Kursk is far away: Moscow prefer not to know nothing about the war, but already tired of it - the media
Swiss journalist Marcus Akretet went to Moscow to find out how much the residents of the Russian capital are worried about the war with Ukraine and the fact that hostilities are currently underway in the Russian Federation 500 km from Moscow. NZZ writes about it. "With the onset of Ukraine in the Kursk Border District, the war with Ukraine has reached traditional Russian territory.
However, something is unlikely to be reflected in the street stage and in the behavior of the Muscovites," the journalist said. According to him, the streets of the Russian capital are crowded with holidaymakers, and the war is far from a problem - until it breaks into the very private reality of family life. The invasion of Ukraine into the Kursk region did not change the situation.
Acret communicated with Moskvich Maxim, who could be in the war because he served for about 30 years and fought in Chechnya, Yugoslavia and Syria. But now he does not want to have anything to do with war. Shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to attack Ukraine, he left the service. Even when his former military comrades begged him to use his experience, he could not persuade him to return to the army.
"They have to cope on themselves," Maxim says, accusing corruption in Russian military failures and the fact that no army officer has never been Minister of Defense for Vladimir Putin. The first attempts to use a "special military operation", as it is called in Russia, to mobilize the masses shortly after the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine was quickly abolished. They met only the minority. Most were ready to support what was happening, but only passively. The uprising was initially open.
But the repressive laws of the Putin regime, which intensified every month, left most opponents of war in the country only two options: to go or keep silence. Most of the Russians adapted regardless of what they thought about the war in Ukraine and Putin's policy. The war has become part of the reality that everyone who wants to live in Russia has to be resting with.
"Due to the bitter historical experience and conscious political manipulation over the decades, they have developed a tendency to exclude a policy from life and think that nothing depends on a person. They accept war and all its consequences as a new norm. Some compare it with the weather: a person does not It can affect whether it is raining or the sun is shining, "the reporter writes.
He notes that now any statement of war, every likes and every comment on social networks can jeopardize work, create problems for children at school, and its author can even get on the lattice. And this can even be facilitated by a family who does not share the views of the one who wrote. Akretet notes that the Muscovites are now wary of foreigners, especially foreign journalists. "Foreign journalists have become something toxic: even touching them as dangerous.
Even those who are still ready to speak, fear the reactions of safety authorities. The reason why the war almost never plays role in public conversations is that It is difficult to deal with the mood of the Russians, and especially the Muscovites, in July of the Independent Sociological Institute of Levada, which is a "rock" for Russian authorities, showed a growth of the share in July. Those who think that "all of those surveyed are now, they also want to make peace negotiations against Ukraine.
"? Pragmatists hope to freeze the front line to stop the murder. " Street surveys are unlikely to bring something to you, "the journalist notes that the Muscovites refuse to talk, sometimes even before he raises the issue of war. The exception is the man of sixty years, who rests on a bench in the park with his wife. "Of course, we are concerned about what is happening in Kursk, the Russians suffer there," he says, but as soon as the acure is trying to develop the topic - stops.
"I'm not ready to talk about it. We have nothing against anyone, we just want peace," he says. And before the couple goes on the road, the woman looks back again and repeats: "We are only for peace, for peace. " "Over the past two and a half years, everyone has developed their own strategy from the situation," says Marcus Acret. Many say that the war is bad, but if it began, Russia should win. Others are also disappointed with the event.
“Why does the West consider us all guilty? themselves unfairly spoken and proud citizens of Russia. Those who have been tuned from the beginning and have expressed an understanding of Putin's decision, try to justify and decorate everything. "Everything is wonderful here," says Muscovite, what the slightest doubt about Russian politics immediately accepts.
And the real estate manager, every day, comes from the province to Moscow to Watch work in the residential complex, and so believes everything that comes from Russian propaganda. "What do you think when they start the Third World War? Macron, Scholtz - they have no children or think about the future!" He says. The Muscovites are tired of the war. They do not want to think about the war, the quarrel with the West and the sanction.
They want to live a peaceful life, but cannot avoid posters who advertise military service with large salaries in Moscow, not just in remote provincial cities. Kursk is far away for them. When the drones flew to the center of Moscow a year ago, residents quickly got used to it. Now they are accustomed to the fact that in some parts of the Kursk region there are fighting - the president also diminishes the situation. New surveys show that Putin's trust has fallen through Kursk.
But the good 73 percent of the respondents, as they say, remain adamant. Humanitarian organizations claim that the donation of more than 100,000 evacuated donations has increased. Some are now ready to donate to improve the military equipment of soldiers. But indifference and repression are so pronounced that this August event is not able to shake society. "It, of course, does not bring the world that some people seek," the journalist notes.
We will remind, on August 22 the head of the GUR Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kirill Budanov said that Ukraine conducted attacks with drones on the center of radio intelligence and airport in the Moscow region, as well as on the Russian air base in the Rostov region. And in the project of the General Scheme of Russia's Energy Development by 2042 the dispatcher of the Russian power system by 2030 Moscow threatened a shortage of 1. 6 power gigawatt, and by 2042 this deficit can increase to 4.