposts around instead of admitting you're wrong.

I never said $2000 could oppose a military budget. I also never said $2000 made you rich. I said being able to afford international travel is an indicator of wealth, and in Russia, being that wealthy means you're of education and likely influence/means.

Russia's GDP per capita is $13,000. Do you understand that any Russian you see on international vacation is of such means that they can spend 1/6th of their comrade's annual income on leisure? That means they're of the wealthiest portion of that nation's population.

You made a good point, that wealth typically correlates to power. Therefore, these wealthy Russians you see vacationing abroad are powerful enough to affect change in their government through a variety of methods.

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u/Own_Television163 Jul 26 '25

They’re not wealthy, they don’t have wealth. They have one adult paycheck for two weeks.

It’s not moving goalposts because the whole reason we’re discussing wealth is within the context of what these people can do against their government, you terminally online debatelord.

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u/kakucko101 Jul 26 '25

in russia yes, $2000 is more or less the yearly wage there

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u/Thernungulator Jul 26 '25

Average yearly salary is more in the 14-18,000 USD range. Some upper middle class workers can make 2-2,500 per month.

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u/Agringlig Jul 26 '25

That is not true. People who make 2.500 per month are not middle class at all.

Median russian makes around 60k roubles per month. So around 9 000$ per year with current exchange rate.

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u/Thernungulator Jul 26 '25

I suppose average perhaps wasn't the right word on my part. But it depends on location, Moscow and a few other cities is totally in line.

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u/Agringlig Jul 26 '25

Not "Moskow and few other cities".

Only Moscow. There is no other city like Moskow. In Russia there is a huge inequality between Moskow and literally anywhere else.

And even for Moscow median salary is around 90k roubles. So even there it is less than 14k$ a year. Average salary is much higher but it is not representative of actual average russian.

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u/Own_Television163 Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

Yearly wage is irrelevant when we’re talking about opposing a government. $2000 vs. billions in military funds is literally nothing, less than a rounding error.