Russia's diplomats were once a key part of President Putin's foreign policy strategy. But that has all changed.
In the years leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomats lost their authority, their role reduced to echoing the Kremlin's aggressive rhetoric.
BBC Russian asks former diplomats, as well as ex-Kremlin and White House insiders, how Russian diplomacy broke down.
I've seen this on reddit and other hellholes from time to time
most people tend to have a degree of separation from it, like early on in the war when people were calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine (which would have necessarily meant NATO strikes into Ukraine or Russian territory, which would put us at the closest humanity has ever been to a nuclear exchange); about mid-way through the war when some countries were trying to form a "coalition of the willing" (article is more recent than when I was thinking though) to enter Ukraine that wasn't technically NATO forces but like, my god, you're really cutting it fucking close there; and some people nowadays are musing if F-16s could be used from NATO territory
there's also been some vague threats from time to time over Kaliningrad but luckily that's never escalated to outright military rhetoric, at least not yet.