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𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘬𝘴𝘦𝘪’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧, 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺

Arestovich himself would probably give you a laughing emoji for that one.

The occasional tirades against the hapless peasantry of Ukraine that he drops are honestly harsher than anything you would get from Soloviev, Lavrov, Simonyan, etc etc. Than you have the frankly hilarious fact that he flatly refuses to speak Ukrainian in a country where speaking Russian might as well be illegal. I've read some speculations that Arestovich may be positioning himself to be a leader that is acceptable to Moscow in a post war Ukrainian rump state but I feel like Arestovichs disdain for the Ukrainian identity would actually make him unacceptable to Moscow if anything and he is smart enough to know that.

As for weather any of Arestovichs former nazibolish/Duginist convictions were true I think they were but no longer are. I already posted this quote from him from 2009 once before but since it's relevant to the conversation I'll throw it up again:

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘰-𝘚𝘢𝘹𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢 - 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘺.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰-𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰-𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘰-𝘚𝘢𝘹𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘶𝘣 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴."

My guess is he once, maybe around 20 years ago identified with the Russian world, perhaps when he was Ukrainian GRU he didn't even see himself as anti Russian. Being a genuinely smart enough guy who saw the world for what it was as evidenced by the above quote he knew the RF was a house of cards. Following that awakening the only natural intellectual route open to him was the path of disillusioned nihilism and Arestovich definitely raidiates disillusioned nihilism.

He has contempt for the Ukrainian hapless peasantry that stubbornly insist on being lied to and led to the slaughter, he has total contempt for Moscow as well but it's expressed much more subtly. That is he knows damn well what he says about the Ukrainian authorities applies to the people running Russia as well and this is proven by the fact that Russian patriots express a low key admirations for Arestovich that they never express for the Kremlin. The critiques that Arestovich makes of Ukrainians and Kiev are critiques that would never come from Kremlinites. Ever. And it needs to be said again, Arestovich knows that, he knows what he is saying would never be acceptable to Moscow and would never make him any friends amongst the feudal oligarchy. He doesn't care what they think anymore than what Ukrainian peasants think. Personally I would be very interested to hear Arestovich speaking frankly about the Russian authorities one of these days. On his telegram he has posted tons of mundane and banal nonsense about how Putin personally is trying to impose his will on Ukraine via murdering children but this strikes as analogous to Ivan Karazamov publishing pro Orthodox church tracts that he himself didn't even remotely believe in but the clergy quite liked. His brother Aloysha who was a genuine believer didn't hold it against him at all and further more Aloysha and Ivan loved each other as brothers all the same.

Imo the ability to churn out nonsense you don't even believe in at all one day than dropping massive truth bombs with a smirk on your face about how peasants prefer pretty lies while being led to massacre the next is a symptom of complete disillusioned nihilism. Arestovich is a modern Dostoevsky character.

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Shooter 6's avatar

"Tell the truth, but have one foot in the stirrup." -- Turkish proverb.

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