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I work in academia. I have a few contacts in Russia and a few Russian friends at work. Obviously none of them support the war, but their insight into the Crimean invasion was very interesting. In their view it was nothing to do with nationality and very much about securing a warm water port with access to fresh water.
Also a big challenge for museums in Russia is preventing the ruling class and the rich from "borrowing" cultural treasures to decorate their personal houses.
There's a lot of effort going into creating very high quality digital and physical replicas to lab to politically connected people and churches to relieve this pressure.
Alex_B-
securing a warm water port with access to fresh water.
That was the reason given 8 years ago, and it does make strategic sense. The Sevastopol naval base had been used by Russia/the USSR since the 18th century. A lot of money was spent on it during the Cold War. When the USSR broke up in 1991 and Ukraine got independence, Russia lost the right to use it, so they leased it. And then stole it in 2014.
nick_h.
I wonder how it is with instagram these days because as far as I understand it's been banned as an extremist organisation and people using it in Russia might face fines, even jail time.
Yet I find myself arguing on instagram with a lot of Russians who are located in Russia - I see their recent posts with location tags and everything. I wonder maybe the law doesn't apply if you support the "military operation".
What's odd for me is those fake news which I just shared myself this morning.
It's not the first time I discover fakes/false news which seemed that they were meant to spread in western media. I wonder if it's part of information war to lift the spirits or it's part of kremlin's plan to spread as much random fake news as possible and eventually people will start questioning everything like if Bucha massacre actually happened.