And then everybody in the office clapped.

You’re clearly not Russian

Thanks for recognizing this. Yes, most people in russia aren’t “russian”, they have just been assimilated into the amorphous imperial identity.

nor have lived in Russia for any considerate amount of time

Oh wow, something new to learn about myself I guess. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

I was born in russia, and the current behavior of russia is downstream of the political system that is dominant in russia, which itself is downstream of the russian culture (the sum total of the ideas in people’s heads and their interplay). Things got this way because russian people let things get this way. https://vasily.cc/blog/the-russian-template/

That “if” is doing so much work there

On the bright side, his family might get a solid chunk of dough instead of an abusive husband/father. If they’re lucky, that is