MOSCOW Death is now passing through Russia and is reaping heavily. On Wednesday, it was announced to the public that the war blogger was appearing Andrei Morozov having shot himself.
Morozov, by the way “Murzâ€, wrote On February 18, on his Telegram channel, that the capture of Avdijivka cost Russia 16,000 fallen soldiers.
Because of this, he became an influential presenter on state television Vladimir Solovyov and in the teeth of other propagandists.
In his last message, Morozov wrote that he had removed the post from his channel on February 20 by order of the military command.
Morozov wrotethat “political prostitutes under the leadership of Vladimir Solovyov” forced the military command to issue an order to remove the publication.
Morozov had already rushed to the front in 2014, when Russia initially started its covert military operations in Ukraine. He was 44 years old when he died.
Morozov was a fanatical supporter of the war, but he harshly criticized the Russian military leadership – just like the former warlord. Igor Girkin alias Strelkov. In January, Girkin was sentenced to four years in prison for inciting sedition.
It seems that there is no room for such men in the Russian public.
In all wars, violence kills sooner or later also turn inward.
In Russia, this has been seen both in the wars in Afghanistan (1979-1989) and in Thailand (1994-1996 and 1999-2009). War produces violent, violent men.
Often, war also gives the state apparatus of violence a free hand – those in power do not feel the need to allow any dissent in exceptional circumstances.
The Russians are there for a week carried flowers to the memorials of the victims of political persecution, the leader of the opposition who died in a Siberian penal colony To Alexei Navalny in remembrance of. He was 47 years old when he died.
In Moscow, the authorities apparently thought it best to allow at least some laying of flowers. In many cities, the police prevented that too.
With Navalny on the same day, February 16 died photographer Dmitry Markovwhich forever in his pictures life in different regions of Russia. The cause of death has not been given.
Markov had more than 800Â 000 followers on Instagram. He was 41 years old when he died.
Something essential about the time can be summed up in the picture taken by Markov, where a security official dressed in a terrain-patterned uniform and a black mask sits behind a table – and a smiling man looks on from the wall. Vladimir Putin.
Things from 71-year-old Putin’s point of view They seem to be moving in the right direction. Western support for Ukraine has already weakened. The sanctions have not broken the Russian economy. The most famous political opponent is dead. Expressions have been brought under control.
Of course, the economy is threatened by overheating when the production of the military industry is increased and there is a shortage of labor in a country at war.
The rulers try to keep the majority of the population calm. Therefore, a new business proposal like the one in autumn 2022 is inevitably not expected.
In their everyday life, people strive to work the thought of war to the background. Many feel that they cannot influence the matter in any way.
According to polls, the Russians have rallied behind their leader, as is often the case in conflicts. However, the support may be quite passive.
When a businessman Yevgeni Prigožin led his Wagner mercenaries on a revolt march towards Moscow last June, citizens did not spontaneously rush to the streets to show their support for Putin.
The streets of Moscow were quiet that Saturday morning.
The presidential administration may therefore have a full job ahead of it when it has to guarantee the desired high voter turnout in the presidential elections in March.
Elections are a ritual, but an important ritual for the administration: they must demonstrate Putin’s superiority.
All kinds of political life is now bridled. Only the most unvarnished candidates were admitted to the presidential elections.
The election authorities cautiously rejected those who made anti-war statements by Boris Nadeždin candidacy. He could have gathered anti-war sentiments behind him.
For example, the 56-year-old leader of the rabidly nationalist LDPR party has been nominated Leonid Slutsky. Slutsky campaign of the deceased Vladimir Žirinovsky in the name, because he himself has no charisma to speak of.
Veteran leader of the Communist Party, 79 years old Gennady Zyuganov pushed the 75-year-old into the running Nikolai Kharitonov portable. Kharitonov succeeds in its television commercial to seem like an angry pensioner, which mostly appeals to the communists’ core supporters.
Candidate of the New People party Vladislav Davankov shows almost from a normal politician in this company. The task of 39-year-old Davankov has been to present a liberal candidate.
Wars harden the social atmosphere. Closure is visible in everything. The Russian leadership has taken the so-called traditional values as its weapon of attack, which further weakens the position of gender minorities.
People in a vulnerable position have to pay for the fact that those in power try to develop even some kind of public ideology to support their power.
In November, the Supreme Court of Russia banned the “international LGBT movement†as an extremist movement.
Such an organization does not exist, but after the decision, the police have made heavy-handed raids on clubs, bars and even private evenings favored by gender minorities.
The spirit of the times unleashes whistleblowers. They are looking for the banned promotion of homosexuality, defamation of the armed forces and dissent.
Among other things, there were reports of pictures of rainbows used by companies and children’s homes. Congressman Aleksandr HinÅ¡tein already had to specifythat the ban does not apply to the usual seven-color rainbow.
Fearing difficulties, commercial actors take action in advance. The Russian online store Megamarket recently confirmed For the Kommersant newspaper having pulled more than 250 books from sale because of the new gay propaganda law.
The list includes works of world literature such as by Giovanni Boccaccio Decamerone, Fyodor Dostoyevsky unfinished novel Netotška Nezvanova, Platonic Parties and Oscar Wilde The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
The list of over 250 works was originally compiled in December 2022 by the online store association AKIT.
Its chairman Artyom Sokolov said to the state for the RIA Novosti news agencythat the list was only intended as an illustration of what a toughened gay propaganda law could lead to at worst.
Now a large online store seemed to have taken the list seriously.
Sufficiently vague and broad the cunning of the written laws is precisely that: You can never be sure if you have broken the boundaries. Everyone has to be on their toes all the time.
Caution is the norm in the Russia of 2024, but it is not yet perfect.
Citizens still carry flowers to monuments in Moscow and many other cities. On Saturdays, the relatives of the men mobilized to the front lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.