Russian Anti-war YouTuber Out of Israel

I refer to Максим Кац (Maxim Katz) a Russian YouTuber based in Israel.  He describes himself this way:

На этом канале видео про политику, урбанистику, государственное управление. Стараюсь их делать спокойными и обоснованными научными данными.

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Я Максим Кац, 8 лет занимаюсь оппозиционной политикой: сам был депутатом, управлял многими оппозиционными избирательными кампаниями — от штаба Навального в 2013 до муниципальной кампании Яблока в Петербурге в 2019. Хочу сделать Россию лучше и избраться мэром Москвы когда-нибудь :)

And no, I don't speak Russian, but with the help of Google Translate, this is what I read:

This channel has videos about politics, urbanism, public administration. I try to make them [sound] calm and [use] sound scientific data.

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I’m Maxim Katz, I’ve been involved in opposition politics for 8 years: I myself was a deputy, managed many opposition election campaigns – from Navalny’s headquarters in 2013 to Yabloko’s municipal campaign in St. Petersburg in 2019. I want to make Russia better and be elected mayor of Moscow someday :)

So how and why is this non-Russian speaker recommending a channel that is only voiced in Russian?

First the how, and half the why.  My wife Вера (Vera) ;-) watches a lot of Russian programming on the TV, and since we got a "smart" one not too long ago, with a finger touch on the controller it's possible to transfer the content of a YouTube video to the "big screen."  Enroute from the upstairs to my home office via the living room, I saw the above figure in the flesh speaking passionately in Russian, with well-composed English subtitles dancing across the bottom of the screen.  

The attraction was magnetic: I was glued to the screen by his urgent delivery and the content I read.  To me, the experience was like one of those foreign films where you get a much better sense of the story by hearing it in the original language while you absorb the subtitle content.

And what content!  From about the time of the war's start, Maxim and his "team" started to title most videos in English, and use well-composed subtitles, beginning with "Why is it impossible to win the war with Ukraine?" on February 28th.

In this one, he uses his background in city planning (urbanism) to describe the process in which construction trades work together to erect complex structures like airport terminals under the guiding hand of a master planner who knows what he's doing.  Unskilled workers who are given tools they don't know how to use and who are simply transferred to the worksite with no plan or direction create nothing but a dumping ground for materiel.

The same is true of a military organization.  Planning at every level is required in order to achieve success, and indeed it is essential to have a metric for success, for "winning."  He then argues that when the conditions of victory are undefined, "winning" is impossible.

The evidence he marshals for grand mal failure at every level of the Russian effort, beginning at the top (Putin) is cogent and compelling.  And I have only described one aspect of this initial post.

In another post -- "Eight Myths That Led Russia to War" -- on March 10th, Maxim delves, admittedly with informed speculation, into the mind of Putin and the magic, fantastical thinking, and beliefs, that drove him to begin this mad, fratricidal conflict.  It's worth a look.

Frankly, they all are.  Whether Maxim is discussing the raw, fratricidal nature of the war, which causes him to mourn the deaths of "our people" on both sides, or the utterly devastating impact of sanctions on Russian society and economy, he brings a true, insider perspective to these terrible events, and lets one see them through Russian eyes, and feel them in a compassionate Russian heart.