Just this week the Kremlin claimed it was at war with the United States and Putin’s No.1 enemy was found dead in prison. Russians are terrified about what’s next.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman informed Russians this week that the “special military operation” that Putin launched in Ukraine in February 2022 was set to go on much longer because it is now “a war against the collective West.”

That’s right: a war.

It was remarkable to hear that word from Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Journalists were explicitly banned from using it as the invasion began and thousands of Russians have been detained, fined and imprisoned for telling the truth about a war which has now been raging for almost two years.

“Moscow deputy Aleksey Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison for saying ‘war,’” Sergey Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support group, told The Daily Beast. He said over 20,000 Russians have now been detained and punished for protesting against the war. “That includes 131 Russians who have been sentenced to long prison terms in punishment for peaceful or for more radical anti-war actions,” he said. “I don’t think punishments against the war will now be milder after the Kremlin openly says ‘war.’ Putin will be next to declare it.”

  • Wanderer@lemm.eeEnglish
    141·
    9 months ago

    “Every time we hit the bottom harder and fall through it and now we are at war with the entire world, it seems. What else could be worse? Next will be nuclear, nobody doubts. What depresses me most is the helpless situation we have: the majority will still vote for Putin simply because they feel lost without him, despite tiny salaries, awful medical service, men dying on the front, despite the growing feeling of instability.”

    Bloody Russians, at least they could not vote for fucking Putin.

    • DdCno1@kbin.social
      121·
      9 months ago

      I don’t think this would change anything about the election results. At most the real numbers, which are a closely guarded state secret, would inform Putin that there is growing discontent.

    • LordCirais@pawb.socialEnglish
      7·
      9 months ago

      Voting in a Presidential election there actually does even less than it does in the US. It’s all just a fun show for the people that Putin puts on sometimes.