Do the Russians love their children too?

Some Swedish commentators actually believe that the Russians would overthrow Putin if too many Russian soldiers came home in body bags in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Come again?

No, Messr. Commentators, that was how *American liberals* reacted to the Vietnam War. Much, much later, right-of-center Americans started to react like that, too. Despite that, they didn´t vote for the Peace & Freedom Party. They were more likely to vote for Donald Trump...

Back in 2002, some nice liberal commentator on Swedish TV (was it Stig Fredriksson?) commented on the Moscow theater hostage crisis that perhaps ordinary Russians would now wake up and start to wonder why Chechens act in this way, and realize that it´s the terrible Russian war on Chechnya that breeds terrorism, and if only Russia could become more peaceful and withdraw its troops, Chechen terrorism would surely stop. 

Why did the liberal commentator reason like this? Because that´s how a *nice liberal* would look at the situation, of course! When nice liberals get attacked by terrorists, they immidiately ask themselves what caused the nice young men with machine guns to turn terrorist, forgive them, and work for a better world.

But of course, that´s not how most people in the world react. That´s certainly not how *Russians* react. Nor did they, back in 2002. 

Most people just want revenge. 

So what would happen if Russian soldiers would be killed in the Ukraine? Most Russians would demand revenge against the "khokhols", "Nazis" or whatever they call the Ukrainians at the moment. Besides, Russians are convinced that Ukraine is really Novorossiya and that Kiev is the cradle of Russia. 

Now, it´s probably true that Putin´s popularity is waning. But in favor of whom? Alexei Navalny? That´s not likely. While Navalny probably isn´t a liberal (he only masquerades as one to fool nice liberal commentators), he is certainly pro-Western. In other words, like Boris Yeltsin. And Yeltsin was...let´s just say, not very popular. 

Most opposition to Putin will come from *even harder nationalists*, perhaps from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Uncouth guys who don´t understand the finer points of war game diplomacy. More into massive drone strikes against Lviv, and so forth. 

You see, Russians are just as everyone else. Except, of course, nice Swedish liberals. 

So be careful what you wish for!