Ukraine on the offense, I’m a happier Russian

“You guys are fucked up (ohueli)”, my close Russian friend wrote on our messaging chat. There are five of us on that chat. I mentioned it in a couple of my stories. We’re all Western educated. We’ve been close friends for over two decades. We worked in the West and we worked in Russia.

My friend was responding to the two of us rejoicing and ridiculing Russia’s military retreat, courtesy of Ukraine’s supposed gains. I say “supposed” because I don’t want to overreact to the news. There’s propaganda and fake news on both sides. But it seems that this time it’s real — Russia’s retreating. Ukraine is gaining.

This friend (the one stunned at how we are happy to see Russia lose) is anti-West. I’m simplifying. He lives in the West (the irony!). It’s not that he is pro-Putin, but he is anti-West. He loves to talk about how empires (meaning America) are evil and yet how keeping and expanding an empire (meaning Russia) is the only way to survive. Sometimes he goes off the rails and rants angrily about the West.

We have hundreds of these chats.

I wasn’t the most vocal one today. My other friend was. He’s in Moscow. He’s an entrepreneur. He’s the one ridiculing Russia, its regime, and its military. He keeps saying that the Kremlin’s biggest headache is not Ukraine at all. He says it’s a matter of time before Moscow (meaning literally Moscow) will have to defend from Ukraine’s offense.