Sun-drenched under the blue spring sky, the streets of Moscow, filled with passers-by and cars, give an idyllic impression of a lively and joyful city.
A far darker close-up of subway cars at rush hour, packed with passengers, most of whose faces, in maskless mode, are obviously bleak and focused on their thoughts. The faces lining the street in a long tail at the door of the office of Turkish Airlines, one of the few companies connecting Russia with the world, also seem very nervous.
The beginning of the collapse gradually covers all areas: the shelves of stores are empty, prices are skyrocketing.
Now in the queue there is an opportunity to discuss the new cost of buckwheat, the absence of sugar and sanitary pads, or the norms for the sale of goods in one hand. True, the queues at Sberbank subsided: depositors had already endured everything possible in dollars and euros in the first week of the disaster, before the introduction of restrictions on the issuance of currency.
Catering chains are closing, McDonald’s doors are locked, there are more and more rental offers in the windows of the first floors, layoffs are flowing in commercial firms who need the logistics of supplies from “hostile” Europe.
AvtoVAZ raised prices for Lada cars from March 16, while it began transferring employees to still paid vacations. A similar thing happens at the Renault car factory. Car prices have doubled.
State systems fail: customs does not allow the export of goods ordered from abroad and the import of new ones. On the other hand, the supply of vacant apartments is growing … An employee of a state institution, accepting documents, answers the question why they will be processed for a long time, without hesitation, answers: “War!”
You hear echoes of these talks about horror in Ukraine, with hopeless sighs: “Such a time…”. In the office queues, the voices of visitors are drowned out by TV presenters, muttering reports from the screen: the news of the “special operation in Donbass” is mixed with denunciations of Ukrainian Nazism, the same brutal propaganda characters are engaged in this. The hosts talk about the shelling only of Donetsk and terrorist organizations “LDNR”. But Kyiv and Kharkov – no, they list the losses of “nationalists”, without reporting their own, hoping for blockages and a ban on the independent press.
Novaya Gazeta disappeared from Moscow newsstands. The announcers do not lie about everything: they pathetically announce from the screen about new and new sanctions of the West, about Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe, which, of course, must be approved and supported …
Director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin is looking for a “fifth column”. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin again, in Hitler’s terms, he denounces “national traitors” who are “mentally with the West.” Their president suggests “spitting it out like a fly in your mouth.”
In fact, employees of state institutions are required to take an oath on a half-Zvastika, publicly display loyalty to the regime, and are dragged to patriotic rallies …
It all looks like the Kremlin’s implementation of the slogan about turning the imperialist war into a civil one.
Did history know of cases when an outwardly civilized country at the same time, by the decision of its authorities, fell into a political and economic catastrophe in just a few weeks? Do not offer Germany: the Reichstag fire and terror were not accompanied by an instant collapse of the economy. At first there was even growth.
But from the memory of childhood TV footage surfaced “liberated” from the imperialists by the “Khmer Rouge” Phnom Penh. The news came and went. A few years later, the USSR learned that the victory of Pol Pot cost the lives of several million Cambodiansmostly townspeople evicted to villages, led to hunger and absolute poverty, and the country was saved from the Maoists by the Vietnamese intervention …
Revolution of 1979 in Iran swept away the autocratic Shah’s regime and brought to power an Islamic theocracy that launched such a machine of repression as Pahlavi dynasty was not available. Which is quite relevant: Iran easily entered the 10-year war with Iraq, in which hundreds of thousands of young people died on both sides. The country continues to be in isolation for 40 years.
October 25, 1917 The Bolshevik Party came to power in Russia. Lenin at the head of the Council of People’s Commissars baked decrees one after another. The most important thing for six months was listed by economist Yakov Mirkin: your plot of land will be confiscated, like housing in cities, it will soon be impossible to sell your house in the countryside; valuables in depositories are taken by the state, the payment of pensions is limited; enterprises, banks, publishing houses, pharmacies, shops were nationalized.
Payments on securities were stopped, government loans were annulled; it is forbidden to change the currency, it is required to return it in two weeks; the right of inheritance and gift is abolished …
By mid-1918, hungry Russia was plunged into darkness.
After the terror and the civil war, the country with relative economic normality returned for a short period of the NEP, and then there was a “great turning point” with the destruction of the peasantry as a class …
What lies ahead for Russia in 2022 after Putin’s current “great change”? Terrorist Neo-Kampuchea, semi-closed Orthodox Iran, victorious Bolshevization of the country? The Soviet empire, having weakened terror, collapsed under the weight of its problems in 1991. Now, after a 30-year period of freedoms and their elimination under the pressure of the ever-strengthening personal dictatorship of Vladimir Putin, Russia, stuffed with the ideology of “victory-loving”, is again returning to its natural (according to many experts) state: an aggressor fixated on the forceful expansion of the territory, in in this case, at the cost of countless victims in Ukraine.
The payoff for Putin’s expansion is a catastrophic drop in the living standards of the Russian people. The country’s economy was under pressure from the sanctions of the entire civilized world, only inflation is predicted by the end of the year at 60-80%. The dictatorship – in the absence of protests from the telezombified masses of the population – is outwardly indifferent to this collapse of the country into isolation, into state capitalism of the worst kind.
But experts are in shock: there is a shortage of spare parts for cars, planes, and trains ahead. Disruptions are possible in the production of everything where modern technologies are used, and after all, imported microchips are needed even for Troika transport cards. “Sanctions have affected 84% of the companies surveyed,” Boris Titov, the commissioner for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights, said, calling the situation “catastrophic.”
The number of those stopped due to the closure or unable to work without foreign components is growing so rapidly that already in the fall it will be just right to talk about a situation that is spontaneously developing in Russia, similar to a nationwide strike regime. Is there any chance of stopping the collapse and economic disaster? They can only be given by an immediate cessation of hostilities, a truce, and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, which is fiercely resisting foreign invasion.
Finally, let me remind you that the only one before Russia left the Council of Europe, slamming the door, left Greece “black colonels”. After mass repressions. The military junta in 1974 unleashed a “patriotic” war for the annexation of Cyprus, it did not win and lost power, even without sanctions. This would be the best prospect for Russia and the world.
Especially for Radio Liberty
If you notice a spelling mistake, select it with the mouse and press Ctrl+Enter.
–
Articles published in the “Opinions” section reflect the author’s point of view and may not coincide with the position of the editors of LIGA.net
