I've come to the conclusion that about 20% of Russians get sadistic pleasure from inflicting suffering on Ukrainians. It can be said, that there are three peoples in Russia: an apolitical majority, a pro-war minority, and an anti-war minority. And the pro-war minority ("vatniks") impose Putin's current policies and persecute the democrats in power. Putin wouldn't have started the war if the “vatniks” didn’t persecute people like old liberal Medvedev, A.Chubays, I. Nabiullina; and his war is turning them into sadists.

I can explain why Putin needs to torment Ukrainians, causing them as much suffering as possible. For the past 20 years, there has been a clash of two ideologies: the Russian imperial ideology (Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, etc.) and the Ukrainian pro-democratic Maidan. The Maidan gave Ukrainians a lot (in particular, a fight against corruption), and if Putin hadn't bombed them, they would now be happier than Russians. And in this case, the Russians would also want to inspire a revolution (Maidan) in Moscow. This is precisely why Putin is artificially making Ukrainians unhappy. The "vatniks" like their meme "The ukrs had jumped on the Maidan", meaning that as long as Ukrainians live worse than Russians, the “vatniks” believe that a revolution against a government is a bad idea.

I constantly read news about how the Russian army bombed a Ukrainian hospital, a medicine warehouse, and so on—at least unconsciously, all of this is aimed precisely at causing suffering to Ukrainians. It can be said that Putin has no choice: if he will loose the power, he will lose his life.

Edited October 31Oct 31 by Linkey

6 hours ago, Linkey said:

I've come to the conclusion that about 20% of Russians get sadistic pleasure from inflicting suffering on Ukrainians. It

Seems to be a lot of that going around. A commonality seems to be an autocratic leader interested in personal power, who surrounds themselves with like-minded lackeys, scapegoating certain people. The US and Israel are making headlines these days, but there are other countries doing/trying it.

This is what authoritarians do. I doubt it's part of Russian culture, any more than any other place where autocrats rule. The Roman Caesars hired goons to seek out instigators, and the propaganda at the time made it clear it was dangerous to be associated with these "undesirables".

More likely a large portion of them are a product of their environment.
Constant wars, oppression of people, a culture of fear, little value to life, and no voice to express their concerns.
Russians deserve better than what V Putin offers them.
( and so do their neighbors )

I have read a Viktor Frankl's book about Nazi concentration camps, and I noticed that the rules in these camps were designed to inflict maximum suffering on Jews (not just to kill them). I also saw a TV program about World War II, and it mentioned the following fact. At the end of the war, the Allies liberated the territories of Germany where concentration camps were located. The Germans evacuated Jews from these concentration camps and transported them to deeper regions of Germany, which the Allies had not yet reached. And this was done at the expense of military expediency – instead of evacuating weapons, important equipment and so on, the Germans evacuated Jews. From this, it can be concluded that most Germans derived sadistic pleasure from carrying out the Holocaust, and this sadism became a need for them.

Maybe there are some Germans at this forum, who can comment this?

Edited November 1Nov 1 by Linkey

22 hours ago, Linkey said:

I've come to the conclusion that about 20% of Russians get sadistic pleasure from inflicting suffering on Ukrainians.

Where did you get this number from?
I agree with your view in general but as person who was involved in the rise of the current conflict back in 2013-2014, and who was born and spend most of my life in Ukraine - I can confidently state that there's no fundamental difference between individual Ukrainian and Russian personality's. One by one people are the same. It more resembles a kind of national responsibility dissolving as we saw in Germany from early 1930's up to 1945. The point is that more likely we as a species are still dumb and violent beasts unfortunately.

20% of Russians are sadists

..and 99% of Russians are masochists..

ps. Because only a masochist could endure hundreds of years with rulers who were such criminals..

ps2. But average they are even less educated than the average American.. I recently saw a film in which someone (from old USSR) said that the only Western book that the USSR allowed them to read was "The Three Musketeers".. or something like that..

Since you come from Russia, can you tell us what Western literature was available in the USSR (required in the curriculum, i.e. you didn't have to look for it yourself on secret and dangerous places.. ;) )?

Tell us what your parents, grandparents, and you had to read at school. Both Russian and foreign literature. This will be a more moderate topic of conversation.

Contrary to appearances, school reading material can teach us a lot about what ordinary mortals have learned about the world around them. After all, what will be on the geography test? The average American knows nothing about geography. But in the USSR, geography was rather good. I remember those times.

The history will be very subjective, so it would be very controversial, but if you want, share with your Western colleagues on the forum what they taught you. It would be quite a ‘nuke’.. ;)

ps3. When they went to Ukraine, to Bucha, they stole toilet seats, because in their country they do it in a hole in the floor in a special little house outside the house.. The first ones who attacked were people who had never seen civilization before.. They stole all the electronic equipment, and later, when they tried to transport it to Russia, it was confiscated and dismantled, and the electronic components were used to manufacture new weapons.. When the Ukrainians recaptured the territory, they saw toilets without toilet seats... and took thousands of photos, amazed... ;)

I know it sounds unbelievable, but they showed it for a week, two or three.. all houses in Bucha and every toilet without a seat..

6 hours ago, Anton Rize said:

Where did you get this number from?

I live in Russia, try to talk with different people (e.g. taxi drivers, etc.) as much as possible. Also some Russian bloggers say the same - that in Russia there is an apolitical majority and two minorities, pro-war and anti-war.

I can provide you some Russian music videos, as an illustration, how many Russian do not like Putin and his war:

https://youtu.be/RMg0AGE11oo

https://youtu.be/l07MYf2iPr4

https://youtu.be/6vHufynMM1g

Edited November 1Nov 1 by Linkey

11 hours ago, Sensei said:

..and 99% of Russians are masochists..

Let’s not use this thread’s questionable proposition to pile on any one country, and thereby violating rule 2.1

There's a lot to criticize in places where leadership relies on terrorizing its own citizenry, but what is the solution? If authoritarianism brings out a sadistic streak in some, does bringing down a regime solve the problem? Is there a way to address the cynicism while the dictator is still in office?

I think that the emergence of such leadership in various places shows that these traits are lurking in the citizenry to some extent, and are emboldened by the rise of those leaders, which gives them opportunity to recruit more to their view.

It is indeed important to derive this information to Trump. As far as I understand, he really tries to stop the war in Ukraine, and now he plans to attack Venezuela; and Putin, as usual, starts threatening him with nukes. Trump have some very easy possibilities to overcome Putin and make the western democracies the winners - he just needs to upload some videos on youtube with appeal to Russians. The Russians will listen to what he says, and they probably will experience a cognitive dissonance.

12 hours ago, Linkey said:

he just needs to upload some videos on youtube with appeal to Russians. The Russians will listen to what he says

And then Putin will just upload some videos on YouTube of Trump having underage skanky sex workers pissing into his mouth and ramming him from behind with a large chocolate strap-on all with Jeffrey Epstein voyeuristically rubbing one out in the chair beside them.

May I suggest Hail to the Chief playing over and over as the soundtrack? You know, to keep the tone respectful.

1 hour ago, iNow said:

And then Putin will just upload some videos on YouTube of Trump having underage skanky sex workers pissing into his mouth and ramming him from behind with a large chocolate strap-on all with Jeffrey Epstein voyeuristically rubbing one out in the chair beside them.

Ewww! That's not something I would want to watch. 🤮

A little late to the thread.

I don't like the title.

X % of French women are prostitutes?

Y % of Mancunians are drug addicts?

Z% of Men are murderers?

Not a way to start a thread plus I don't buy it. Sadism emerges from multiple elements internal and external, why would being Russian affect that?

For @Linkey

1 hour ago, pinball1970 said:

I don't like the title.

That’s why I expanded the scope of discussion, and later reiterated: the trait is not particular to any one nationality, and we’re not going down that path.

2 hours ago, swansont said:

That’s why I expanded the scope of discussion, and later reiterated: the trait is not particular to any one nationality, and we’re not going down that path.

Ok.

In Russian province cities, the majority of taxi car services use these digits in their phone numbers for calling:

url deleted

I understand that the members of sf deny the prophecies, but what about the Freudian effects?

22 hours ago, Linkey said:

I understand that the members of sf deny the prophecies, but what about the Freudian effects?

Can you expand a little? Are you referring to John's Revelation in the NT?

That was considered to be a reference to Nero.

Freudian effects?

On 11/16/2025 at 2:07 PM, pinball1970 said:

Can you expand a little? Are you referring to John's Revelation in the NT?

Yes, of course. Everybody knows that the number 666 if the "number of Beast". And many Russians like this number.

8 minutes ago, Linkey said:

And many Russians like this number.

Iron Maiden fans like that number too, I don't it means that much

11 minutes ago, Linkey said:

And many Russians like this number

Can you be specific with "many?" Was there a poll? 

I have interacted with three Russians, none of them mentioned that number at any time.

My conclusion therefore is that 100% of Russians do not care or are not aware of that number.