Escaping Putin

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-opposition-flee-from-russia-they-leave-knowing-they-are-cursed-everywhere-a-cceca3e5-a922-495d-a922-2b1cc5a228c4

by RickJWagner • 4 years ago

47 16 4 years ago

spiegel.de

ewokone• 4 years ago

Please leave my opinion to me, Spiegel.

I wish there would be journalists out there bringing facts first and leave the opinion about the facts for the reader. When reading the first lines it becomes clear to me, that I am reading a opinion based article, not fact based.

I am tired and exhausted of articles like this in the media coverage these times. They don't get my attention. How did this land here on hackernews?

hulitu• 4 years ago

I heard that a long time ago Spiegel was a newspaper. Then some journalists went to prison (for a few days) and the rest is history.

vincent_s• 4 years ago

An Essay by Mikhail Viktorovich Zygar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay

brokensegue• 4 years ago

It is common for newspapers to publish opinion pieces. It's fine as long as it's labeled as such.

tablespoon2• 4 years ago

I wish there would be journalists out there bringing facts first and leave the opinion about the facts for the reader. When reading the first lines it becomes clear to me, that I am reading a opinion based article, not fact based.

It's an op-ed essay. "The media" has always published stuff like this, and newspapers have a section dedicated to it. People are interested in facts, but they're also interested in what other people think and the ideas they have.

The content in a typical newspaper is extremely varied, and rightly so. Did you know they even publish cartoons, and have done so for more than a century?

somenameforme• 4 years ago

I decided to look into this. And there's some interesting facts on the op-ed [1]. Up until 1921 op-eds didn't exist. In 1921 they were invented by an editor who remarked, "It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting, so I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the editorial, which became the most important in America ... and thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts."

Oh the times when we were more honest. That paper went out of business 10 years later. He only allowed employees to publish said pieces. The modern editorial where papers began allowing "anybody" to publish opinion based articles only began in 1970, with the NYTimes.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed

ethagknight• 4 years ago

It’s an essay, not a field report. Persuasive writing. I thought it was interesting, and this isn’t some random letter-to-the-editor. You can read his opinion and form your own rebuttal (I’d love to read it, too!)

I couldn’t disagree with you more.

NicoJuicy• 4 years ago

In 1 telegram group, i saw increasing over the last week from 200 technical profiles to 3800 ( this morning).

Most of them want to relocate outside Russia.

I think it's more than an opinion though.

mediumsmart2• 4 years ago

Die Bildzeitung für Abiturienten. That was a real good Nachrichtenmagazin until about 20 years ago.

amai3• 4 years ago

Your comment is also for Abiturienten. It would have been a real good comment 20 years ago on some PHP forum, but it doesn't fit to hackernews nowadays.

mediumsmart2• 4 years ago

Keine Ahnung was php damit zu tun hat aber Du kannst das überprüfen wie schlecht der Spiegel geworden ist. Einfach mal lesen was die damals geschrieben haben.

cmurf• 4 years ago

The thesis of the article is that Russians have a long standing fear from the USSR days that the border would one day be closed, and then they couldn't get out of Russia. That fear followed by the recent airspace closures, has led to significant emigration. And this fear has an even earlier trauma of closed borders from the 1917 revolution, which also saw hundreds of thousands emigrate from Russia.

It goes on to make comparisons between the two emigrations, then and now. But also the different perspectives: those who flee and those who stay. Those who stayed following 1917 were very critical of those who fled, the same is happening already today. The author doesn't question whether history will repeat itself, it shows it is. Including for those who leave.

That they will be welcomed abroad as "Putin’s people," and not at all as those who fought desperately, although unsuccessfully, against him for 20 years.
Lenin called intellectuals the "shit" of the nation and did everything in his power to make them leave or disappear. Putin has rid himself of this "shit" just as effectively.

amai3• 4 years ago

I think Russians who fled in 1917 were not welcomed abroad as "Lenin's people". It was clear that they were fleeing from the communists.

It should be obvious that Russians fleeing from their home country nowadays are definitely not "Putin's people" .

tromp• 4 years ago

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin called for a ‘natural cleansing’ of ‘scum and traitors’ within Russia who question his invasion of Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJVYqP6eF2U

I sympathize with anyone trying to escape from such rhetoric.

amai3• 4 years ago

"The emigrants are forbidden from taking their money with them, and parliamentarians have already introduced proposals that emigrants be stripped of their citizenship and their property be nationalized."

These laws will not only hit the emigrants of today, but also many people who left Russia long time ago, but might still own an apartment or still have some money in the bank there. I know people who rent out their apartment in Russia or offered it on AirBnB and made a living from it. These are not oligarchs. These are pretty average Russian people. They will suffer badly.

Escaping Putin

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