Note another evident failure in reading comprehension.
"Russian intelligence failed IF it expected that invading Russian soldiers would be 'welcomed as liberators' by anyone in Ukraine."
Please look up the meaning of the word 'if'. Please refer to the context of my post.
Please note that I replied to a writer who claimed that the Russians 'honestly' expected to be 'welcomed as liberators'.
Please attempt to grasp that I was implicitly pointing out that such an expectation, if held, was delusional.
Under the circumstances, it's impracticable to conduct a free and fair survey of Russian public opinion on the war (excuse me),
the 'special military operation'. But one may infer what Russia's government really perceives--or fears--of public opinion.
If there are only a few anti-war Russians (as you apparently yearn to believe), why would Russia's government criminalize about
all criticism of the war, refusing even to allow Russians to describe it as a war instead of as a 'special military operation'?
Why would Russia's government act like it's so frightened of a supposedly tiny minority of anti-war dissidents?
In reality, Russia's government is acting like it's afraid that there's already a significant minority of Russians (including
disproportionately the most educated) who could form the core of a growing movement against the war and Putin.
I am not claiming or implying, however, that a Russian anti-war movement is likely to prevail.
The Russian state has many powerful tools of control, disinformation, and repression, which will kept most Russians in line.
Even in supposed democracies, anti-war movements seldom prevail and never quickly.
Most of my Russian friends (not yours) had low opinions of Putin even before this war.
And that includes a woman whose aunt lives in the Crimea and approves of its annexation by Russia.
Yet she (my friend, not her aunt) regards the chorus of pro-Putin propaganda as disgusting.