Ukraine war: Life appears normal in Moscow… but a sinister undercurrent exists as Putin’s conflict drags on | World News
Moscow can be stunningly beautiful in the fall, its parks bursting with seasonal colors under deep blue skies. One last glorious explosion before winter closes – but behind it all is growing fear and tension.
Aside from billboards commemorating the heroes of Russia’s “special military operation”, you would never know this is the capital of a country at war.
Life goes on. But beneath the façade is an increasingly sinister current. The number of people going out is significantly less, especially men of combat age. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled the country.
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Many were left unwilling to leave their homes for fear Moscow’s countless cameras would capture them with facial recognition technology. Maneuver of Vladimir Putin rolled up men in wheelchairs, the elderly, even the dead received the call up. No one is safe.
Muslims fear the knock on the door to send their father, son or husband to training camps for a war they don’t understand and still have no convincing explanation for.
And they knew it wouldn’t be good. Why does their president need hundreds of thousands more troops?
Putin sell its special military operation as something remote and secluded, fought by professional soldiers and contractors. Those who were delusional enough to still believe received another shock this week.
Putin has done what no other Russian president has done since Second World War by declaring martial law. He did so on land he had stolen from Ukraine but also allowed a creepy kind of “martial law” over the rest of Russia.
He gave Russia’s local governments control over movement, assembly, communications, transportation, even the right to resettle people. Laws designed solely for use in war were dropped to give the government more control if they needed to.
Russians are tired of being asked by foreigners why they are doing this. The protests were brutally quelled. Police now regularly stop people on the street to check their phones for interesting content. Russia is importing surveillance technology from China that in the not-too-distant future could render dissent, let alone revolution or regime change.
Muscovites knew it could only get worse. The government’s hold on society and the economic impact of this war as well. The Russians have weathered sanctions better than Western policymakers had hoped but they are hurting now. Prices are rising and there is a shortage of many goods. The specter of inflation and rations looms.
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Those old enough remember the seventies and dread the return of those days. But in Soviet times there was at least one ideology that many believed in. This time there was only a tsar with grotesque fantasies of a greater Russia and the ambitions and greed of the corrupt old men around him.
There is no end in sight, because it is no longer clear what the goal is. Russia’s original war goal failed. Has Putin replaced them with any other goals he can tackle? Or will this continue indefinitely as Russia sinks into a winter of repression and permanent economic decline?