FLASH
Shkruar nga Stefan Scholl
The 2025 budget deficit had ballooned to nearly $50 billion by August, three times higher than planned. The fact that the government is discussing new tax increases is not improving the atmosphere...
In the morning, Café Schokoladniza on Moscow's Gagarin Street is still empty, and the voice of the woman in her forties, two tables away, lingers for a few moments. "...Sascha got a passport, but then this Covid came. And then February 2022, and they entered Ukraine, for what? ..." Her annoyance fades again and she continues to speak in a low voice.
According to the latest poll by the Levada Center for Public Opinion Research, 78 percent of Russians still support their military's actions in Ukraine. But only 27 percent are in favor of continuing the fighting, a record low after three and a half years of the "special warfare operation."
The war in Ukraine, how Russia's mood is being destroyed
Daily life continues, but more slowly than before, just like the victories from the eastern front of Ukraine. The fact that the names of the places of daily conquests since November 2022 represent the capture of only 1% of Ukrainian territory can still be found on Azerbaijani news portals in Russia. According to Levada, as of March, 1/3 of Russians were already bypassing their state's digital censorship.
As Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and his military launch more and more combat drones toward Kiev and now Warsaw, morale on the home front is collapsing. Even Kremlin propagandists are showing signs of discontent: Russia looks tired.
"Where there is death, there are also diseases and their carriers," blogger Anastasia Kashevarova wrote in early August about daily life at the front. The problem is that soon after the war began, they began recruiting prisoners infected with HIV, hepatitis or tuberculosis, they say, along with racist suspicions.
Since 2022, such complaints have often resulted in prosecutions for “defamation of the army,” and now even loyal portals are quoting Kashevarova. “The problem has crossed the borders of the frontline zone and threatens the civilian population,” warns Tsargrad.tv, while gazeta.ru disrespectfully discusses the rat bites that cause fever in the toes of elite Chechen fighters Akhmat. The arrogance and holy rage of the propaganda superpower reveal cracks that extend to the upper echelons of the establishment.
Russia's economy is also suffering from the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, metals magnate Alexei Mordashov complained that steel production had fallen by 25 to 30 percent, and that of the timber industry by up to four-fifths. The figures offered by Russia’s second-richest man, who owns a fortune worth $28 billion according to Forbes, and also tops international sanctions lists, differ disastrously from official claims of growth. Even Putin’s inner circle now seems reluctant to shower the commander-in-chief with figures on economic success. Just on Monday, Putin complained about official growth of just 1.1 percent in the first seven months of the year: “Is this what we wanted?”
The 2025 budget deficit had ballooned to nearly $50 billion by August, three times higher than planned. The fact that the government is discussing new tax increases is not improving the atmosphere. And according to the party-line newspaper Izvestia, there are gasoline shortages at gas stations in more than a dozen regions. While drivers are not yet in line, fuel prices are rising at a pace similar to wholesale prices, which have increased by a third in some cases since the beginning of June. The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper quotes an expert who attributes this largely to Ukrainian drone attacks. Drivers complain that at gas stations in the Moscow area, they risk getting counterfeit gasoline when they go to fill up.
But no one is taking to the streets, no one is protesting. Russia has become even quieter. Pro-Kremlin political scientist Sergei Karaganov, who in a 2023 article called for the West to be brought to its knees by nuclear strikes, now writes that the heated phase of the conflict with the West on the battlefield of Ukraine is coming to an end, without Russia achieving an epochal victory. He seems disappointed. / Adapted from Fr.de /
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