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FWIW, it were the pro-Yanukovych demonstrators back in 2014 who got paid for showing up. I know it because I spoke to one such person. She said she got something like 10 or 20 dollars for it. (Of course she hates Russia now, with a passion.)

And it seems you need to write another post now, about the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria! Truly a wonderful week.

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Substack has several very loud conspiracy fans and professional trolls. Hence the need for writing like this.

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" They don’t go to Russia (there are exceptions, but they are extremely rare and reserved for rather specific professions, such as espionage or organized crime)."

I'm not sure if that's true. Russia is (or used to be until recently) main migration destination for workers from Central Asia and also important for other Russian-speaking neighbors (including Ukrainians). The wages were not as attractive as in the West, however there's no language and barrier, and there were cultural connections.

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True. Ukrainian software developers used to go work in Moscow, for example. It all changed in 2014.

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