Evolving

 That would be silly! I mean a Third World War or, at least, a long

land war in Europe between Russia and its Western neighbors as

certain military leaders have suggested. With conscription looming!!

Looking at things from a bit further than current squabbles, what is happening

is the co-existence of very dangerous weapons and a global information

and exchange network. And global shopping.

I was actually surprised. Watching Travelling with Russell on Youtube, two of 

the major grocery chains in Russia are respectively French and German. The very

largest is German. Meanwhile, Germany is sending arms to Ukraine. Totally

schizo. And you can buy an iphone15 easily enough, thanks to Vietnamese and Indian

middlemen.

Russia has great shopping malls. Americans have moved on to Big Box stores like

Walmart and Costco they can just drive up to, but the climate keeps Malls attractive

in Russia... and Canada, as well.

I myself have been spending my days trying to master Synfig (developed in German)

from a team of Russian animators who were the only ones clever enough to use it.

(It is computerized rather than hand-drawn animation, and requires a lot of math).And I 

often look scientific things up inWikipedia in translation from the Russian because it is 

always to the point.

So when a disagreement emerges for Russia, their nuclear weapons are the elephant 

in the room and they feel obliged to stand on it. Are they threatening us with them. 

Yes and no, the weapons are there.

As for regime change in Russia, they have evolved from from pur et dur communism.

Maybe the kind of triple entendre about democratic values we live with looks really 

weird in translation. On a day-to-day basis, President Putin seems out and about talking to 

schoolchildren and attending various openings and commemorations. Not really the

stuff of dictatorial nightmares...