I remember reading about your aunt when I study SHIELD. I did not know she was your aunt then. Those are not the kind of stories they tell. But maybe they should. We would all do best to recognize the humanity in our leaders. I suspect it helps them see it in themselves.
It was a bad time, when I was young. When the wall was falling, and when it fell. For years our suffering was a joke to the west. All these talks of foreign aid that we never received. We were a bargaining tool. Like they were trying to kill us off to pressure our leaders, who never cared. Embargoes that hurt the people more than it hurt the Kremlin. There were comedians who joke about how we are starving, you know. They think we are stupid and we don't know we are suffering, that we bring it on ourselves. When the wall fell and the union collapsed, there was aid for a time. But we were abandoned eventually to our civil wars and our broken economy. What we have, what we built, it was hard fought. And it wasn't perfect. But it was ours.
I understand why the young ones protest. They think how bad things are, they think it cannot be worse. Because they don't remember. They don't remember how bad things were when the Russians first leave, or how much better things wore before the Russians come. They don't know how fragile it is, our self-determination. They don't know how dangerous it is to demonstrate division and weakness when you are surrounded by much bigger enemies than you who will take your land and your resources if you give them an opportunity. People who come in with promises and pick your pockets. Profiteers. Obviously the wars are bloody and violent, but we must preserve our sovereignty and remove the threat of outside influence. This is most important. Our country needs leadership and a population that will respect it. We cannot be so angry at the farmers that we welcome wolves into our henhouse.