It seems completely morally bankrupt... If instead of Russia it was ISIS, would they still send money just so they have cheap gas? Like at what point would they stop? Do the Russians need to be impaling babies and goosestepping through Red Square?
I also don't understand why Ukrainians don't feel a deep sense of betrayal about this
Because the alternative isn't buying gas from somewhere else, it's not buying the gas. This turns a foreign war into a major major domestic issue.
I don't really understand the psychology of it. Are people for instance actively trying to use less gas in their personal lives?
Might have something to do with Russia orchestrated terrorist attack agains Czech munition warehouses that killed two people in 2014[0].
Or the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968[1] - just because the local communist leaders happened to be a bit too much enlightened for their tastes.
Just a few days ago I went past memorial plague for the girl killed in protests against the Soviet invasion in 1969[2][3] - forever 18 years old...
There were lots of flowers, people still remember.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Vrb%C4%9Btice_ammunitio...
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czec...
[2] https://cs.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danu%C5%A1e_Muzik%C3%A1%C5%9...
[3] https://encyklopedie.brna.cz/home-mmb/?acc=profil-osobnosti&...