Good for them!

Just yesterday, pundits were wondering whether the Russian people would have or express any real opinions on Putin's latest escalation of the invasion of Ukraine, given how oppressive Putin's regime has been, and how brutally dissenters are often treated. Some pundits were asking what the Russian people would even hear about the invasion, before or after it was underway, given how tightly controlled news media (and, hell, all media) outlets are inside Russia.

Well, that was yesterday, and this is today, and it seems we have our answer.

As reported by CBC News:

Shocked Russians turned out by the thousands Thursday to decry their country's invasion of Ukraine as emotional calls for protests grew on social media.

Around 1,745 people in 54 Russian cities were detained, at least 957 of them in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, which has documented crackdowns on Russia's opposition for years.

Hundreds of posts came pouring in condemning Moscow's most aggressive actions since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

[...]

Tatyana Usmanova, an opposition activist in Moscow, wrote on Facebook that she thought she was dreaming when she awoke at 5:30 a.m. to the news, which she called "a disgrace that will be forever with us now."

"I want to ask Ukrainians for forgiveness. We didn't vote for those who unleashed the war," she said.

Good for them.

Regardless of what Putin would like the world to believe, he really isn't immune to the basic law of governance: one can only govern with the consent of those governed. That consent can be tacit; it can even be, to some extent, coerced. 

But it can't be absent, because the people you're trying to govern outnumber you, and if enough of them decide that they're not going to silent obey your orders anymore, well... let's just say that things can get awfully interesting, awfully quickly. You'd think that a former Soviet apparatchik would know that, but Putin is apparently impervious to the lessons of history.

Whether things get interesting enough for Putin on the domestic front, quickly enough to have any impact on his empire-building aspirations, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though -- apart from the usual useful idiots in the U.S.A., nobody is buying his spin on this latest military adventure into a neighbouring country. Not even the people who live in his own country.

God bless, and god speed, Russian opposition activists. I wish you nothing but success.