Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
While Russia claims to have escaped the grip of Western sanctions, everyday Russians are struggling. The Kremlin’s mouthpieces responded with admiration for penniless North Koreans.
Even as Russia’s tightly controlled state media has been perpetuating the myth of an unscathed, booming economy, the cracks are showing. Prominent propagandists now regularly acknowledge that things are difficult and prices are on the rise. Videos of everyday Russians periodically posted on social media recognize that price increases and high-interest rates leave them unable to afford much more than the bare necessities.
In one of the street interviews posted on Telegram by a popular user @slvn_pomet, an unidentified woman advised all poor Russians to simply “eat less and then everything will be alright.”
However, at least one leading propagandist saw the problem with this thinking. On September 18, Sergey Mardan, the host of “Mardan” on the Solovyov Live channel, attempted to raise the alarm over a potential repeat of what happened in the Soviet Union.
The host asserted that Russia can be destroyed by its internal problems: “What can fuel this discontent? Economic problems, poverty, hunger, currency depreciation, inflation.” Mardan recalled the 1980s when the Soviet people suffered chronic food shortages. He added: “The problems with food existed all the way until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They varied from region to region, but always existed.”
He concluded that this failure to meet even the most basic needs created a widespread feeling of discomfort and said: “I think this contributed to the end of the Soviet Union more than the CIA, Mossad, BND, MI6, and the rest of the global intelligence services put together.”
And yet the Kremlin is unable to contain the worsening situation and is tightening its grip, determined to contain the blowback.
https://cepa.org/article/russia-lauds-north-koreas-square-headed-dude-and-his-pauper-legions/
Even as Russia’s tightly controlled state media has been perpetuating the myth of an unscathed, booming economy, the cracks are showing. Prominent propagandists now regularly acknowledge that things are difficult and prices are on the rise. Videos of everyday Russians periodically posted on social media recognize that price increases and high-interest rates leave them unable to afford much more than the bare necessities.
In one of the street interviews posted on Telegram by a popular user @slvn_pomet, an unidentified woman advised all poor Russians to simply “eat less and then everything will be alright.”
However, at least one leading propagandist saw the problem with this thinking. On September 18, Sergey Mardan, the host of “Mardan” on the Solovyov Live channel, attempted to raise the alarm over a potential repeat of what happened in the Soviet Union.
The host asserted that Russia can be destroyed by its internal problems: “What can fuel this discontent? Economic problems, poverty, hunger, currency depreciation, inflation.” Mardan recalled the 1980s when the Soviet people suffered chronic food shortages. He added: “The problems with food existed all the way until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They varied from region to region, but always existed.”
He concluded that this failure to meet even the most basic needs created a widespread feeling of discomfort and said: “I think this contributed to the end of the Soviet Union more than the CIA, Mossad, BND, MI6, and the rest of the global intelligence services put together.”
And yet the Kremlin is unable to contain the worsening situation and is tightening its grip, determined to contain the blowback.
https://cepa.org/article/russia-lauds-north-koreas-square-headed-dude-and-his-pauper-legions/