Привет русские друзья,As one of Russians, love your point of view!I, for once, haven't changed my mind about this beautiful country and the wonderful people I met there when I had the privilege to spend 3 too short months in between Moscow and St Petersburg in 2015 ! I'm still passionate about your History, I still admire your resilience while facing harsh times, and I still take great pride using some good old Smirnov vodka in my cocktails haha !
Do not get fooled by the shameful amount of disrespect or hate some ignorant Идиоты spread online in the wake of the current world events, for you'd be surprised there's much more quiet, literate and curious people even here in the Western world, which I know quite well for I'm myself French, than you'd think of that keep up a positive opinion towards you despite the propaganda we have to face on a daily basis here as well. Just like you I suppose.
Whatever some will say, keep true to yourselves, embrace this русская душа many of us facing identity crisis in the West envy you for, and honour the memory of your fallen soldiers. Do not feel ashamed about events you have no control over, nor the need to amend yourself for your presidents decisions. Wether you support him or not, you've got the right to have your personal reasons for that, and you deserve respect. On a personal note, I believe there's not a single high end politician anywhere in the world that didn't had some blood spilled over them hands while being in charge anyway, so there's that eh 😉.
Anyhow, God bless Russia and the Russian people ! Whatever time it takes for things to resolve, I am convinced victory will be yours in the end and that we will have the opportunity to rebuild our diplomatic ties at some point. And by then, I'll be the first in line to visit the many parts of the Motherland I still got to discover !
Awesome ! Я так вам благодарен ! I did notice a lot of what I'd politely qualify as utter дрянь from a bunch old farts from France popping up, and this motivated me to state than Hey ! There's still normal people valorising mutual respect in my homeland.
Do not lose time trying to convince them with actual historical facts, they hold no proper arguments apart calling you Nazis, Communist enforcers, yada yada yada Putin was the son of Hitler and Satan and so on... It's especially funny when you think these guys probably clapped their hands for your president when he opposed the war in Irak alongside Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder in 2003. Hypocrisy at the finest !
Now for a quick vocabulary tip ! In France, my generation simply refers to this people above 38 years old as "boomers", since most of them were born near a period called the baby boom, at a time when France was still safe and pretty cool to leave in and they basically fucked everything up to the point we're about to become a third world country in the near future. It's a fun way to put an emphasis on the fact they're becoming old, disconnected from the reality and that we certainly won't pay them any of the respect you gotta give your elders normally.
They hate the expression and it quickly start them off usually, so have fun practicing, За верных друзей ! ;D