And another Russian saying out loud what too many Russians think but are afraid to say (even in private)
https://twitter.com/i/status/1745572535817920660
How do we know many Russians think something if they're too afraid to say it even in private? If people are too afraid to speak even in private, then we can say that Putin has achieved his aims pretty well as an authoritarian. Time was that an authoritarian would have to quell dissent as it occurred, but if people are afraid to speak even in private, then Putin has done something even more powerful: to quell dissent even before it becomes so.
Apparently it's a goods distribution centre. It was raided yesterday to forceably conscript workers without visas and have them fight in Ukraine. Employees burned it down in protest.
Yes, something that is very difficult to understand here in the West. The sheer level of control that Putin has over ordinary Russians. This kind of mass acceptance of life under Putin is directly related to the USSR days, and Putin is well into the process or re-building the USSR, and Russians are generally, preconditioned to accept it.
So the rumour is workers in that "Amazon" style warehouse in St Petersburg were getting conscripted so they set fire to it.
Hopefully that's a new trend and it has to be a good sign Putin is now resorting to forced conscription in the main cities. It will cause a lot of unrest.
If that's true then that's potentially an incendiary incident. Emptying the logistics industry would start having knock on effects beyond the poor bastàrds bein shipped off to Ukraine. The urban middle class suddenly suffering "first world" deprivation will change the mood music fast.
Still think a retreat by Putin will be a death warrant but it's gonna get untenable fast if they're getting that desperate. Obviously the prisons are running out of volunteers.
Hold on, the report was that they were conscripting workers without visas. Before we can say this is a potentially incendiary incident, we'd need to ask if the natives of St Petersburg care that much about these visaless workers, or can Russian state media easily spin this as, "Illegal immigrants refuse to pay for their crime with service to mother Russia! Cause massive scale vandalism in protest!"?
I'd say that any "Romance" between Putin and Netanyahu is well and truly over now since Oct 7th when the Israeli Opposition leader stated on Russian TV, that there had been Russian involvement in the Hamas attack, and that when Israel had "dealt" with Hamas, they would be coming after any Russians who had been involved.
That detail I didn't see, though still. If going to Russia to work means there's now a non zero chance you'll be shipped to Ukraine, who'd go there even in desperation? Gotta staff these places somehow. Mightn't result in urban people getting up in arms I guess, it's still all part of that drip-drip erosion.
"So the rumour is workers in that "Amazon" style warehouse in St Petersburg were getting conscripted so they set fire to it...."
A wee clipeen which ( might be ) from inside the warehouse after the fire was well started
Flightpath close by ?
https://t.me/Disaster_News/3266
Yesterday workers were getting conscripted so they burned down their factory.
Today, unemployed people are getting conscripted....
We'll see Orban hanging from a lamp post yet
Unfortunately what's likely to happen in parallel would be a doubling down by Orbán and his circle, circling the wagons and I'd even speculate if ordinary Hungarians will be told what happened and why. Orbán has a pretty strong grip on the media.
No Chance he's quite popular in his own country,
Perhaps not but they'll care about their standard of living and lack of goods in shops etc. They'll be asking why is this happening now and who's next? How do I get a ticket and exit visa.
And if you thought that Putin had exhausted all sources of prison recruitment for his war in Ukraine, have a look at this link. Seems that even women prisoners are no longer exempt either. Talk about desperation....
Anton Gerashchenko on X: "Russian authorities are cutting off heating in prisons so that prisoners go to fight in Ukraine, — BILD. Temperatures have dropped to -35°C in many parts of Russia. It seems that Vladimir Putin has decided to use the cold weather to replenish his weakened troops in Ukraine. Many… https://t.co/gE7fJ7YAv0" / X (twitter.com)
As long as these three groups are fighting and dying in Ukraine, Putin can create the illusion of normality for the rest.
And therein lies the great mathematical problem: when does the critical mass occur when the prisons are empty and the ethnicities have fled - or are dead.
As a sidebar, I've often thought I'd not survive a night in an Irish prison before losing the will to live. If I had to go to a russian penal colony? Bloody héll; truly death might be a relief.
You're popular til you aren't. If the EU tap was shut off and suddenly Hungary's only friend was the literal trashfire that is Russia, the mood could sour fast enough. Hungary is still a significant net beneficiary of funds right? And if they started reducing access to satellite funds to colleges, institutes and whatnot? Drip drip.
Though I don't think Orbán would become an early Christmas street decoration, I'd easily see a hasty departure to Belarus or Russia with his suitcases packed (albeit not with clothes).
We've been waiting for the penny to drop with urban Russians for nearly 2 years. Maybe @jmreire could give a bit of commentary on how the average Russian thinks in relation to this being an actual possibility.
I would imagine that, given how Putin has lamented the fall of the Soviet Union, that he's keen not to recreate the austere living conditions which precipitated its end while retaining a similar level of control over the people. That is, in a nutshell, his plan for sustaining the war, I think, as well as his own power.
I agree with you,
He might have to share a home with Viktor Yanukovych, Lukashenko, Stephen Segal and Gerard Depardeu,and the Snowdon fella , Don't think russia is a great retirement village anymore
We now have a (genuine) axis of evil in operation
Sigh
Mearsheimer makes his coin badmouthing NATO. Fake scholar
This is new Romanian truck drivers are now blockading Ukrainian border crossing this wasn't expected at all ,
Hard to see the top fella surviving that. His head hit full wack on hard icy ground.
Orban
More rust than metal at that stage...nothing holding it to the wall. ..see how it buckled when it fell? A bit like everything in Vladimir Putin's Russia, looks OK, until you try to use it!!!
its workers were recuited? for the war in ukraine, the rest retalieted
pls excuse the spelling
interesting as romania are building a new highway to ukraine
Since Putin came to power in 2012, he has steadily pushed the Russian population to see how far he could go, rigged elections, destroying the constitution, turning Russia into a mafia state, with him as the Don. No major pushback or revolt. Until he illegally started a war with a peaceful neighbor, that triggered protests all right. Many thousands came out in protests, and Putin stopped them, any way he could, they were beaten, taken to court and fined massively, and many jailed. Many also were killed. After a while the protests stopped, and there have not been any major protests since. So now he's not afraid to push the boundaries even further. Even going back to the good old USSR days, (which is where he is going with his war economy,) when shortages of everything was rife, and queueing was considered normal. But he will risk it. He will risk everything to achieve his goal of restoring the Russian Empire. His biggest threat will come from those closest to him, the Silovicki or the Military would be my bet. Possibly the Oligarchs, but they are all tied up with their own internal dynamics, not to mention that fact that Putin has engineered it so that their personal wealth (and health) is directly linked to his. But most important, it's Putin's last throw of the dice, and he knows it. Ordinary Russians do not matter one whit to him under the present circumstances, he's already killed 365'000, 700'000 are wounded / disabled, 3 million Russians have left, voting with their feet as it were, and his only problem with that is that it is creating a manpower shortage, which is the last thing he needs right now, because it affects his grand plan.
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