Russia. Standard of living

In one of our articles, we have already examined numerous examples of the Russian regime’s lies and noted that Russians practically live in an alternative information reality, often lacking the opportunity to hear anything but lies. Therefore, they simply do not know that there are many countries where people live much better, and where the level of lawlessness is significantly lower. In this article, we will present a viewpoint alternative to the pro-government one; let everyone familiarize themselves with it before deciding whether Russia needs a change of power or not.

Of course, modern Russia has its strengths as well. These include a fairly high quality of internet in major cities, a developed and convenient banking system, the presence of advanced companies like Yandex providing modern services, and so on. Following the points listed below, one should not picture Russia as a true hell; the country has strengths and every chance for a breakthrough in the future. However, one should not close one’s eyes to the glaring, monstrous aspects of life in the country created by the authoritarian regime and statists. To prove our points, we will use scientific rankings that account for many factors and rate the country on specific indicators in comparison to others, but we will also provide concrete examples.

Development and prospects

In the article on standard of living indicators, we listed the main indices concerning the standard of living in the country and described them in more detail. Here, we will simply note modern Russia’s position in them. Right away, we note that if we want to raise the standard of living, we must compare it with developed countries — such as neighboring Finland, Sweden, or Norway, which are also located in a cold climate. You might be offered to compare Russia with Africa — as if to say, see, we could live even worse. This would indicate that the level of Russian managers is on par with the worst African dictatorships, since their regimes are suggested as a benchmark for comparison. Social democrats, on the other hand, propose catching up with the best countries in the world (for which we will first have to acknowledge the fact of lagging behind), rather than asserting ourselves through comparison with poor states.

In the Human Development Index for 2020, Russia ranked 52nd in the world — lower than Palau and Kazakhstan, but higher than Turkey and Belarus¹. This is not the worst result even in Europe, yet it is still far from the top twenty. The HDI mainly touches upon GNI per capita indicators, life expectancy, and the level of education attained by citizens. If more indicators are taken into account, as done, for example, by the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index, Russia drops to 76th place for 2020 — below Vietnam, Colombia, and Cabo Verde². Furthermore, although Russians receive an education, its quality level remains debatable, which we will address further below.

We should note right away that the data for the HDI and the Prosperity Index are given for 2020, when the nomenklatura had not yet dragged the country into a destructive war, after which Russia’s level of development will decline. After all, Russia will no longer have access to many technologies and components. Many manufacturing facilities that were advanced in their fields have closed down, and specialists are losing their jobs. Various modern goods have become unavailable for purchase in Russia. There will also be problems with selling products manufactured in Russia — the European and North American markets are virtually closing, despite Europe having been one of the country’s largest trading partners. Who will compensate for these losses? The question is rhetorical. For example, in March 2023, Russians were already offered to compensate for Gazprom’s losses in Europe³.

At the end of 2023, Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina stated that the Russian economy cannot cope with the tasks of development: “imagine that the economy is a car. If you try to drive faster than designed by the car’s construction and press the gas with all your might, the engine will sooner or later overheat. We won’t get far. We might drive fast, but not for long”⁴. While before the war in Ukraine the Russian economy was developing reasonably well through cooperation with developed countries, now many Russian companies will not be able to interact with European ones, the US has restricted exports of technological products for sectors of Russian industry, the EU introduced an embargo on deliveries of goods and technologies for the aviation and space sectors to Russia, and South Korea suspended exports of strategic goods to Russia⁵. As a result, Alexander Shirov, Director of the Institute of Economic Forecasting (IEF) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that the forecasted growth rates of the Russian economy “will not allow maintaining the competitiveness of the Russian economy”⁶, and the Central Bank also forecasts a “decrease in potential GDP”⁷.

Living conditions

The World Population Review portal calculates the average median income of families in different countries (as the creators of the portal note, half of the families in the country have an income higher than the specified figure, and half — lower)⁸. The top ten world leaders in this indicator in 2021 consist of Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Denmark, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Kuwait, and the Netherlands — ranging from $52,493 to $39,584 per year per family. For comparison, in Russia this figure is $11,724 per year per family. According to data from the Numbeo portal, the ten countries with the highest monthly income after tax deduction consist of Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Qatar, and Hong Kong (from $6,159 to $3,061 per month)⁹. Russia ranks 60th in the world with $623 per month. Defenders of authoritarianism try to explain such a difference by claiming that in countries with high incomes “everything is more expensive”, but data from the same Numbeo show that incomes in Switzerland are nearly 10 times higher than in Russia, while the cost of an average meal in an inexpensive restaurant is higher by about 3.5 times¹⁰. In Sweden, the average salary ($2,964) is almost 5 times higher than the Russian one, while the cost of the same meal is only 1.4 times higher.

The average pension in Russia, according to Sovcombank, as of January 1, 2022, was 18,084 rubles¹¹. The amount of allowance for disabled persons since childhood of Group I and disabled children, according to RIA Novosti, is about 16,600 rubles per month¹². The minimum wage in mid-2022 was 15,279 rubles¹³. At the same time, the subsistence minimum in the country in 2022 was about 12.5 thousand rubles (RIA Novosti)¹⁴, and if we recall that average pension figures include the fat pensions of the party/state elites (thus, the media wrote that 300 thousand rubles a month is a small pension for a Russian senator¹⁵), we thus see that a significant number of people in Russia sometimes cannot even provide themselves with the bare necessities. At the same time, in social-democratic Sweden, the average pension in 2022 is about 1,820 euros per month¹⁶, that is, taking an exchange rate where one euro equals 60 rubles, we get about 110 thousand rubles per month. In total, in the ranking of the standard of living of retirees for 2023, Russia took 39th place out of 44¹⁷.

The official poverty line in Russia in 2022 was set at 13,762 rubles¹⁸. That is, if you had a mere 5 euros a day, according to Russian statistics you were not poor. Russian state statistics regularly report a decrease in the number of poor people, but this is achieved by changing the rules for defining poverty¹⁹. For comparison, in the US in 2023, the poverty line was $14,891 per year²⁰ (for instance, in Germany the figures are similar — 1,148 euros per month²¹), meaning that if your salary is at the level of 110,000 rubles per month, in the US you are considered poor. Moreover, as we noted above, the difference in prices is not that substantial. Overall, according to the Quality of Life Index by Numbeo, Russia ranks 70th among 83 countries²².

The Our World in Data portal calculates the average indicator of the total number of hours citizens spend at work per year in a given country, meaning that various kinds of days off, vacations, and so forth are taken into account here²³. As we can see, in countries like Germany or Sweden the length of working hours per person is decreasing, whereas in Russia it remains at the level of the 1950s–60s in developed countries.

Since the 1960s, life expectancy in Russia has been growing much slower than in developed countries (for example, for men it is more than 4 times slower, and for women almost 3 times slower than in France), and Russians live 9 years less than the norm that usually corresponds to a comparable GDP²⁴.

Schoolchildren are forced to study in difficult conditions. Every third school in Russia is in need of major repairs²⁵. In every tenth school building in rural Russia in 2022 there was no central heating (in some cases, workers complaining about the cold are fired²⁶), and 12% lacked running water and sewage. Money for the purchase of textbooks is insufficient (yet sufficient for bombs and propaganda, as we will see below), so schoolchildren sometimes study from photos of assignments taken from those who managed to get textbooks²⁷. While guests at the Kremlin are treated to langoustines and Kamchatka crab lasagna²⁸, school meals are extremely meager — thus, in 2022 in Chuvashia, the portion weight was 31 grams²⁹. According to Gazeta.ru, more than a third of Russian schoolchildren consider the food in school cafeterias terrible, citing that it is tasteless³⁰. Complaints about school food overall are heard by almost 90% of parents. 12% of parents complained about the quality of food to higher authorities. Up to half of the lunches end up in the trash, and a senator of the Federation Council stated that “we organize child nutrition poorly in a number of schools, it is tasteless, freeze-dried food. Children don’t eat it”³¹.

The Russian school is a place where people encounter violence on a constant basis. 52 percent of students and 70 percent of teachers have faced bullying at school³². More than 20% of schoolchildren are victims of systematic bullying — that is, more than one in five³³. Thus, in 2023, a fifth-grader was “initiated into roosters” in the restroom of a Moscow school³⁴, while in Nizhny Tagil, a high school student forced a third-grader to his knees, demanded that he kiss his hand, and held a metal object to his throat³⁵. School staff are supposed to fight this, but often turn out to be no better — for instance, in 2023 in Kopeysk, a teacher forced a child to his knees saying “I’ll piss on you right now”, while classmates filmed it on video³⁶. This is far from the only educator “raising” children through violence and humiliation (that is, in reality breaking their psyche) — in Tolyatti, one teacher forced students to eat paper³⁷, and in 2019 in Irkutsk, students were forced to eat standing up because of a broken chair³⁸.

Russians found themselves deprived of many goods that they enjoyed and that people around the world enjoy. McDonald’s and IKEA left the Russian market, as well as companies such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Nike, Adidas, Apple, Mars, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and so on³⁹. The exit of companies like Airbus and Boeing will lead to a significantly higher risk of flight accidents. Russians faced problems with earning ad revenue on YouTube and Google. Also, citizens of the Russian Federation cannot use Visa and MasterCard cards, and the country’s disconnection from SWIFT led to Russians being unable to pay for many services and purchases abroad, or having to spend a lot of time and additional funds bypassing these restrictions. The online game stores Steam and PlayStation Store are no longer available. A platform like Airbnb became unavailable as well. Many foreign movies are no longer shown in Russian movie theaters.

Many Russians are deprived of the right to travel abroad so that they do not see how people live there. Thus, in 2022, Delovoy Peterburg wrote that about 120 thousand people in Saint Petersburg alone were forbidden to travel abroad⁴⁰. In January 2023, according to TASS, about 8 million Russians turned out to be restricted from leaving the country due to debts⁴¹, and according to Izvestia, during the nine months of 2022, 10.9 million enforcement proceedings with restrictions on the right to leave the country were issued against Russian citizens⁴². However, the list is far from limited to this — leaving the country is also prohibited for many law enforcement officers, employees of design bureaus and defense enterprises, and military personnel — those categories who have access to something classified as a “state secret”⁴³. They can face up to 7 years in prison for leaving the country. But thanks to the policy of statists, many countries themselves have now stopped issuing visas to Russians (Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and many others)⁴⁴. According to VCIOM poll results, only 2% of Russians hold a Schengen visa; in 2022, more than 70% of the country’s citizens did not have a passport for international travel⁴⁵. At the same time, 80% stated that they had not been abroad in the last 5 years⁴⁶. Russians do not have the opportunity to travel and cannot see what is happening in other countries (instead consuming the statists’ propaganda claims about the dire situation in them). Meanwhile, in the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, more than 40% of people have traveled to more than 10 countries, and in Sweden, this figure reaches as high as 57%⁴⁷. Even in South Africa and Kenya, more than 20% of people have traveled abroad.

Russian education is at a low level and is not valued abroad. According to an assessment by Argumenty i Fakty, “nobody in the West needs us”, and there are a number of specialties where a Russian diploma is not recognized due to a large difference in teaching approaches⁴⁸. RIA Novosti wrote that “for 98 percent of HR managers, if they see a university name on a resume that they cannot find in international rankings within two minutes, your resume does not exist”⁴⁹. At the same time, there is not a single Russian university in the top 100 of the AD Scientific Index for 2023⁵⁰, and globally, Russian education ranks 32nd (lower than South Africa and Iran)⁵¹.

Russian sports teams and the national team have been deprived of the right to compete in a vast number of international competitions — in 2023, Russians cannot even support their national team at international tournaments. Almost all international competitions that were supposed to take place in Russia have been canceled⁵². Russia has also been banned from participating in Eurovision⁵³. National teams are losing their participants, becoming weaker as a result — thus, in chess alone and in 2023 alone, 104 chess players renounced Russian sports citizenship⁵⁴. Russian athletes in Olympic sports are changing citizenship just as en masse⁵⁵. Remember this when you encounter unsatisfactory results from our national teams.

Infrastructure and emergency services

Ratings regarding infrastructure indicators demonstrate far from the most acceptable situation. Thus, the quality of roads in Russia is ranked 114th out of 137 in the world⁵⁶, confirming the catchphrase that “Russia has two problems: fools and roads”. In terms of healthcare quality, Russia ranks only 96th in the world⁵⁷. The rude attitude towards clients often observed in medical institutions is confirmed by figures: for example, 71 percent of Russian women have experienced inappropriate behavior from a gynecologist⁵⁸. 40.3 percent reported that the doctor conducted a rough examination. Another 34.1 percent of respondents had to receive judgmental comments regarding their lifestyle and number of sexual partners. However, these women were still lucky — they at least were not wished to “drop dead”, as female staff members wished one visitor to Russian hospitals⁵⁹. As reported in 2018, almost half of the ambulance fleet was in a worn-out condition⁶⁰.

Individual cases are chilling altogether. Thus, in the Kuban region, a 76-year-old grandfather who was admitted to the Central District Hospital with suspected pneumonia was chained to the bed by “medical staff”, stripped naked, put in a diaper, and left lying unclothed, despite the fact that he was ill⁶¹. In another case, a young man was already tied to a bed, began to vomit, and, unable to turn over, choked on vomit⁶². In the case of detention conditions in the Kazan Psychiatric Hospital of Specialized Type with Intensive Observation, the Russian authorities themselves admitted that the detention conditions there were degrading⁶³.

According to Rosstat, about 22.6% of the Russian population does not have access to centralized sewage⁶⁴. Most of these families use cesspools. In 2018 alone, seven children who were being searched for by volunteers of the “Liza Alert” search and rescue squad drowned in cesspools of outdoor toilets⁶⁵. “For us, the ‘Liza Alert’ search and rescue squad, these figures sound especially frightening, because this is not only a matter of hygiene and the penetration of civilization, but also of children’s safety. We have repeatedly participated in searches for children who were found drowned in village toilets”, the volunteers write. At the same time, “Liza Alert” emphasized that by no means are all cases known to them.

While propaganda channels spread myths about “freezing Europe”, in the immediate vicinity of Moscow people are suffering distress without heating, and somewhere in addition to this there is neither electricity nor water. Maps of disasters were published by the portals “Novosti Moskvy”⁶⁶ and Telegraf.news⁶⁷. As local residents report, the authorities send people who “looked, nodded their heads and left, while we continue to freeze”.

In terms of the number of fire deaths per 100,000 population, Russia is at the level of African countries, ranking by this indicator in 2023 between Sudan and Angola⁶⁸. This indicates low state performance metrics in fire prevention and the organization of fire safety services. Russian nomenklatura officials shift responsibility for disasters onto people holding minor positions. Thus, in January 2024, when thousands of people were left in Podolsk without heating, all responsibility was placed on the head of the boiler room of the Klimovsk Cartridge Plant, who back in the summer sent letters to management stating that the boiler room was faulty⁶⁹.

Other public services also provide low-efficiency services. For example, in the 2020 Law and Order Index, Russia ranked only 93rd, meaning the quality of police work here is worse than in Kosovo, Palestine, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and slightly better than in Honduras, Ethiopia, or Niger⁷⁰. And this is despite the fact that various sources call Russia the most heavily policed⁷¹ or one of the most heavily policed⁷² states in the world — 564 police officers per 100,000 population, while the average number is about 300 police officers⁷³. However, the reasons for lawlessness in Russia can be understood — for instance, heads of some regions in the country call on law enforcement officers to punish relatives (!) of criminals for crimes and carry out “blood feuds”⁷⁴. Often it is not criminals who are punished, but those who try to stop them — as, for example, when a forester who detained poachers who tried to run him over went on trial⁷⁵. And vice versa — there are many cases where law enforcement officers themselves carry out criminal activity, as in the case when a woman in Omsk came to the police with a theft report, and the local police officer took out a loan using her passport⁷⁶.

The quality of courts is also at an extremely low level, but we will touch upon this in the chapter “Lawlessness” when talking about Russia’s place in the Rule of Law Index. There are also recordings comparing calls to 911 in the USA and 112 in Russia.

All of this is due to the fact that the Russian state is incapacitated, and its leadership is incompetent. According to the Fragile States Index, Russia ranks 53rd out of 179 countries, meaning that in only 52 countries in the world is the state less competent and effective⁷⁷ (mainly these are African countries and countries where active military actions are taking place). In the State Duma, Russians have already been advised to clear snow themselves due to a shortage of street sweepers⁷⁸, to earn money for their own old age⁷⁹ (and not count on pension payments), to guard state borders themselves⁸⁰, and to buy air defense systems at their own expense⁸¹. It reaches comical levels — for example, in 2020, workers at a Sakhalin care home were issued medical masks made from diapers previously used by bedridden elderly people⁸². In fact, the government of statists does not fulfill the most basic of its duties, but collects taxes and fines, and its officials are extremely heavily engaged in plundering the country, which we will consider in the next point.

Corruption and neo-feudalism

Russia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In 2021, it ranked 136th in the world according to the Corruption Perceptions Index, which is worse than Kenya, Togo, Laos, Niger, and roughly on par with Mali and Angola⁸³. The country lacks a sufficient level of social mobility and circulation of elites. FSB officers steal especially uncontrollably — for example, in 2024 three FSB officers were detained for receiving bribes totaling 5 billion rubles⁸⁴. For comparison: in 2023, in the budget of the entire Bryansk Oblast, only 1.1 billion rubles were allocated for the construction of sports facilities⁸⁵, and in 2021 in Podolsk all expenses on the socio-cultural sphere amounted to 10.7 billion rubles⁸⁶. This is not the limit: in 2019, 12 billion rubles in “black” cash were found on three FSB colonels⁸⁷. FSB officers organize raids on banks⁸⁸, engage in extortion⁸⁹, rob citizens⁹⁰.

The quality of the fight against corruption in the country can be assessed, for example, by the case where the Tagil Prosecutor’s Office saw no corruption in contractors gifting foreign cars to officials⁹¹. One regularly comes across news like the Moscow Mayor’s Office awarding a contract to build an overpass that had already been built⁹², or replacing new curbstones with new ones⁹³.

Nepotism flourishes — the bodyguards of dictator Putin become governors⁹⁴, their relatives become successful businessmen⁹⁵, female acquaintances of Putin become multimillionaires⁹⁶, his chef (Yevgeny Prigozhin) became the owner of a real business empire⁹⁷, and Putin’s mistress Alina Kabaeva⁹⁸ became chairwoman of the board of directors of the National Media Group holding, earning 785 million rubles in a single year⁹⁹. Putin’s daughter was found to have a billion rubles in income from deals with Gazprom¹⁰⁰. When more than 20,000 people in Podolsk were left without heating in winter following an accident at the Klimovsk Specialized Cartridge Plant, it turned out that the plant had previously been managed by Putin’s former bodyguard Igor Rudyka and FSB Colonel Igor Kushnikov, who had been accused of creating one of Moscow’s organized crime groups in the 1990s¹⁰¹.

In 2018 in Chechnya, out of 158 high-ranking officials, 30% were relatives of Ramzan Kadyrov, 23% were fellow villagers, and another 12% were friends and their relatives¹⁰². The eldest son of the head of Chechnya, 18-year-old Akhmat, became the first deputy minister of physical culture, sports, and youth policy of the republic. In the same month, his brother Adam, who was 15 at the time, assumed the post of head of his father’s security department. Kadyrov’s eldest daughter, 24-year-old Aishat, was appointed deputy prime minister of the republic’s government in October, while the region head’s third daughter Khutmat, who was 20 at the time, became the curator of Chechnya’s healthcare system in March¹⁰³. In effect, the region is Kadyrov’s personal feudal fiefdom.

We have already written that back in Soviet times, children of the nomenklatura did not inherit lucrative positions directly, but were appointed to high positions by virtue of belonging to a nomenklatura family. That is, a prosecutor’s son could not become a prosecutor, but he could get, for example, a cushy position as an ambassador. Similar neofeudalism is implemented in Putin’s Russia as well. Thus, the son of the former head of the presidential administration Sergei Ivanov, Sergei Ivanov Jr., became the head of the diamond mining company ALROSA. Dmitry Patrushev, the eldest son of the secretary of the Security Council and former head of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev, took office as chairman of the board of Rosselkhozbank. His brother Andrei Patrushev serves as chairman of the board of directors of TsentrKaspNeftegaz, a joint venture of Gazprom and LUKOIL.

The son of State Duma deputy Vakha Agaev, Bekkhan, became a State Duma deputy. The son of State Duma deputy Alexei Krasnoshtanov, Anton, became a State Duma deputy. The head of the KBR Kazbek Kokov is the son of the former president of the KBR Valery Kokov. The son of former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Pavel, is the first deputy head of the presidential administration’s property management department, while another son, Petr, is chairman of PJSC Promsvyazbank. The grandson of CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov, Leonid Zyuganov, is a deputy of the Moscow City Duma. The son of the head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko heads VK. Sons are promoted everywhere — for instance, the son of the head of the Higher Qualification Board of Judges of the Russian Federation Nikolai Timoshin, Alexei, became the prosecutor of the Orel region¹⁰⁴. And there are countless such examples.

Examples of “successful sons” also exist in democratic countries, but there, if a relative turns out to be ineffective, there is a high probability that people will not vote for them, and their political career can quickly come to an end; in cases where an important position was obtained corruptly, it can cause a scandal because those countries have an independent press, and they will be stripped of their post following the scandal. In Russia, however, political standing is guaranteed by superiors. The bosses, not society, decide whether a politician remains in their position.

Inequality levels in Russia are also extremely high. In 2021, the salaries of the top 10% highest-paid workers in Russia amounted to 164.7 thousand rubles, which is 13.5 times higher than the earnings of the bottom 10% lowest-paid specialists, which stood at 12.2 thousand rubles¹⁰⁵. While in Europe the wealthiest 1% owns 25% of the wealth, in Russia and Central Asia this figure stands at 45.9%¹⁰⁶. In a study by Credit Suisse, Russia was characterized as having the highest level of wealth inequality in the world, excluding microstates in the Caribbean¹⁰⁷.

Level of freedoms and rights

In Russia, the level of freedoms is very low. According to the Democracy Index, Russia ranks only 124th in the world¹⁰⁸, which indicates that its citizens do not choose their government and have few opportunities to change it; they are ruled “from above” by a caste of the “chosen ones”. As for the level of press freedom, Russia ranks 150th¹⁰⁹, which indicates that most of the media is controlled by the government, that very “caste of the chosen ones”, and people mostly hear only what is said in these puppet media outlets. In this ranking, Russia is adjacent to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Sudan.

Instead of elected representatives of the people, the State Duma and other key authorities are filled with criminals or individuals dangerous to society who dream of nuclear war. For instance, in 2022, State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov proposed delivering a warning nuclear strike on the US¹¹⁰. Another deputy (now a former one) — Alexei Mitrofanov — called for launching a thermonuclear strike against the US¹¹¹. These are mentally unhealthy maniacs dangerous to society. One of the killers of Alexander Litvinenko, Andrei Lugovoy¹¹², is also a State Duma deputy. Another deputy, Adam Delimkhanov, is suspected of ties to the “Brothers’ Circle” criminal group¹¹³ and promised to cut off the heads of all relatives of Judge Saydi Yangulbaev¹¹⁴. Yet another deputy — Alexei Zhuravlyov — called for the destruction of two million Ukrainians¹¹⁵, and also threatened to murder a journalist from Bild newspaper¹¹⁶. However, we have cited just a few examples — in reality, there are far more racists, psychopaths, and criminal elements in the Russian nomenklatura.

Is it any surprise that they pass insane laws. It is enough to take the article of the criminal code on “discrediting the Armed Forces of the RF”, because of which it is forbidden in Russia to call a war a war. For calling a war a war, Russian citizens receive real prison sentences. What is more, their anti-war stance serves as a mitigating factor for their attacker if they are assaulted or killed — thus, in 2023, a court reduced the sentence of a man who stabbed other Russian citizens on the grounds that they “publicly discredited the use of the Armed Forces of the RF during the special military operation”¹¹⁷. Another law prohibits comparing the USSR with Nazi Germany¹¹⁸, which hints at the true nature of the regime. The regime is guarded very well — ordinary Russians are not only forbidden to fight against it, but in Russia one can even be given 5 years in a penal colony for blowing up a virtual, non-existent FSB building in the computer game Minecraft, as happened to a teenager from the Krasnoyarsk Krai¹¹⁹.

Also in Russia, which classifies itself as a secular state (according to the Constitution), “insulting the feelings of believers” is prohibited, to which, for example, catching Pokémon on a smartphone inside a church can be equated. One of the accused under such an article was beaten on camera in Chechnya by the son of the head of the republic, but not only did no punishment follow for this — the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov himself stated: “He beat him up, and he did the right thing”, and a Chechen State Duma deputy wrote that he was proud of this person’s action¹²⁰. Thus, rules regarding the detention of accused persons and suspects in custody are not observed in Russia. The goal of the “correctional system” is not rehabilitation, but the abuse of those who committed an offense or are accused of doing so.

This manifests itself particularly strongly in the sadistic cruelty of many employees of the “law enforcement” system. Thus, in 2012, at a Kazan police station, a 52-year-old man was raped to death with a champagne bottle¹²¹. The Gulagu.net project published a huge number of videos proving the torture of prisoners, including rapes with a mop¹²². The video archive of torture amounted to 40 gigabytes¹²³. In 2010, police officers in Moscow raped a detainee with a baton¹²⁴, in Krasnodar — with a chair¹²⁵, and in Tomsk — a journalist was raped to death with a shovel handle¹²⁶. Another journalist was brutally murdered, being raped with a mop handle¹²⁷. A torture method is practiced during which a prisoner is tied up in the “swallow” position¹²⁸. Cases were reported “when a hose with barbed wire is shoved into a person’s anus. The hose is pulled out, and the wire remains”¹²⁹. Ildar Dadin testified that he was “beaten… four times, by 10–12 people at once, kicked. After the third beating, they pushed my head into the toilet right in the punishment cell”, “they handcuffed my hands behind my back and suspended me by the handcuffs. Such suspension causes terrible pain in the wrists, in addition, the elbow joints twist, and you feel wild pain in your back. I hung like that for half an hour. Then they took off my underpants and said that now they would bring another prisoner and he would rape me if I didn’t agree to stop the hunger strike”¹³⁰. Is it any surprise that Dadin went to fight against Russia in 2023.

A Russian defender at the PACE committee stated that torture in Russian prisons is systemic¹³¹. According to some quite official estimates, every fifth Russian has been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by police officers¹³². Given the extremely low level of the rule of law in the country — not a single person, except for the regime’s “demigods” themselves, is immune from falling under this torture steamroller. This is only a small fraction of the publicized tortures — an extensive separate piece could be written about them. However, sometimes citizens give officers an equally brutal fight back in the spirit of “war of all against all” — thus, in 2016 in Moscow, during a raid, prostitutes raped a police officer with a strap-on, beat him with a saucepan, and abused him until his colleagues came to his rescue¹³³.

Russians are being cut off from information en masse. An organization named “Roskomnadzor” is blocking websites on a massive scale — thus, from late February to April 2022 alone, more than 1,500 websites were blocked¹³⁴. Even platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been blocked in the country. People are afraid to publish information that would not portray LGBT representatives in a negative light, as they might fall under the law on “homosexual propaganda”. In many regions of Russia, rallies near government buildings are banned¹³⁵. Registering a genuinely opposition party is not possible — it faces the same fate as Alexei Navalny’s “Progress Party”. Russian authorities have classified data on the property of security officials¹³⁶. People are fined for “chanting slogans” at rallies even if they are literally mute¹³⁷.

Property rights in the country virtually do not exist. Anything can be taken away from anyone who cannot protect their property by force or connections. Thus, one of the Russian governors openly admitted: “we have almost no closed shops, because if a shop was closed for three months, we identified it as ownerless and transferred it to those capable of getting work up and running”¹³⁸, and that they do the same with housing, handing it over primarily to “security personnel”. It is also permitted to confiscate property for “war fakes”¹³⁹, and what constitutes a “fake” will be decided by a Russian court “independent” of the security services.

Slavery and human trafficking thrive in the country. Gazeta.ru writes¹⁴⁰ that in 2023 in Stavropol Krai, a 70-year-old pensioner bought himself a slave for 8 thousand rubles — a 43-year-old resident of the village of Staromaryevka, whom an intermediary found at a gas station. Shortly before this, about 10 thousand was asked for slaves in Stavropol Krai, as reported by Lenta.ru¹⁴¹. That time, a 71-year-old pensioner bought a package of two slaves for 20 thousand rubles, which included a 31-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman from Uzbekistan. In 2016, a slave was bought in Chechnya for 25 thousand rubles¹⁴², but since then, apparently, depreciation has occurred in this industry. In 2017, RIA Novosti wrote¹⁴³ citing activists of the Russian “Alternative” movement, who are engaged in liberating people, that there are no less than one hundred twenty thousand people in Russia’s slave markets, and the country itself traditionally ranks in the top ten countries in the Global Slavery Index. According to estimates¹⁴⁴ of this index, there are about 1,900,000 slaves in Russia in 2023. And we do not include “conscription slavery” here, which deserves a separate piece (Russia operates a conscription system, however, unlike conscript armies of developed countries, the conditions in this army are often far from compatible with human dignity).

Lawlessness

Russia is also characterized by a high level of lawlessness and arbitrary rule — in the Rule of Law Index, it ranks only 107th in the world¹⁴⁵. This is worse than Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia. However, what can be expected from a state that is itself engaged in committing crimes? The crimes of the Russian nomenklatura are a subject for a separate piece; here we will recall only a few: mass election fraud, organization of political assassinations and attempted murders (Alexander Litvinenko, Alexei Navalny, Sergei Skripal, and so on), and the organization and waging of an aggressive war. Russia has been officially recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism¹⁴⁶. The legal system in Russia essentially does not exist, and justice operates in the interests of the current authorities.

Members of the nomenklatura organized crime group regularly remain unpunished for various crimes. Thus, in Novosibirsk Oblast, the court closed the case of former deputy of the Tatar District Council from “United Russia” Sergei Mamontov, who hit a child and left the scene of the accident¹⁴⁷. The United Russia member managed to avoid criminal punishment. In 2014, another drunk deputy bought his way out after a little girl lost her arm in a car crash caused by him¹⁴⁸. Russian law enforcement agencies, instead of punishing criminals, often engage in criminality themselves — corporate raiding, “protecting” businesses, and selling personal data of citizens¹⁴⁹. In 2015, it was recorded in Russia that up to 700 thousand corporate raids occur per year¹⁵⁰. In fact, small business is constantly under threat.

Russia often harbors criminals from other countries. In 2006, the above-mentioned former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoy killed Alexander Litvinenko by slipping polonium into his tea, after which Lugovoy was granted the position of State Duma deputy in Russia¹⁵¹. Another killer — Anatoly Chepiga, a participant in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter — received the title of Hero of Russia¹⁵². In 2022, the Russian government took American basketball player Brittney Griner hostage under the pretext that vape cartridges containing medical marijuana were found on her — she was accused of drug smuggling and sentenced to 9 years in a penal colony, only to be exchanged later for arms dealer and accomplice of terrorists Viktor Bout¹⁵³. In Russia, this criminal became a deputy¹⁵⁴. Dutch footballer Quincy Promes, who in his homeland was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for stabbing his cousin¹⁵⁵ (this is not his only charge, he was also accused of smuggling 882 kilograms of cocaine into Belgium¹⁵⁶), hid from justice in Russia¹⁵⁷.

While Russian propaganda cultivates the thesis about the “wild ’90s”, bandit lawlessness in modern Russia persists. For example, in Tyumen, a certain Elman Valiev and Ilya Mamedkhanov “extorted” money from debtors in the following manner: for the purpose of humiliating a debtor, they put red lipstick on him, put red women’s panties and a bra on him, and forced him to walk down the corridor, supposedly to demonstrate thereby that “he is not a man and does not keep his word”¹⁵⁸. Previously convicted criminals detonate grenades in hookah lounges¹⁵⁹. Aside from the ruling organized crime group, a vast number of non-political organized crime groups are observed — such as “Sharapovskiye”¹⁶⁰, “GTA gang”¹⁶¹, “Khimprom”¹⁶², “black loggers”¹⁶³, and so on. Many of the organized crime groups have close ties to the FSB¹⁶⁴. The number of serious and especially serious crimes identified in Russia from January to May 2023 increased by 27.6%, to 138.6 thousand, with 13.2 thousand of them committed by organized groups or criminal communities¹⁶⁵. At the end of 2022, data was published showing that over 10 months in Russia, the number of crimes involving weapons and ammunition increased by almost 30%¹⁶⁶. That is, a constant growth in crime is observed after the start of the war.

This is not surprising, given that the Russian government is closely linked to crime — for example, in the Russian embassy in Argentina in 2021, almost 400 kilograms of cocaine were discovered¹⁶⁷. The head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer simultaneously with holding office headed an organized crime group¹⁶⁸, United Russia member Vladislav Reznik is connected to the “Russian mafia” in Spain¹⁶⁹, the mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov was accused of murder of an investigator¹⁷⁰ and so on¹⁷¹. Criminal structures are involved in supplies of microchips and other technologies needed for the defense complex of the RF¹⁷². Chairman of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin stated back in 2010 that “it is indeed a question of crime replacing the most important functions subject to the jurisdiction of the state and civil society”¹⁷³. Leaders of “United Russia” explicitly state that the fight against corruption threatens the Russian state. Thus, chairwoman of the Duma security committee Irina Yarovaya declared that the fight against corruption could be dangerous to national sovereignty¹⁷⁴.

Our problem is that the state has become criminal. A lot of sociological research has been conducted. Recently I saw reports on two such studies, from which it is clear that state structures in their activities operate according to the rules of criminal organizations. And if those organizations that are supposed to fight crime operate by the same rules themselves, then what kind of fight will it be?!¹⁷⁵

The level of crime in the country was significant throughout the recent centuries, including prior to Perestroika (for example, one article cites a large amount of data and evidence on widespread criminal lawlessness during the time of Joseph Stalin¹⁷⁶), and the whole difference lies in the fact that during the era of Perestroika and the ’90s, mass media were simply permitted to talk about it.

Environmental pollution

In the 2022 Environmental Performance Index, Russia ranked only 112th¹⁷⁷ — Niger and Nicaragua turned out to be slightly better in this regard. It was a Russian city — Krasnoyarsk — that became the leader in air pollution levels in the world¹⁷⁸. Due to high levels of air pollution, 1,093,647 Russians in 2020–2021 faced diseases of the respiratory system, eyes, musculoskeletal system, nervous system, digestive organs, circulatory system, endocrine system, and genitourinary system¹⁷⁹. 17% of deaths in the country are linked to the state of the environment, and 46% of the urban population lives in cities with high and very high levels of air pollution. In 58 regions, water pollution is assessed as high or extremely high. The ecology problem is stable — thus, in 2009 in Moscow, 4 times more people died from dirty air than from accidents¹⁸⁰. Not only the air is polluted — thus, thousands of marine animals died from ocean pollution levels in Kamchatka, and people suffered burns¹⁸¹. And this after statists in power assured that “amendments to the Constitution will protect ecology and animals”¹⁸². In the Green Growth Index, Russia is among the 10 worst countries in Europe¹⁸³.

Unsurprisingly, since in reality the government of statists is conducting purposeful destruction of ecology in the country. For example, one of the laws signed by Putin allows various types of construction in all protected areas, including Lake Baikal, without any environmental safety inspection¹⁸⁴. A law was also passed permitting unrestricted captive hunting of wild animals¹⁸⁵ and a law permitting hunting of Red Data Book animals “in exceptional cases”¹⁸⁶. Both laws were supported by “deputy” Nikolai Valuev, who has been repeatedly caught poaching, yet not only avoided a criminal case, but was even appointed head of a council under the Ministry of Natural Resources¹⁸⁷.

The amount of recycled waste in Russia in 2020 did not exceed 7%, landfills were overflowing, and waste operators were shutting down operations due to lack of funds. 11 Russian regions found themselves on the verge of a “garbage” collapse¹⁸⁸. Is it worth speaking about the severity of the garbage situation in the country.

In 2017 in Russia, due to the incompetence of the nomenclature, relict boxwood forests that had managed to survive the Ice Age perished almost entirely¹⁸⁹. They were destroyed by the box tree moth — a pest introduced in plants that were purchased in 2012 for the Sochi Olympics. Ecologists maintain: the box tree moth could have been stopped several years ago, but “agencies were shifting responsibility onto one another”.

Decline of morality

Despite the fact that the conservative government of Russia presents itself as defenders of “traditional values”, the situation in the country is nightmarish both from their perspective and from the point of view of normal progressive values, which the Russian nomenclature is persistently trying to replace with “spiritual bonds”. According to data from the head of the Accounts Chamber of the RF Alexei Kudrin, child mortality in Russia stands at five cases per thousand births, in the European Union — three, in Finland — 1.7¹⁹⁰. For every 100 marriages in Russia, there are 63 divorces, in Germany — 38, in Sweden — 46 (as a result of which many children in Russia are raised by same-sex couples — a mother and a grandmother). Even Russian President Vladimir Putin divorced his wife in 2014, and today carefully conceals the presence of a mistress, who, however, is known to everyone — Alina Kabaeva (as we have already mentioned above).

In terms of abortions per thousand children born, Russia surpasses the US by two times, and Germany — by more than two times. Child poverty grew from 19% in 2013 to 26% in 2016.

The war in Ukraine unleashed by Vladimir Putin’s regime divided families and relatives, making enemies out of many of them. First and foremost, this concerns Russian families with relatives in Ukraine. The latter complain about relationships with relatives in Russia, stating that “Russian television means more to them than a daughter and a sister”¹⁹¹. People stop communicating with their loved ones, with friends. However, even inside Russian families, there is a division into supporters and opponents of the war¹⁹².

And loved ones became distant. Into the piggy bank of his crimes one can certainly also place the dramatic division of families. Parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters turned out to be not just on opposite sides of the barricades, but felt themselves to be absolute strangers to each other, people speaking different languages, from different civilizations, from polar worlds. Between the closest people grew cold, impenetrable walls, behind which stands the pain of misunderstanding and a killed sense of kinship. To date, there is probably no person left who would not have experienced this torn wound on themselves, when those whom we loved, with whom we lived, made plans for the future, whom we raised or who raised us, with whom we were friends, overnight appeared before us in a terrible light that is impossible to reconcile with. For many, the watershed occurred back in 2014, but today this phenomenon has become ubiquitous.

The way they, with the help of television, perverted the souls and brains of people close to us, outraged them in the most obscene, dirty manner, destroying everything human, depriving them of reason, forbidding them to think and feel, can never be forgiven. The way they turned tens of millions of people into an army of zombies that is ready to believe and applaud any savagery and barbarism of their satraps, honor cannibals, adore war, dream of nuclear ashes for other states and nations, is, of course, one of the greatest crimes of Putin’s regime.

Everyday racism was observed in Russia both during the Empire period, in the USSR, and after Perestroika, but in the Putin period it received a new impetus. Racism from opposition forces in Putin’s Russia is mercilessly fought against, while racism on the part of systemic figures or apolitical masses is ignored or encouraged. Thus, one of the most cherished and protected¹⁹³ propagandists of the regime, Vladimir Solovyov, openly promoted the fascist leader Benito Mussolini by filming a movie about him. In his Telegram channel, Solovyov published a laudatory review of this movie, calling Mussolini a “brilliant man” who “gave the world a third path, along which Russia is partially moving today”¹⁹⁴. The head of DShRG “Rusich”, a combat unit that fought alongside the Russian army against Ukraine, is Alexei Milchakov. He openly stated: “I am a Nazi”¹⁹⁵, and he became famous in Russia after posting photos on the “VKontakte” social network in 2011 showing him killing a puppy with extreme cruelty, cutting off its head, and eating it¹⁹⁶. According to media reports, during the war in Donbas, he cut off the ears of killed Ukrainian soldiers and carved the “Kolovrat” symbol (an 8-beamed swastika) on their faces¹⁹⁷. One of the most heavily promoted musical artists in today’s Russia is Shaman, who recorded songs such as “I am Russian” and “My Fight”, and his music videos, according to some bloggers, are filmed according to the canons of Nazi propaganda¹⁹⁸.

However, it is not only high-ranking officials who demonstrate aggressive racist behavior. For instance, in 2023 in Kamensk-Uralsky, two men tried to drown an 18-year-old girl in a fountain because of her blue hair and outward resemblance to a Jewish woman¹⁹⁹. Around the same time in Tver, a Black passenger on a bus was called a “monkey” and kicked repeatedly²⁰⁰. A year earlier, in the center of Saint Petersburg, three people attacked a Black man shouting, “You are an American, and people like you are killing our soldiers”²⁰¹. In 2020 alone, 43 people suffered from ideologically motivated violence²⁰². There is even a Telegram channel called “Chronicles of Russian Nazism”²⁰³, which keeps track of such examples. And Amnesty International has a report titled “Russian Federation: Violent racism out of control”²⁰⁴.

At every step, Russians are surrounded by total lies and hypocrisy, which spread from the very top — top state positions and mass media. We have already mentioned our article where we wrote about how media and top officials in Russia lie on a permanent basis. Russians live virtually in a fake reality created by security forces, like in Michael Bay’s film “The Island”. The authorities are also engaged in falsifying history: for example, Patriarch Kirill of the ROC told Russians in 2023 that one of the main westernizers in Russian history — Tsar Peter the Great — actually “fought against Western influences”²⁰⁵. In the new textbooks released in 2023, sections from the 1970s to the 2000s were completely rewritten, with the editor of the textbook, MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov, noting that when presenting modern events, the authors were guided by the interpretations proposed by the Russian state²⁰⁶. The motto of the Russian nomenclature is “to seem, rather than to be”: thus, officials are asked not to wear fur coats and clothing made of expensive natural leather to meetings with residents²⁰⁷. That is, instead of fighting corruption, the system works to create the illusion of officials being “close to the people”, throwing dust in people’s eyes.

Russian military personnel massively use sexualized violence against prisoners²⁰⁸, the UN commission also came to the conclusion that “Russian authorities used torture widely and systematically in various types of detention facilities”, that “witnesses reported incidents where torture was committed with such brutality that it led to the death of the victim”, and “rape and other forms of sexual violence were often committed along with additional acts of violence against victims, including severe beatings, strangulation, suffocation, cuts, gunshots next to the victim’s head, and intentional killings”²⁰⁹. However, even before the war, massive cases of violence against subordinates in the Russian army were noted²¹⁰. Some soldiers try to fight this with desperate measures — like, for example, Ramil Shamsutdinov, whose money and phone were taken away, who was tortured, beaten, and threatened with rape — “lowering”, as a result of which he broke down and shot eight fellow servicemen²¹¹.

The atmosphere in the country is so charged with hatred that ordinary everyday crimes do not cause resonance. Media coverage is given only to truly blood-curdling cases, such as when a 66-year-old Muscovite raped his daughter’s boyfriend due to lack of intimacy with his wife²¹² or when a welder from Vologda died after being raped with a branch by friends during a drinking session²¹³. In 2022, a Russian beat a friend to death for not flushing the toilet after himself²¹⁴, and ten years earlier in Izhevsk, a woman was raped for stealing a crab stick²¹⁵. In 2020 in Sakhalin, inmates called an equipment technician and raped him²¹⁶. Against this background, minor news items like the one where a tolerance lesson in a Russian school ended with the bullying of the only unbaptized girl²¹⁷ do not evoke strong emotions.

Despite the stereotypical portrayal of Putin’s regime (including in Western countries) as “defenders of traditional values”, in reality the situation with family relations in the country is far from normal. In 2021, almost 72% of women killed in Russia died as a result of domestic violence²¹⁸. 40% of serious violent crimes in the country are committed within families²¹⁹. 79% of women convicted under the intentional homicide article were actually defending themselves against domestic violence²²⁰. About 40% of Russian men believe that a husband supporting his wife gains certain power over her (for example, can forbid her to work)²²¹, and an even greater number of people exercise this power²²². Individual cases of family violence are simply mind-boggling. For instance, in 2024 in Yekaterinburg, a drunk 30-year-old man, after a quarrel with his wife, threw a one-year-old child out of a fifth-floor window; the girl lay in a snowbank for four days and died²²³. And a year earlier, a resident of Saint Petersburg threw a girl out of a third-floor window over an uncooked dinner²²⁴.

Citizens obsessed with prudery and pseudo-moralizing orchestrate lawlessness on these grounds — thus, in Dagestan in 2024, at the “Aura” restaurant, one of the girls decided to dance, and one of the zealots of “spiritual bonds” began to harass her and express his outrage, resulting in a brawl during which the moral guardian pulled out a knife and began slashing people²²⁵. In 2022 in the Irkutsk region, a brother stabbed his sister to death over her refusal to participate in the patriotic “Immortal Regiment” campaign²²⁶. In many regions of the country, gender-obsessed school principals have introduced a ban on girls wearing trousers²²⁷ — as a result of which, in some districts, schoolgirls are forced to walk in nylon tights and skirts in -30 degree cold²²⁸. School leadership considers itself entitled to threaten students with transfer to homeschooling over a haircut it did not like²²⁹. The country is sliding into some kind of tribal practices — thus, in 2022, a court in Petersburg ruled to destroy an iPhone 12 on which photos in underwear against the backdrop of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral were taken²³⁰.

The provinces are dying

The gap between the provinces and the center in Russia is so vast that there is a popular saying “Moscow is not Russia”²³¹. Currently in Russia, the level of regional inequality is much higher than in countries with an economy comparable in volume and structure of GDP, reports “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”²³². Director of the Institute for National Strategy Mikhail Remizov believes that “The gap between Moscow and the provinces is a very important indicator of social inequality in the country. A gap in the quality and standard of living”²³³. According to the director of the Institute of Regional Problems Dmitry Zhuravlev, “The feeling that Moscow and the rest of Russia are two different countries formed among our people long ago. Until the mid-1950s, Moscow was generally a closed city. A person had to show a ticket or an invitation. Moscow was always an oasis where people ate tastier and slept sweeter… The reason for this is that we have a feudal type of state. That is, the main source of capital in our country is the state. As we know, billionaires were appointed. As Chubais honestly said, privatization is not an economic, but a political process. The one who was closest to power received the most. You can extract oil somewhere in the North, but the right to extract it can only be obtained in Moscow. Therefore, Moscow will always produce the richest. All issues can only be resolved in the capital. At the same time, Moscow is a showcase. A high standard of living is artificially maintained here”²³⁴.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQOETIG8Q9s

Such a difference arises not because “Moscow robs Russia” (Moscow is richer mainly due to a higher level of economic development and education), but because all the rest of Russia is politically subordinated to Moscow and has no freedom to develop independently of it. If the provinces had free will, perhaps part of them could develop. But Moscow acts on the principle of “dog in the manger” — it can neither extract money from the province itself, nor does it let the province earn. The Kremlin wants to make all decisions itself, so local initiative is blocked, but it simply does not have enough time to show initiative regarding the improvement of all its provinces itself. Also, thanks to the concentration of power in the capital, the infrastructure in the federation is built in such a way that it benefits Moscow. For example, one can look at the map of highways in Google Maps:

News regularly appears like “a child rescued from under the rubble in Magnitogorsk was brought to Moscow”²³⁵, “the EMERCOM of the RF will deliver 25 victims of AFU shelling in Belgorod to Moscow”²³⁶, “victims of the attack on the Kerch college were brought to Moscow for treatment”²³⁷, “a special flight of the EMERCOM of Russia will deliver victims from Izhevsk to Moscow”²³⁸, and so on. That is, proper medicine essentially exists only in Moscow across all of vast Russia.

In the first 6 months of 2023, 73% of used luxury cars were purchased in Moscow, the Moscow region, and Saint Petersburg²³⁹. In 2020, 628 new luxury cars were sold in Moscow, while in the Sverdlovsk region — only 17²⁴⁰. The leader among the provinces — Krasnodar Krai — registered 51 sales cases. In 2019, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” noted that “the wage gap between Moscow and some regions reaches almost two times”²⁴¹. According to some estimates, “in Moscow wages are 4-5 times higher than wages in the poorest regions of our country”²⁴², according to others — the difference is only 40-50%²⁴³. But in any case, the difference is noticeable, uneven development is observed, and the authorities are not solving this problem. Nomenclature members complain: “the outflow of young people from regions where base enterprises of the aircraft industry and universities are located does not stop”²⁴⁴. In 2019, residents of the settlement of Eremkovo in the Tver region, out of desperation, even asked Putin to “shoot and bury” them²⁴⁵.

Foreign policy

The result of the foreign policy of the statists was that Russia became the record holder for the number of sanctions imposed on it. Valuable specialists tried not to linger here even earlier, migrating to more developed countries; with the start of the war against Ukraine, the figures became even more palpable — for instance, in 2022 alone, 100 thousand IT specialists left the country²⁴⁶. This is a huge loss for the economy. As a result of the start of military actions, 300 billion dollars worth of Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves (out of a total amount of 640 billion), which nomenclature members kept in Western countries, were also frozen²⁴⁷. Also, 19 billion dollars of private funds of Russian businessmen were blocked²⁴⁸.

When we say “we are not allowed into the European market where we used to be, and we need to enter the markets of friendly countries”, we must clearly understand that nobody is waiting for us in the markets of friendly countries. These markets are occupied either by goods of the friendly countries themselves, or by their competitors — those same European goods²⁴⁹.

The war in Ukraine led to the disgrace of Russian weapons and army. Now it is not considered one of the strongest in the world²⁵⁰²⁵¹. If earlier, during the period of détente, the US was disarming and removed its nuclear weapons from Great Britain, then after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they are returning them there²⁵². Statists claim that they wanted to protect themselves from NATO, but after the invasion, Russia’s border with NATO doubled²⁵³, and the size of the NATO grouping near the country’s borders grew by 2.5 times in just a few months²⁵⁴. However, NATO poses no threat to Russia; the threat to it is posed by its own government. Data is emerging that even near Moscow, important facilities responsible for executing decisions on a retaliatory nuclear strike are freezing²⁵⁵.

Not a trace remains of Russia’s positive image in the world, painstakingly created by Gorbachev’s group, which resulted in Russians being played in Hollywood films by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme. And today, as a result of the policies of statists, in many bars Russians are met with signs “We do not serve Belarusians and Russians”²⁵⁶. The influence of Russia and its culture is declining even in countries closest to it. For example, while previously in Ukraine many spoke Russian and treated Russians well, now Ukrainians are massively abandoning the Russian language²⁵⁷, and their information resources are switching to Ukrainian, as, for example, the portal Football.ua²⁵⁸. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe²⁵⁹, the UNESCO Executive Board²⁶⁰, from the UN Human Rights Council²⁶¹, it was refused OECD membership²⁶², and it was expelled from many other organizations, re-joining which will be extremely difficult and will take a lot of strength and resources.

Cultural isolation along with sanctions has become one of the strongest tools of influence of the international community on Russia. Foreign film studios, music labels, and writers are suspending relationships with Russian partners and colleagues; contemporary domestic authors, artists, and performers find themselves cut off from the Western market. Even the performance of classical works that have long been part of world culture causes a lot of discussion²⁶³.

Back in 2014, Zbigniew Brzezinski warned that if Russia does not take the European path of development, it will become a ruined satellite of China²⁶⁴. Now everything is moving toward a return to the situation of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, only now statists are selling Russia to Asian influence without a single fight. From the standpoint of imports, Russia has already become the most China-dependent country in the world after North Korea²⁶⁵. By the end of 2022, out of 60 car brands present in Russia before the start of the war, only 14 remained, 11 of which are Chinese manufacturers²⁶⁶. The Ministry of Finance is converting the National Wealth Fund into yuan and gold²⁶⁷, Minister Siluanov stated that the share of yuan in Russia’s reserves will grow²⁶⁸, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced the country’s readiness to switch to yuan in foreign trade²⁶⁹. Some experts claim that soon China will be able to dictate terms to Russia²⁷⁰. Even Russian ministries acknowledge the threat that Chinese IT companies could become dominant in the Russian market and pose a threat to the country’s information security²⁷¹.

Statists not only failed to solve the problem of Russia’s wars, they managed to exacerbate it. In 2024, Belgorod is under missile attacks²⁷², previously the Bryansk and Saratov regions were under drone strikes²⁷³, as well as Ryazan and Engels²⁷⁴. Even Moscow was shelled²⁷⁵ (directly the Kremlin). By early July 2023, as many as 113 arsons of military enlistment offices, police departments, and administrative buildings in 48 regions of Russia committed after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine were already known²⁷⁶. By October 4, 2023, security forces reported 76 railway acts of sabotage in the country²⁷⁷. Drones crash into residential buildings²⁷⁸, “accidental discharge of ammunition” is observed²⁷⁹, oil depots²⁸⁰ and warehouses²⁸¹ burn — war has come to many cities in the country thanks to the imperial illusions of statists. Military losses by January 2024 are estimated at a figure from 41 thousand killed²⁸² to 315 thousand killed and wounded²⁸³. Russians are not allowed to know official losses — they are classified²⁸⁴, but in any case we are talking about the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

At the same time, colossal money is spent on the war, which could be directed toward solving the country’s problems. Even a website warcalc.com was created, which allows calculating how the country could be improved with the money that statists put into destroying another country. Thus, it turns out that on January 13, 2014 alone, so many missiles were launched toward Ukraine, for the cost of which it would be possible to: build 2 hospitals, 7 schools, 22 parks, 15 animal shelters, purchase 28 ambulances, 26 fire trucks, provide 27 courses of chemotherapy, gasify 14 apartments, pay 28 subsistence minimums, lay 132 m² of road surface. And the massive attack on December 29, 2023 cost more than 1.27 billion dollars²⁸⁵. That is, Russians’ money is spent by the government not on improving their lives, but on war and corruption; Russians not only do not need such a government, it is extremely harmful to them.

Moreover, the disgraced Russian nomenklatura, lacking the courage to admit the failure of its conquest initiative, now threatens the whole world with nuclear war in the event of defeat. It has once again created a threat of nuclear war in the world (therefore, the elimination of the Russian nomenklatura is a necessary step for the whole world from the perspective of human survival). Former President Dmitry Medvedev threatened a nuclear strike²⁸⁶, Russian propagandists call for bombing NATO countries with nuclear weapons²⁸⁷²⁸⁸, and General Gurulyov calls for the same²⁸⁹. These people are dangerous not only to society, but also to all humanity as a species, and they should be dealt with like a cancerous tumor if we want to save the entire organism. The UN recognizes that the nuclear threat has reached its highest level since the end of the Cold War²⁹⁰, and all because of the Russian nomenklatura.

Since statists released criminals, maniacs, and rapists from prisons so that they would join the Russian army, and then granted them amnesty for “heroism” at the front, Russian cities were flooded with criminal elements who immediately went back to their old ways. Sometimes Russians get lucky and they do not return — like, for example, the “Tulun maniac”, who raped 27 women and was sent by statists to Ukraine, where he was killed²⁹¹. Or animal abuser Artyom Lavrentyev, who brutally tortured the 14-year-old cat Kuzya for a week (the cat died, unable to withstand the torment) and posted videos on the Internet²⁹². But some return — like, for example, serial killer and cannibal Denis Gorin, who was pardoned by Putin for participating in the war²⁹³. Or killer and rapist Georgy Povilayko, who returned to freedom after just three months of participating in military actions against Ukrainians²⁹⁴. Or Vyacheslav Samoylov, who beheaded and dismembered his girlfriend²⁹⁵. In Krasnoyarsk Krai, a pardon was granted to Ivan Karymov, who had previously killed a 9-year-old child²⁹⁶.

All these maniacs and criminals received the opportunity to live freely among you. Of course, they go back to their old ways — for example, Ivan Rossomakhin, who was supposed to be serving a sentence for robberies and murders, was released and, after returning, killed an 85-year-old pensioner²⁹⁷. Another PMC member, whose name is withheld, is accused of sexual assault against two schoolgirls²⁹⁸. There are many such cases²⁹⁹. But PMC members who were not convicts before the war are not lagging behind either — thus, another “Wagnerite”, having returned from the war, beat a four-year-old girl to death³⁰⁰.

Can all of this be fixed?

There are a huge number of problems in Russia, and fixing them may take one or two decades. At the same time, it is important that this entire period passes in the spirit of democratic and progressive reforms. We have already written in the article about the PSOE how this party accomplished a democratic transition from the Francoist dictatorship to a fully developed and prosperous European state. The Spanish Social Democrats succeeded, and the Russian ones can succeed too. But one requirement is inevitable — it is necessary to change the government, and the new government must be progressive and democratic.

One option for accomplishing this task is the creation and constant strengthening of a social democratic party up to its coming to power, avoiding a communist mutation of this party, and implementing a whole package of reforms, an example of which we provided in the article with the draft program of the social democratic party. We need democratization, de-conservatization, adequate and inclusive economic policy. A total departure from the practices carried out by statists is needed. Therefore, do not put it off until tomorrow, but join social democratic parties, trade unions, and create cells in your local areas. Together, we will create a strong social democratic party sooner or later if we work on it. Write to our email in the “Contacts” section, and we will explain how to act.

Summary

Statists are driving the country into poverty and lawlessness; they likely will not stop anymore, and on the horizon for Russians looms an equivalent of slavery (the standard excuse “in the 21st century this is impossible” turned out to be a banal “scam”, as shown by the war, about which the exact same excuse was used). The standard of living in the country is low by many indicators, the level of provision and protection of human rights is extremely low and constantly decreasing, the development of the country is slowing down due to the opposition of developed democracies to the aggressive policy of statists, the state is incapacitated (which leads to criminal lawlessness), a massive decline in morals is observed, and the status of a Russian citizen is becoming disgraceful. Stopping and overthrowing the statists means for Russians winning back a normal life for themselves.

Residents of democratic countries should know that the above-described inevitably awaits them if they do not find the desire in themselves to protect and improve their democracy. We, the residents of Russia, naively believed that today is already “not that time”, and in the 21st century this is impossible, and came up with excuses not to fight the forces of evil. As a result, Russia today is a fully-fledged fascist state. Previously, it was enough for us to take to the streets en masse in a popular assembly of several hundred thousand people; we were unable to do this, and now this is no longer enough — in all likelihood, we will have to give our lives.

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212. M. Sovina. 66-year-old Russian raped his daughter’s boyfriend // Lenta.ru (lenta.ru). January 17, 2024, 22:33. [Online resource]. URL: https://lenta.ru/news/2024/01/17/66-letniy-rossiyanin-iznasiloval-parnya-svoey-docheri/ (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
213. Welder from Vologda died from rape with a branch after a drinking session // RIAMO (riamo.ru). December 5, 2023, 17:46. [Online resource]. URL: https://riamo.ru/article/694145/svarschik-iz-vologdy-umer-ot-iznasilovaniya-vetkoj-posle-pyanyh-posidelok (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
214. E. Sapakova. Russian beat an acquaintance to death for not flushing in the toilet // MK.RU (www.mk.ru). September 15, 2022, 10:31. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.mk.ru/incident/2022/09/15/rossiyanin-zabil-do-smerti-znakomogo-kotoryy-ne-smyval-v-tualete.html (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
215. In Izhevsk, a woman was raped for stealing a crab stick // Lenta.ru (lenta.ru). June 29, 2012, 14:46. [Online resource]. URL: https://lenta.ru/news/2012/06/29/crab/ (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
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217. In a Russian school, a tolerance lesson ended with the bullying of the only unbaptized girl // Lenta.ru (lenta.ru). December 20, 2019, 17:55. [Online resource]. URL: https://lenta.ru/news/2019/12/20/terpimost/ (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
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225. A stabbing occurred in Dagestan // MK.RU (mkala.mk.ru). January 21, 2024, 21:32. [Online resource]. URL: https://mkala.mk.ru/incident/2024/01/21/v-dagestane-proizoshla-ponozhovshhina.html (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
226. A resident of the Irkutsk region killed his sister for refusing to participate in the “Immortal Regiment” // Vesti (www.vesti.ru). [Online resource]. URL: https://www.vesti.ru/article/2746473 (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
227. In at least 17 regions of Russia, girls in some schools are forbidden from wearing trousers // RFO “ONA” (ona.org.ru). December 27, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://ona.org.ru/post/737892221173547008/как-минимум-в-17-регионах-россии-девочкам-в (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
228. K. Vlasova. “Forcing someone to wear a skirt at -30° is mockery!” Mizulina criticized the requirements at the Granovskaya school // Ircity.ru (ircity.ru). December 2, 2023, 20:25. [Online resource]. URL: https://ircity.ru/text/society/2023/12/02/72977522/ (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
229. In Siberia, they wanted to expel a student from school over a hairstyle like Zlatan Ibrahimović’s. Now all of Russian football is backing him // Meduza (meduza.io). September 13, 2019, 16:37. [Online resource]. URL: https://meduza.io/shapito/2019/09/13/v-sibiri-uchenika-hoteli-vygnat-iz-shkoly-iz-za-pricheski-kak-u-zlatana-ibragimovicha-teper-za-nego-ves-rossiyskiy-futbol (Accessed: 20.03.2024).
230. A. Vypolzov. Kaliningrad raises the orange flag // Kommersant (www.kommersant.ru). February 22, 2005, 00:00. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5493451 (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
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232. Why regional inequality in Russia is higher than in other countries // RG.RU (rg.ru). October 5, 2021, 12:53. [Online resource]. URL: https://rg.ru/2021/10/05/reg-cfo/pochemu-regionalnoe-neravenstvo-v-rossii-vyshe-chem-v-drugih-stranah.html (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
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234. Ibid.
235. Ramzan Kadyrov called on Chechen security forces officers to punish relatives of criminals who fled from law enforcement agencies // Meduza (meduza.io). January 3, 2024, 09:11. [Online resource]. URL: https://meduza.io/news/2024/01/03/ramzan-kadyrov-prizval-sotrudnikov-silovyh-struktur-chechni-nakazyvat-rodstvennikov-prestupnikov-skryvshihsya-ot-pravoohranitelnyh-organov (Accessed: 20.03.2024).
236. EMERCOM of the RF will deliver 25 victims of AFU shelling in Belgorod to Moscow // Interfax (www.interfax.ru). December 31, 2023, 13:27. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.interfax.ru/russia/938701 (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
237. Victims of the attack on the Kerch college were brought to Moscow for treatment // RIA Novosti Mediabank (riamediabank.ru). [Online resource]. URL: https://riamediabank.ru/story/list_130420517/ (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
238. Special flight of EMERCOM of Russia will deliver victims from Izhevsk to Moscow // Aviation of Russia (aviation21.ru). September 26, 15:21. [Online resource]. URL: https://aviation21.ru/specbort-mchs-rossii-dostavit-postradavshix-iz-izhevska-v-moskvu/ (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
239. Sales of used Bentley, Maserati, and Rolls-Royce grew in Russia // Autonews (www.autonews.ru). June 27, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.autonews.ru/news/64c243359a79472303f588c4 (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
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244. Patrushev reported a shortage of thousands of engineers in the aviation industry // RBC (www.rbc.ru). February 3, 2023, 18:27. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/63dd25179a79475cbfe65b44 (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
245. E. Sazhanova. Driven into the Middle Ages, Russians asked Putin to shoot them // MK.RU (www.mk.ru). November 20, 2019, 19:24. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.mk.ru/social/2019/11/20/zagnannye-v-srednevekove-rossiyane-poprosili-putina-ikh-rasstrelyat.html (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
246. A. Zlobin. Head of the Ministry of Digital Development reported 100,000 IT specialists who left Russia // Forbes (www.forbes.ru). December 20, 2022. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.forbes.ru/tekhnologii/482755-glava-mincifry-soobsil-o-100-000-uehavsih-iz-rossii-ajtisnikov (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
247. Ministry of Finance announced a freeze of $300 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves due to sanctions // RBC (www.rbc.ru). March 13, 2022, 14:51. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.rbc.ru/economics/13/03/2022/622dd6ee9a7947081b63341c (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
248. The State Duma reacted to EU plans to fund Ukraine at the expense of Russia // Izvestia (iz.ru). October 25, 2023, 18:45. [Online resource]. URL: https://iz.ru/1595085/2023-10-25/v-gosdume-otreagirovali-na-plany-es-finansirovat-ukrainu-za-schet-rossii (Accessed: 15.03.2024).
249. The government admitted that nobody is waiting for Russian goods in China, India, and other “friendly” countries // The Moscow Times (www.moscowtimes.ru). December 29, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/12/29/v-pravitelstve-priznali-chto-rossiiskie-tovari-nikto-ne-zhdet-v-kitae-indii-i-drugih-druzhestvennih-stranah-a117509 (Accessed: 21.03.2024).
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251. A. Crowther. Russia’s Military: Failure on an Awesome Scale // CEPA (cepa.org). April 15, 2022. [Online resource]. URL: https://cepa.org/article/russias-military-failure-on-an-awesome-scale/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
252. The Telegraph: US will return nuclear weapons to Great Britain // Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.svoboda.org). January 27, 2024. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.svoboda.org/a/the-telegraph-ssha-vernut-yadernoe-oruzhie-v-velikobritaniyu/32794080.html (Accessed: 21.03.2024).
253. A. Boytsova. “A new era begins”. The length of the NATO and Russia border doubled // Gazeta.ru (www.gazeta.ru). April 4, 2023, 19:11. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2023/04/04/16506733.shtml (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
254. The NATO grouping near Russia’s borders grew by 2.5 times since February // Izvestia (iz.ru). November 2, 2022, 12:15. [Online resource]. URL: https://iz.ru/1419739/2022-11-02/gruppirovka-nato-u-granitc-rossii-vyrosla-s-fevralia-v-25-raza (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
255. Near Moscow, an important facility responsible for RF nuclear strikes froze // Charter’97 (charter97.org). January 9, 2024, 13:37. [Online resource]. URL: https://charter97.org/ru/news/2024/1/9/578708/ (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
256. E. Egorova. “Aggression, of course, will grow”. Chelyabinsk residents who moved abroad — on the attitude toward Russians due to events in Ukraine // 74.ru (74.ru). March 2, 2022. [Online resource]. URL: https://74.ru/text/world/2022/03/02/70478972/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
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258. Statement by Football.ua // Football.ua (football.ua). March 3, 2022, 11:32. [Online resource]. URL: https://football.ua/ukraine/474540-poka-nashi-ljudi-s-golymi-rukami-idut-na-tanki-nashi-deti-sidjat-v-podvalakh-a-zhenshhiny-plachut-my-ne-perejjdem-na-russkijj.html (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
259. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe // Kommersant (www.kommersant.ru). March 16, 16:03. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5259449 (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
260. B. Makalyuk. The era of Russian influence has ended: what is known about Russia’s exclusion from the UNESCO Executive Board // Vikna (vikna.tv). November 16, 2023, 09:30. [Online resource]. URL: https://vikna.tv/ru/dlia-tebe/novyny-ukrayiny/rossiyu-isklyuchili-iz-ispolnitelnogo-soveta-yunesko-chto-izvestno/ (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
261. Russia failed to get re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council, from which it was expelled after the invasion of Ukraine // Meduza (meduza.io). October 10, 2023, 18:57. [Online resource]. URL: https://meduza.io/news/2023/10/10/rossiya-ne-smsgla-pereizbratsya-v-sovet-oon-po-pravam-cheloveka-iz-kotorogo-ee-vygnali-posle-vtorzheniya-v-ukrainu (Accessed: 20.03.2024).
262. Z. Rofe. OECD refused Russia membership over the war against Ukraine // Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). February 26, 2022. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.dw.com/ru/ojesr-prekratila-peregovory-o-chlenstve-rf-iz-za-ukrainy/a-60925029 (Accessed: 19.03.2024).
263. Cancel culture — cancellation of culture // AfishaDaily (cancelculture.afisha.ru). [Online resource]. URL: https://cancelculture.afisha.ru/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
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266. V. Safronova. Main trading partner. How dependent is Russia’s economy on China? // BBC News Russian Service (www.bbc.com). October 21, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cqejqn8g7ddo (Accessed: 23.03.2024).
267. D. Grinkevich. Ministry of Finance decided to convert the frozen part of the NWF into yuan and gold // Vedomosti (www.vedomosti.ru). December 29, 2022, 20:24. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.vedomosti.ru/finance/articles/2022/12/29/957707-minfin-reshil-perevesti (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
268. Siluanov: the share of yuan in Russia’s reserves will grow // Kommersant (www.kommersant.ru). September 8, 2022, 9:23. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5548950 (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
269. Putin reported Russia’s readiness to switch to yuan in foreign trade // RBC (www.rbc.ru). March 21, 2023, 17:49. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.rbc.ru/economics/21/03/2023/6419c2199a794795b9604b16 (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
270. T. Felgenhauer, A. Plushev. Sinologist: Soon China will be able to dictate terms to Russia // Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). November 18, 2022. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.dw.com/ru/ekspert-centra-karnegi-vskore-kitaj-smozet-diktovat-uslovia-rossii/a-63810699 (Accessed: 19.03.2024).
271. A. Nardelli. Russian Memo Said War Leaves Moscow Too Reliant on Chinese Tech // Bloomberg (www.bloomberg.com). April 19, 2023, 5:00. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-19/russia-china-worries-set-out-in-private-memo-on-tech-risk (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
272. Explosions thundered in Belgorod, missile danger declared // RIA Novosti (ria.ru). [Online resource]. URL: https://ria.ru/20240102/belgorod-1919520784.html (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
273. M. Kotlyar. Bryansk, Belgorod and Saratov regions came under drone strikes // Gazeta.ru (www.gazeta.ru). December 29, 2022, 13:57. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2022/12/29/16018243.shtml (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
274. Explosions at strategic airbases near Ryazan and in Engels: Russia confirmed the death of military personnel and blamed Ukraine // BBC News Russian Service (www.bbc.com). December 5, 2022. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-63857725 (Accessed: 23.03.2024).
275. N. Kozin. Military expert explained how Ukrainian drone reached the Kremlin // Parlamentskaya Gazeta (www.pnp.ru). May 3, 2023, 17:16. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.pnp.ru/politics/voennyy-ekspert-obyasnil-kak-ukrainskiy-bespilotnik-doletel-do-kremlya.html (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
276. O. Romashova. A blow to “Putin’s pride”. Who and how is tried in Russia for arsons of military enlistment offices — review by “Mediazona” // Mediazona (zona.media). July 27, 2023, 10:32. [Online resource]. URL: https://zona.media/article/2023/07/27/voenkomat-in-court (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
277. D. Shvets. Tracks are burning. Sabotage on railways and prosecution for it — in updated infographics by “Mediazona” // Mediazona (zona.media). October 5, 2023, 11:42. [Online resource]. URL: https://zona.media/article/2023/10/05/sabotage-map (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
278. A. Valagin. In Voronezh, a drone with explosives crashed into a residential building: what is known // RG.RU (rg.ru). July 9, 2023, 11:49. [Online resource]. URL: https://rg.ru/2023/06/09/padenie-bpla-na-dom-v-voronezhe-chto-izvestno.html (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
279. E. Chernyshova. Ministry of Defense reported an “accidental discharge of ammunition” in Voronezh region // RBC (www.rbc.ru). January 2, 2023, 11:27. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.rbc.ru/politics/02/01/2024/6593c8a49a794752f2dedfaf (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
280. Explosions have become more frequent in Russia — on the railway, oil depots. What is happening? // BBC News Russian Service (www.bbc.com). May 3, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-65467063 (Accessed: 23.03.2024).
281. A Wildberries warehouse burned down in Petersburg. The fire was filmed from a plane flying over it // Meduza (meduza.io). January 13, 2024, 11:33. [Online resource]. URL: https://meduza.io/video/2024/01/13/v-peterburge-gorit-sklad-wildberries-pozhar-zasnyali-s-proletavshego-nad-nim-samoleta (Accessed: 20.03.2024).
282. O. Ivshina. To war after school? What is known about Russia’s losses in Ukraine by January // BBC News Russian Service (www.bbc.com). January 12, 2024. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/c6p11rp0rzyo (Accessed: 23.03.2024).
283. S. Kuprikov. US Intelligence: RF lost 315,000 wounded and killed in the war // Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). December 12, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.dw.com/ru/razvedka-ssa-rossia-poterala-v-vojne-315-tysac-celovek/a-67707166 (Accessed: 19.03.2024).
284. Losses of the Russian army in peacetime became a state secret // BBC News Russian Service (www.bbc.com). May 28, 2015. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.bbc.com/russian/russia/2015/05/150528_russia_military_losses_state_secret (Accessed: 23.03.2024).
285. J. Jackson. Putin’s Major Aerial Attack on Ukraine Cost Russia $1.2 Billion: Report // Newsweek (www.newsweek.com). December 29, 2023, 9:37. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.newsweek.com/putins-major-aerial-attack-ukraine-cost-russia-12-billion-report-1856666 (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
286. L. Pashkova. Medvedev threatened a preventive strike for supplying nuclear weapons to Kyiv // RBC (www.rbc.ru). May 26, 2023, 8:11. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.rbc.ru/politics/26/05/2023/64703dc49a79471b03774b28 (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
287. M. Kareva, L. Strepushova. Solovyov called for bombing NATO countries // Pravda.ru (www.pravda.ru). January 12, 2023, 14:52. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.pravda.ru/news/world/1788494-vladimir_solovev_rossija_nato/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
288. Political scientist Sergey Karaganov called on the Kremlin to launch a nuclear strike on Poland // Meduza (meduza.io). June 15, 2023, 14:57. [Online resource]. URL: https://meduza.io/feature/2023/06/15/politolog-sergey-karaganov-prizval-kreml-nanesti-yadernyy-udar-po-polshe (Accessed: 20.03.2024).
289. S. Mustafa. General Gurulev called on the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to launch a nuclear strike on NATO infrastructure // Gazeta.ru (www.gazeta.ru). February 21, 2023, 2:15. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.gazeta.ru/army/news/2023/02/21/19796089.shtml (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
290. UN warns: nuclear threat has reached highest level since end of Cold War // UN (news.un.org). March 5, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://news.un.org/ru/story/2023/03/1438242 (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
291. I. Nadezhdin. Tulun maniac died in the SVO zone // Lenta.ru (lenta.ru). December 28, 2023, 15:07. [Online resource]. URL: https://lenta.ru/news/2023/12/28/maniac/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
292. “Disappeared in summer, found only now”. Sadist who tortured cat Kuzya died in Ukraine // Sever.Realii (www.severreal.org). December 2, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.severreal.org/a/v-ukraine-pogib-osuzhdennyy-za-pytki-nad-kotom-kuzey-zhitel-severodvinska/32710862.html (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
293. “Opened it — his entire fridge was packed with meat, human”. Putin pardoned cannibal from Sakhalin // Sibir.Realii (www.severreal.org). November 23, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.sibreal.org/a/putin-pomiloval-lyudoeda-s-sahalina/32696870.html (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
294. In Vladivostok, a murderer and rapist returned from the war after three months // Radio Svoboda (www.svoboda.org). January 23, 2024. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.svoboda.org/a/vo-vladivostoke-ubiytsa-i-nasiljnik-vernulsya-s-voyny-cherez-tri-mesyatsa/32787831.html (Accessed: 21.03.2024).
295. A. Larin. SVO participant from Arkhangelsk who dismembered a woman received a pardon // Kommersant (www.kommersant.ru). August 16, 2023, 2:14. [Online resource]. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6161447 (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
296. E. Shelkovnikova. “Well yes, I knew that boy”: conversation with a Wagnerite who was jailed for killing a child and pardoned after SVO // UFA.1 (ufa1.ru). [Online resource]. URL: https://ufa1.ru/text/criminal/2023/09/19/72719627/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
297. Back to their old ways // Verstka (verstka.media). July 5, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://verstka.media/pomilovannye-zeki-iz-chvk-vagner-vozvraschayutsia-k-prestupnoy-deyatelnosti-vlasti-stremiatsia-skryt-fakty-novyh-prestupleniy (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
298. E. Shatalova, P. Tiunov. “I took from what was available”: Prigozhin confirmed that the accused of assaulting a schoolgirl was a PMC fighter // NGS.RU (ngs.ru). May 31, 2023, 19:00. [Online resource]. URL: https://ngs.ru/text/criminal/2023/05/31/72354800/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).
299. Back to their old ways // Verstka (verstka.media). July 5, 2023. [Online resource]. URL: https://verstka.media/pomilovannye-zeki-iz-chvk-vagner-vozvraschayutsia-k-prestupnoy-deyatelnosti-vlasti-stremiatsia-skryt-fakty-novyh-prestupleniy (Accessed: 24.03.2024).
300. A. Bosikov. In Russia, a PMC “Wagner” fighter beat a four-year-old girl to death // Lenta.ru (Lenta.ru). October 2, 2023, 12:59. [Online resource]. URL: https://lenta.ru/news/2023/10/02/till_death/ (Accessed: 17.03.2024).