The lies from Kremlin spokespeople are now preposterously obvious. When Russian forces withdraw from occupied territory, horrendous war crimes are being revealed. Russian soldiers have committed murder, rape and kidnapping, they have pillaged and destroyed the villages and towns they were supposed to "liberate", and the shocking images that we see, with corpses of civilians littering the streets of ruined cities, hundreds of innocent non-combatants in shallow mass graves, and the nightmare stories from survivors, are impossible to forget.
Russia is no longer a nation worthy of any respect. Russia is no longer a nation that deserves a place in the international community. They can no longer be trusted with a military. The world will remember, and there is no way for Russia to save face. A government that sanctions war crimes of this magnitude, and tries to pretend they never happened even in the face of indisputable evidence, is thoroughly and irredeemably evil, and needs not only be removed from power, but prevented from having any kind of further interaction with humanity. A lot of change and a lot of time will be required before Russia can once again be treated as equals in the international arena.
Russia is now sullied, shamed, outcast, a nation I will henceforth despise and mistrust for its inability to rein in a madman with delusions of restoring a former glory of the Soviet era which is nothing but a mirage, a falsehood based on revisionist views that have no connection to reality. The blame rests not only with Vladimir Putin, but with his entire chain of command, and to a considerable extent with a large part of the Russian people, who have been wilfully deluded into believing his lies.
We will not forget.
