JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine’s Russian ‘Liberators’ Are Seeing That We Live Better Than They Do” – New York Times/ Yegor Firsov
“… This war is … Putin’s fatal mistake. Not because of economic sanctions and not because of the huge losses of troops and tanks but because [] Putin’s soldiers are from some of the poorest and most rural regions of Russia. Before this war, these men were encouraged to believe that Ukrainians lived in poverty and were culturally, economically and politically inferior. Now the invaders have seen the reality: The Ukrainians live better than they do. … When Ukraine and Russia left the Soviet Union about 30 years ago, we had the same resource-based economies, the same endemic corruption and poverty. … But at some point, our paths diverged. …”