A few years back on one of my many visits to Cyprus I made friends with a former Russian fighter pilot and his very pretty partner. We saw the New Year in together, drank loads of Vodka, and I was able to show him some genuine Cypriot places to visit. We have kept in touch by email, social media was not his thing, and yesterday I sent an email just asking how he was in these troubled times as I suspect communications could be monitored.
His reply was that there were no problems in Russia and that the war was necessary to prevent a nuclear one.
It seems that 90% of Russia only views/listens to the state media, which reports a highly different view as to what is actually going on. I will give it a few weeks before I communicate with him to find out if the economic sanctions have had any effect on him. He loves to travel around Europe, which will be extremely difficult for him now, plus the fact the rouble will probably be next to worthless soon.
The software video editor that I use and like so much is made in Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCv2d4YxZ4vrFuZou0W9L4A
I keep getting spam about Russian women wanting sex. Things are getting hard up there.
He probably has to be a politically correct Russian especially a military guy. What else could he say? Our emails are not private even in the US.
Yeah, likely a victim of his own country's propaganda. Sadly, he probably doesn't trust news from other countries. Though I suppose you could ask.